Is there anyone out there?
Something occurred to me the other day - who is my role model BBW? The problem happened when I couldn't really come up with one. Of course, there are women with weight issues - Oprah Winfrey, Delta Burke, Ricki Lake, and Rosie O'Donnell. But having a weight problem does not make a role model.
Oprah was once a great role model, then she lost the weight (remember the wagon-o-fat?), and she became a proponent for quick-weight loss via the ever-healthy liquid diet. Then she gained it back and professed her resolution that she is a large woman and happy about it, and we all rejoiced - there is someone for us to look to for inspiration. But then it happened again - through the help of a nutritionist, a personal chef, a personal trainer, and all the money in the world (you know.. all those resources available to the rest of us) she lost it again and this time kept it off. Now she's on the cover of Health Magazine, running marathons, and most importantly, encouraging and leading the way for the rest of us to lose weight just like she did. Don't get me wrong, I really do enjoy watching her and respect her convictions and determination, but a BBW role model, she's not.
To me, a true definition of a BBW is a woman that is comfortable with her body, does not make an issue of said body, and has a positive, confident voice to speak out for the rest of us.
Two people comes close - Camryn Manheim and Roseanne . What strikes me as so positive about these women is that they don't let themselves be defined by her size. They works hard and expects to be treated the same as their slim counterparts (and do). But in a society that discriminates and persecutes fat women every day, we definitely need more than two women to prove a point. Think about it, how many bald ugly men do we have on TV (yes, I am watching Seinfeld as I write this)? How many men with faces so paved with wrinkles are kissing and courting young beautiful women? And still, there are only a handful of large women to admire in the media?
What bothers me the most is that things haven't always been this way. As recently as the 50's/early 60's, the women who were adored and lusted after were not rail-thin - Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, Sophia Loren, Liz Taylor, Susan Hayward, Hedy Lamarr, and Ava Garnder. Then the sixties happened, and Twiggy. It's ironic that the waif-like model, which somehow became the ideal beautiful woman, was originated as a non-distraction to clothing. Designers were distressed that people were admiring the gorgeous models and not paying enough attention to their clothes. To remedy this they came up with the ingenious idea to have a "human hanger". Thus the beginning of the super-skinny model and the torturous existence of voluptuous women thereafter.
So, when is it going to happen? When is the media going to stop acting as though a normal (11/12 or 13/14) figure is grotesque? Over the past few decades, society has developed a tolerance for many things once thought of as non-desirable - civil rights for African-Americans, homosexuality, women's rights - and yet it is still deemed acceptable to be discriminatory and abusive to one group - fat people. Ever notice how any mention of the women above is usually preceded by or followed with "heavy-set", "plus-size", "overweight", or "fat"? Do they do that with short people?... "vertically-challenged", "stout" or with people with glasses?... "bespectacled", "sight-deficiency"? Why is so necessary to state the obvious, and why does this only apply to fat community?
The point of this summation is WHY AREN'T THERE MORE HEAVY WOMEN TO SERVE AS ROLE MODELS? Granted, some of us are lucky to have people in our own private lives to provide that guidance, and through a movement on the web for fat acceptance, we can look to each other for inspiration. But what about the millions of other women to whom these resources are unavailable? Its going to take time and a very, very loud voice to make a change. Hopefully, by reading this and contemplating our dilemma, it's a first step!
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Is there anyone out there?
Something occurred to me the other day - who is my role model BBW? The problem happened when I couldn't really come up with one. Of course, there are women with weight issues - Oprah Winfrey, Delta Burke, Ricki Lake, and Rosie O'Donnell. But having a weight problem does not make a role model.
Oprah was once a great role model, then she lost the weight (remember the wagon-o-fat?), and she became a proponent for quick-weight loss via the ever-healthy liquid diet. Then she gained it back and professed her resolution that she is a large woman and happy about it, and we all rejoiced - there is someone for us to look to for inspiration. But then it happened again - through the help of a nutritionist, a personal chef, a personal trainer, and all the money in the world (you know.. all those resources available to the rest of us) she lost it again and this time kept it off. Now she's on the cover of Health Magazine, running marathons, and most importantly, encouraging and leading the way for the rest of us to lose weight just like she did. Don't get me wrong, I really do enjoy watching her and respect her convictions and determination, but a BBW role model, she's not.
To me, a true definition of a BBW is a woman that is comfortable with her body, does not make an issue of said body, and has a positive, confident voice to speak out for the rest of us.
Two people comes close - Camryn Manheim and Roseanne . What strikes me as so positive about these women is that they don't let themselves be defined by her size. They works hard and expects to be treated the same as their slim counterparts (and do). But in a society that discriminates and persecutes fat women every day, we definitely need more than two women to prove a point. Think about it, how many bald ugly men do we have on TV (yes, I am watching Seinfeld as I write this)? How many men with faces so paved with wrinkles are kissing and courting young beautiful women? And still, there are only a handful of large women to admire in the media?
What bothers me the most is that things haven't always been this way. As recently as the 50's/early 60's, the women who were adored and lusted after were not rail-thin - Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, Sophia Loren, Liz Taylor, Susan Hayward, Hedy Lamarr, and Ava Garnder. Then the sixties happened, and Twiggy. It's ironic that the waif-like model, which somehow became the ideal beautiful woman, was originated as a non-distraction to clothing. Designers were distressed that people were admiring the gorgeous models and not paying enough attention to their clothes. To remedy this they came up with the ingenious idea to have a "human hanger". Thus the beginning of the super-skinny model and the torturous existence of voluptuous women thereafter.
So, when is it going to happen? When is the media going to stop acting as though a normal (11/12 or 13/14) figure is grotesque? Over the past few decades, society has developed a tolerance for many things once thought of as non-desirable - civil rights for African-Americans, homosexuality, women's rights - and yet it is still deemed acceptable to be discriminatory and abusive to one group - fat people. Ever notice how any mention of the women above is usually preceded by or followed with "heavy-set", "plus-size", "overweight", or "fat"? Do they do that with short people?... "vertically-challenged", "stout" or with people with glasses?... "bespectacled", "sight-deficiency"? Why is so necessary to state the obvious, and why does this only apply to fat community?
The point of this summation is WHY AREN'T THERE MORE HEAVY WOMEN TO SERVE AS ROLE MODELS? Granted, some of us are lucky to have people in our own private lives to provide that guidance, and through a movement on the web for fat acceptance, we can look to each other for inspiration. But what about the millions of other women to whom these resources are unavailable? Its going to take time and a very, very loud voice to make a change. Hopefully, by reading this and contemplating our dilemma, it's a first step!
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