Image: by Jewel Caruso Julianne O’Connell, doctoral student, recently reviewed a newly published book featured in the Journal of Autoethnography. The book, An Autoethnography of Fitting In: On Spinsterhood, Fatness, and Backpacker Tourism, is by Phiona Stanley. O’Connell provides a positive review of the book in addition to highlighting their deep and personal connection to the writing and themes. Stanley’s story covers her life experiences living and working abroad between 2002 and 2004. Throughout her story, she uses feminist theories to showcase how people perform for each other. O’Connell writes, “Other People’s Approval is both the ghost that Stanley chases and the panopticon in which she finds herself trapped, taking different forms as she moves from place to place.” O’Connell notes how Stanley writes about her struggles growing up in Scotland, dealing with an eating disorder, and wrestling with shame. “She writes, ‘by being ‘too much’--paradoxically–I was not enough.’” Stanley travels through multiple countries and places such as Peru, Poland, Oxford, India, and Nepal. The theme of performing for others continues throughout Stanley’s journeys and conforming to various societal standards. These were all profound experiences for Stanley to begin questioning “her dominant mode of fitting in and the life that she had created in pursuit of Other People’s Approval.” This book provides an autoethnography that is, in O’Connell’s ”words, creative, evocative, and enjoyable” with the biggest takeaway being that Stanley’s experiences “are as unique as they are universal.” Stanley challenges binary standards, and O’Connell recommends this book to anyone, especially those who are “Other People.” The full review can be viewed here. Type of News/Audience: General News
