Best Seller! Low-Fat Love unfolds over three seasons as Prilly Greene and Janice Goldwyn, adversarial editors at a New York press, experience personal change relating to the men (and absence of women) in their lives. Ultimately, each woman is pushed to confront her own image of herself, exploring her insecurities, the stagnation in her life and her reasons for having settled for low-fat love. Along with Prilly and Janice, a cast of offbeat characters’ stories are interwoven throughout the book.
Low-Fat Love is underscored with a commentary about female identity-building and self-acceptance and how, too often, women become trapped in limited visions of themselves. Women’s media is used as a signpost throughout the book in order to make visible the context in which women come to think of themselves as well as the men and women in their lives.
In this respect Low-Fat Love offers a critical commentary about popular culture and the social construction of femininity. Grounded in a decade of interview research with young women and written in a fun, chick-lit voice, the novel can be read for pleasure or used as supplemental reading in a variety of social science or women’s/gender studies courses as well as courses in popular culture, qualitative research or arts-based research.
“Based on my students' responses and my own enjoyment of the novel, I highly recommend it!” -- Professor Barbara Gurr, Women' Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Connecticut
“More than anything LFL proved the astonishing talent that Leavy is as both a writer and social commentator.”-- Professor Melissa Anyiwo, Politics and History, Curry College
“My students LOVE the book. One keeps saying, “I feel as if I am inside of this story … so colorful … so contemporary!!!””-- Professor Jeasik Cho, University of Wyoming (used Low-Fat Love in qualitative research methods and had students perform content analysis on the media/objects and conversation analysis on the dialogue)
Suggested Uses in College Courses:
Ideal Supplemental Text in courses across the disciplines that deal with gender; women’s studies; feminism, intimacy and human sexuality; the psychology of relationships, self-esteem or identity; the sociology of emotions; art education; popular culture/mass media; or writing/creative writing
Great Springboard for Class Discussions about: the psychology of negative relationships; popular culture and the construction of gender; gender and identity; gender socialization; dysfunctional family systems; or human intimacy, dating and sexuality
Ideal Example of Arts-Based Research or Creative Writing in courses that cover: arts-based research, arts-based educational research, qualitative research, narrative inquiry or writing/creative writing
The author is happy to provide you with sample class assignments, activities and discussion questions. If you adopt this book the author is also available to Skype into your class for a book talk upon mutually convenient scheduling. To request class materials or schedule a Skype visit please email her at pleavy7@aol.com
Click here to view and download SAMPLE CLASS ACTIVITIES
Low-Fat Love has been nominated for the following awards:
•Outstanding Qualitative Book of the Year 2012 sponsored by the Congress of Qualitative Inquiry
•Outstanding Qualitative Book of the Year 2012 sponsored by the Qualitative Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association
•The Mirra Komarovsky Award for the Outstanding Sociology Book of the Year 2012 sponsored by the Eastern Sociological Society
•The Emily Toth Award for the Best Single Work by One or More Authors 2012 sponsored by the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association
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Special Achievement Award from the American Creativity Association for the Social Fictions series and advancing arts-based research (2013)
Social Fictions Series Editorial Advisory Board
Carl Bagley, University of Durham, UK
Anna Banks, University of Idaho, USA
Carolyn Ellis, University of South Florida, USA
Rita Irwin, University of British Columbia, Canada
J. Gary Knowles, University of Toronto, Canada
Laurel Richardson, The Ohio State University (Emeritus), USA
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Patricia Leavy, Ph.D. was an Associate Professor of Sociology at Stonehill College for ten years, where she also served as the Founding Director of the Gender Studies Program and Chairperson of the Sociology & Criminology Dept. She is now a full-time writer. She is the author of Essentials of Transdisciplinary Research: Using Problem-Centered Methodologies (2011), Method Meets Art: Arts Based Research Practice (2009) and has also authored, co-authored and edited more than a dozen books. She is regularly quoted in newspapers for her expertise on popular culture and gender, has appeared on a number of national news programs and writes articles for the Huffington Post and other news outlets. She was named the “New England Sociologist of the Year for 2010” by the New England Sociological Association and has been nominated for a Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry.
For more information please visit www.patricialeavy.com
