on my bike ride today i was thinking about how much I am enjoying the monday superhero challenge, self portrait tuesday and my everyday photo offering to 365. these tasks have me feeling grounded in my daily creative life.
and i have been wanting to write a post all week about how empowered i am feeling in my body lately. there are so many factors that have brought me to this positive place and that are helping me keep there. the live journal fatshionistas community, going on lots of bike rides and a more visible and positive presence of fat/chubster women in the mainstream media, and especially a lovely collection of beautiful amazing empowered chubster friends.
jennifer hudson, nicky blonsky (from hairspray), beth ditto, ...all make me feel fat 'n fab.
but i realized i need more than one post to express this appreciation.
so i've decided to start the weekdays with a creative rush and end the week with some gratitude for body lovin'. and i'd hope you don't have to be a chubster to appreciate those who are working hard to be accepted as they are (aren't we all in some way or another).
that makes today the very first heroine/queen of friday/fat femme extrordonaire: the great beth ditto
i mean, this magazine cover alone is more than enough to merit her being at the top o' my list of empowered chubsters. really, that is what i see in the mirror. its amazing to see it on a magazine. i could end this post with this picture and have said enough, but i will go on and tell you a story.
a few years ago i was sitting on the patio of my favourite local pub logans (when i lived in victoria) partaking in a beverage when i heard this deep southern voice yell at me to stand up. so of course i did. she made me stand on the bench i think. "i want your skirt" she said. and went on to attempt to convince me that i should give it to her. she tried real hard.
it should be said that i had no idea who these 3 americans were. yes, they were playing at the bar that night but i had been brought along, a little apprehensive about a 'punk' show. punk music usually means to me that i find myself against the furthest wall attempting to not be bashed by people jumping around erratically.
so, back to the skirt. i promised that if i was ever going to get rid of it, i'd give it to her. that seemed to be a good answer (it was a knee length red skirt by the way...my favourite one of that era). the rest of the night she proceeded to call me her BFF whenever we crossed paths and i thought 'damn this american is seriosly fabulous'.
and then she got on stage. i had no clue what i was in for. i recall being somewhat backed away from the dance pit. but at the same time seriously mesmerized by this woman. she fairly quickly was down to her bra, singin' up a storm.
here's the thing. that was the first time i'd ever felt like we chubsters were the hottest babes in the room. she has this way of spreading her 'damn i'm hot and yer just gonna have to deal with it' vibe making us feel like hot shit (which we are).
i should confess that i don't have any of 'the gossips' albums. but i'm catching up slowly on the music side of this, but it terms of role models, beth ditto is sky high on my list of people that make me proud to love my body, as is.
(the above photos of miss ditto are from the label 'kill rock stars' flickr site).
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