Fat and Blood

This volume presents one of Mitchell's touchstone texts of neurasthenia—cultural critique as medical diagnosis. Fat and Blood was a best seller in its time and went through multiple printings and numerous editions. It fused the cultural critique of modern society and the inversion of gender roles with the medical analysis of this strange new ailment. Today we are likely to read it angrily, as it serves to enforce the most pernicious stereotypes abut women (and not so incidentally, about men)—stereotypes that have proved resilient obstacles to women's advancement. But Fat and Blood supports another reading, a bit more contemporary and certainly more engaged. There are constant arguments that resound across more than the century since they were written.