Skin & Bones is Renée Watson’s novel about the experiences of Lena, a 40-year-old African American woman in predominantly white Portland, Oregon. Health, body image, weight, diet, and beauty standards are prominent topics throughout the book and these are contextualized within larger themes about race, gender, gentrification, work, love, faith, and friendship. There are many passages in the book that show how beliefs about health are communicated through interactions with Lena’s friends, family, romantic partners, co-workers, and service providers. For example, the book opens with a chapter entitled, “the weight I carry,” that problematizes assumptions about health and weight in an interaction with a healthcare provider. Lena’s observations about the interaction (e.g., the too-small gown, unfounded assumptions and problematic statements from the health care provider) are woven with reflections on her lifeworld. Immediately following this chapter is a brief reflection on “morbid” as a word used in relation to weight; it concludes with the statements, “Comment on my appearance. But tell yourself it’s about my health.”
Health-related themes are prominent enough that one might assign the entire book and this would provide opportunities to see "big" or "fat" as an identity that intersects with race and gender and to discuss health themes in relation to sex, social support, family, and community. However, the book is also written in chapters (some only a paragraph long) that could be excerpted to explore specific topics. For example:
- the aforementioned “the weight I carry” and “morbid” focus on a health care interaction
- “Sunday supper” includes a reference to a mother who died from a failure to diagnose breast cancer because she was “a poor Black woman”
- “shopping while fat” and “back to school shopping” address finding plus-sized clothing
- “macro microaggressions” details lunch with younger white co-workers and concludes with the line, “...they sat there and basically admitted—in my presence—that of all the cares and worries to have in life, their greatest fear is having a body that looks like mine.”
- “aunt Aretha” examines “soul food” and its complicated connections to health, family, race, and class
- A sequence of chapters--“fat girl, dance,” “how whiteness killed the body positive movement” (an excerpt from Kelsey Miller), “debriefing,” “positivity,” “positive,” and “body positivy” address how fat acceptance intersects with race and this is taken up later in two chapters describing Lena and her friends’ experience at a “Fat Girl Wellness Conference”
One especially powerful recurring storyline involves messages about self-acceptance, health, and diet that Lena received from her own mother and what she communicates with her daughter. These are difficult chapters and include a near overdose on diet pills that is initially taken as a suicide attempt. A strong bond between Lena, her mother, and her daughter sustains them and the book addresses the complexities of communicating about health, race, gender, and beauty in our personal relationships.
