Speaking of BBW role models...it really is a love-hate, Jekyll-Hyde business, this body image thing. When I was a little girl, I had a Twiggy lunchbox. (Long pause.) Then again, when I was a little girl, you turned on any pop radio station and there was Janis Joplin.... For a woman who died so young (well, she had to; it was one of the only ways to make it really big as a pop star in the 60s) she made a tremendous impression on the music scene. Really, she was the first true female rock-and-roll star. And she was the most unTwiggylike creature imaginable. In a time when women still teased and curlered and lacquered their hair into beehives, she just washed it and wore it long and wild.

False eyelashes? Hell, she didn't even wear lipstick--not a speck of makeup on that big, wide, sweating face that screamed the most bloodcurdlingly beautiful melodies. She wore jeans and tunics and no bra. I never saw a picture of her showing leg or breast or even the contours of her definitely over size 2 body.

And you know what? JANIS HAD SEX! Men, women, you name it. Kris Kristofferson dated her. Robert Crumb held her big-thighed, floppy-breasted body as his erotic ideal. I remember once reading about a concert where a boy in the audience yelled to Janis, "I wanna b**l you, Janis. We all want to b**l you." Janis replied, "Come on now fellas, that would take me a year and a half!"

My society showed me Twiggy and told me to despair. Janis showed me herself and said, "Men are fantastic! Go have a blast and don't worry about it!" You know what, Janis was right.

Love, Anne

PS: My webpage listed above is a tribute to a BHM ("Walking the Shark: A Peter Lorre Page.")

 

You may visit Anne's website at http://geocities.datacellar.net/Hollywood/Trailer/6435

or e-mail at: plorre@yahoo.com

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