2 ... 2 ...Personally, I think it's a really brave, honest and quite beautiful piece of writing. You may disagree, but I urge you to read it in full. Extracts:
"And you know what? I didn't mind. In fact, as I started to escape the fug I had been in, looked down and noticed my belly, I realised that being fat was kind of cool. Sure, there were downsides. I no longer looked good in jeans. My bra cups were bigger than my head. My tights rubbed together as I walked, making me sound like a particularly large and irritating cricket. But there were pluses, too.
Most of all, being fat meant that I was suddenly cast out of that uniquely depressing dance that goes on - particularly between women - of policing each other's weight."
"I understand why women engage in these conversations, and why we feel that if we don't apologise for the space we take up, we're afraid that someone else will get in first and cut us down. I understand, too, that for some women these conversations are actually a way of highlighting just how thin they are, thus shoring up their place in some vast unspoken pecking order. And while I find it utterly depressing that a woman would feel that her weight - or lack of it - represents her major achievement, given that we live in a society in which women are, on average, paid 17% less than men, make up only a fifth of MPs, a 10th of leading company directors, and have little choice but to watch in horror as less than 6% of reported rape cases end in a conviction, I can understand why women often don't feel that they or their abilities are really valued, and try to assert whatever small slice of power they can through drawing attention to their body by denigrating it. I understand it, and I don't blame anyone who does it, and I have done it myself, but I also really hate it. It is boring. It is tiring. It is sad."
What do you all think? Also, in other publishing news: remember that hilarious letter in W that we posted about here, where the delightful Coral from Denver explained to us all that fat girls like cookies, but not fashion? Well, Saturday's Guardian (why yes, that is all I read...) Weekend section has that letter's complete opposite, I thought I'd share:
"Is there no end to the bossy misogyny of fashion? Of course not. But Hadley Freeman's comments (Looking Good, February 9) on cleavage are naive, too. Doesn't she realise that if you have big breasts, fashion leaves you no option but to wear cleavage as an act of resistance? Nothing fashion makes either fits a voluptuous figure, or looks nice on it, except for the ubiquitous and by now rather dull wrap dresses. If fashion is so bloody clever, why doesn't it come up with things that look nice on us? Oh, and thanks so much for the subtle reinterpretation of the ancient truth that women with big breasts are stupid. We need reminding - we're so dim it still hasn't sunk in yet." Louisa Young, London W12
Louisa, honey, I think I kind of love you.
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