I just finished reading a book last night that was about a fat girl. I realized upon its completion that I've read a lot of fat girl books and they all annoy the poo out of me. It must be my holier than thou attitude thanks to my supermodel thin physique. Stop laughing....
This book was about a fat girl who meets a personal trainer by happenstance and he takes pity on her and decides to make her his project and once she is fit and skinny, he actually falls in love with her despite her former fatness and magnanimously decides to ignore the extra 20 pounds she still could stand to lose. You'd think I'd be thin after reading 200+ pages of this barftastic book.
Other fat girl books are different. They are based on the fatties who find men to love them in spite of their girth. Those are gems, too. The man finally realizes that her witty personality is all that matters, not her dress size. In addition to the men being willing to love them, they're filled with women just sitting around waiting to be loved. Often our heroines have great careers, friends, etc, but without the man, they are worthless. Those books don't induce my urge to purge. Instead, they make me want to track down the authors and punch them. In the face. With their books.
I realize that there should be books about pleasantly plump people, because the world is full of this epidemic of obesity (one that I am a shameful member of). But, it would be nice if the books were a little less, I don't know.... INSULTING. Maybe men do fall in love with fat women in spite of their looks, but I'd like to think that some men just fall in love, looks and all. Not that I'm praising those pervs trolling the 500 lbs. and up porn sites, but maybe some guys find curves appealing. Maybe some men don't need a stick person to be happy. Maybe husbands of women that aren't thin are just happy. Not in spite of anything.... just in love with everything. And maybe some overweight women don't sit around pining for a husband. Hard to imagine, but maybe they have self confidence even though they could use a Zumba class or two, and lead full lives with or without a man in it. Maybe it would be refreshing to see a book like that. Then again, a book about two normal people who meet, fall in love and just live probably wouldn't sell. But, I for one would like to see someone try.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
That's what I loved about the "Shrek" movie series - even though neither Shrek nor Fiona was thin, they were both happy and fun and easy to like ... and yet when Fiona was human, she was plain and sort of ugly (or at least I always thought so) and just not that easy to like, even though she was definitely thin.
And I like that the series never mentioned weight at all; Fiona's complaints about her ogre alter-ego were all about it being "ugly" (actually, I thought the ogres were better-looking than the humans; more effort went into them, I guess). I know it's not a book, but at least the idea of the non-thin people being happy (and in love) and liked is out there.
Post a Comment