Shrink

Derided by her high-school peers for being overweight, Rachel finally found a sense of purpose and belonging in a promising career as an EMT—that is, until her body got in the way.

Shrink is a work of graphic medicine that depicts the emotional and physical realities of inhabiting a large body in a world that is constantly warning about the medical and social dangers of being “too fat.” This smart and candid book challenges the idea that weight loss is the only path for a fat person and encourages the reader to question the prevailing cultural and medical discourse about fat bodies.

Seamlessly weaving the most current research on the fatness debate with her own experiences of living in a fat body, Thomas lays bare society’s obsession with size and advocates for each of us to push back on body weight bias and determine what’s right for our own health and well-being, both physical and mental.

“Nuanced and vulnerable, this succeeds as both a body-politics primer and a personal story of the rocky path to self-acceptance.”—Publishers Weekly

“Shrink is such an important graphic novel on a very important subject—fat discrimination— which is endemic in healthcare and embedded at a policy level. This moving story highlights (with references!) the physical and psychological cost that may be incurred by attempting to adhere to societal and medical norms. I wish I could give a copy of Rachel Thomas’s book to every healthcare student in the land.”—Ian Williams, author of The Bad Doctor

Rachel M. Thomas is Assistant Professor of Comics, Graphic Novels, and Sequential Arts at Teesside University. She is an interdisciplinary artist/researcher whose work blurs the boundaries between traditional media, technology, and bio-fabrication.