Several weeks ago, a woman on a listserv I am on, made passing reference to dismissing a man that she was dating because she was worried that he was interested in her only because he was a "chubby chaser." I'm still wondering why this is a bad thing, really.
We as a society have elevated the idea of thinness as beauty to the point of danger. And fatness has become not only ugly, but increasingly dangerous. One of my favorite columnists, Mark Morford, buys into this cult of "wellness" to a point that's annoying because he can usually see when someone is pulling the wool over his eyes.
But it hasn't always been so that fat people were considered unattractive or lazy or unclean (all messages I've heard or even had attributed to me). Perhaps, Yang Kuei-fei isn't the best example, as she lived so far in the past. Let's instead take a woman from just the last century, as a role model: Lillian Russell.
She's, of course, best known for her acting and singing. She was considered a great beauty and married 4 times, having as a lover, in the meantime, "Diamond Jim" Brady, himself a big man and a very ambitious wealthy one, to boot. She was also known for her apetites and her love of extravagent wealth. She was a considered a sensual woman because of her "bigness."
I've known all of this and been encouraged by it in the past, but what I didn't know is what she did in her later life. After she left the theater, she continued to make a mark on the world. She wrote articles and advocated for woman's sufferage. She was a philanthropist, giving away the money she had so loved flaunt in an earlier life. She recruited for the military during WWI, and just before she died she went to Europe on a fact-finding mission for the US. I want to find out more about this because, according to Wikipedia, she was accorded full military honors at her death.
This week, I'm going to think about taking up space in the world a little bit like Lillian Russell: reveling in my beauty and in the power of my bigness.
5 comments:
In the words of Oprah "You go girl"
Enjoy your day!
Hear, hear!!! After years of dating people who said they liked my size but then still tried to get me to change - what a relief to have found a partner who sums it up in this way: "I love the larger ladies." And yeah, what the heck's wrong with "chubby chasers?"
More power to you, Spin. Way to go.
In hindsight I think I'm a chubby chaser.
CCC- Chubby Chasers Club!!
Yes, historically larger women were often more desirable though sometimes- such as Rome- it was because it demonstrated they were wealthy enough to indulge themselves. There are many cultures which still prefer larger women. Most people think that Marilyn Monroe had a petite, perfect body. She was actually a size 14 and would be considered overweight by today's standards. People are frequently surprised to learn that about her.
Desirable weight seems to fluctuate over time, not unlike fashion though not as often. In counterpoint to the glorious sensuality of larger women, there were the days of Catherine the Great, for example, where women had their lower ribs removed- without anesthesia!- to create the tiny silhouette that was in fashion then. She was not the only one to do so, just the most famous that I know of. Thank goodness we don't hear of too many people going to that extreme anymore to be thin!
Perhaps the woman who doesn't like chubby chasers feels that they only see her as a "type" rather than seeing her as a person? Her size shouldn't matter either way.
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