Sunday, August 10, 2008

Garage sales & girlie stuff

Both of my clients cancelled for yesterday and I was a little at a loss for what to do with my day. I usually don't have a whole morning to fill. Then, the night before, I realized that I hadn't been to a garage sale for a long time.

I love stumbling upon garage sales and browsing, but when I first moved here, my first roommate introduced me to the joys of garage saling...going to a whole bunch in one day.

The process is much streamlined these days. I went through craigslist for Saturday sales in the area, then I created a Google map of them and I was set.

It was a lovely morning and I had a lot of fun sifting through stuff. I was all excited about the sale with plus sized clothes, but the ladies selling them clearly had diffent styles than I did. I am pleased with my finds and with my activity for the morning.

Yesterday, I also finished another in the series of plus sized romances that I'm reading. I've actually finished 2 since I wrote about it, but nothing had struck me about the previous book to write about.

But then reading this one, I had a revelation. You see, there were a number of people, when the discussion came up about these types of books on another blog, who really didn't want to read about women who didn't accept themselves and their bodies. But in this last book, it was made clear how little many women actually do accept themselves, even when they are very thin. I wonder if even thinner women are looking for the role models of how to accept themselves.

Here's the deal, though, the issue of body acceptance in these books acts as the initial barrier to the relationships in these books. For those not familiar with romance as a genre, there is almost always an initial barrier that keeps the super-attracted-to-one-another couple from just burning up the carpet. It could be prior bad blood between the characters or their families. It could be class barriers. There could be history of bad relationships for one or both, or misconceptions that they have.

It strikes me as no less powerful when the barrier between the characters is lack of body confidence. I remember how powerful the story line in The Full Monty was between the bigger of the men and his wife. So it can play both ways...and has...in romance too. Usually, when it's the men who lack body confidence there has been some trauma that may have damaged their body causing scarring or some other defect. The constant barrage of messages that big people get about fat being ugly or unacceptable ends up being an accumulated trauma - only the scars that these heroines carry are not on the outside.

It's continuing to be a really fascinating thing for me to read these (almost to the exclusion of all else...although I may take a break today). I'll keep you updated on my thoughts.

3 comments:

Cody Bones said...

So, how are we feeling today?

HistoryGeek said...

I'm feeling much as I have for the past several months...I've just stopped talking about it much. It gets old.

Cody Bones said...

I'm sorry Spins, I'm hoping and praying for the best. Good luck