Manolo for the Big Girl Fashion, Lifestyle, and Humor for the Plus Sized Woman.

August 18, 2011

Body Hate: The Sport For Girls!

Filed under: Body Love,Culture,Media,Sports — Miss Plumcake @ 12:57 pm

As many of you know, it is the hap hap-happiest time of the year; the beginning of premier league Proper Football all over the world, and as I’m organizing my fantasy team and plotting my Saturday mornings (and afternoons, and potentially evenings if I keep getting these mezcal hangovers) from now until the end of May, it occurred to me: Fat Fighting is a sport, and all girls –almost all girls– are expected to play.

Women are encouraged to follow, worship and obsess over the Fat Fighting the way men are over sports. Somewhere along the way, it was decided we were supposed to care about some actress’ visible rib count the way some men worry about their favorite baseball player’s RBI.

Like any sporting fan, there’s pain involved. Teams are fickle, players disappoint. There are drunken midnight promises made to God and self that get called off the moment your side scores a miracle or loses the penalty shoot out. You devote time, passion, money and so, so much emotional energy to what…some men kicking a ball? Some number no one else will ever see, much less care about?

No one understands you, no one cares.

No one wants to sit next to you at the bar because you’re just going to go on and on about points and weekly whatevers until someone –quite possibly you– gets stabbed in the eye just to break the monotony.

Still, I understand the appeal.

It’s not just suffering –unless you support Arsenal, then yeah, it’s pretty much suffering, but that can also be enjoyable in a martyred sort of way– there’s also the elation when your side pulls it off.

I accidentally broke a bar stool when Madrid scored a penalty kick against Barcelona last season, and we all know someone who did a victory lap when they finally fit into the dress that needed a shoehorn and some axle grease just a few months before.

And then of course it becomes a compulsion.

Skipping work to watch the Clásicos (no, I’m not prepared to talk about the Supercopa yet…give me time) spending money you don’t have on tickets, whiling away your Saturday mornings getting drunk in an expat bar even if you’re not a journalist. Where, precisely will the madness end?

I think about the Diet and Beauty industry and how easy it is to get lured in.

We learn it from our parents, from our friends. We support a team because it’s the one we’ve always been around. It’s a way to bond with our social group, or expand the one we’ve already got.

But what if we just don’t LIKE that sport or at least don’t want to go to EVERY game?

Obviously we can choose not to engage, but at what price? Do we lose community? Is it a community we mind losing?

I’d be extremely interested in hearing about the experiences of any of you who had been heavily (er, you know what I mean) into the dieting/obsessing/calorie-counting lifestyle and come out the other side, or anyone who feels their unwillingness to follow that particular “sport” has caused them social woes. Put it in the comments!

 

 

 

 

 

March 27, 2011

Twistie Recommends Some Films

Filed under: Media,Movies — Twistie @ 8:30 am

I believe I may have once or twice mentioned that I have a great fondness for movies, both good and bad. And since I’m feeling in a movie kind of mood,  I thought I would suggest a few for your various viewing pleasure and a brief, terrifying glimpse into my psyche. If you have any other good views to suggest, go to it in comments. I always enjoy hearing about things I may have missed while I was saving up to visit the popcorn stand.

The films in question are on no special theme and are listed in no particular order. They’re just five films I’ve been watching and thinking about of late.
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October 9, 2010

Because This Is About Big Girls Being Brides…

Filed under: Media — Twistie @ 1:42 pm

… I’m giving you a link to the article I wrote this morning for Manolo for the Brides.

Back with more in a bit.

September 19, 2010

The More Things Change, the More They Stay Panicky About Weight

Filed under: Media,Random Annoyances — Twistie @ 8:30 am

As I’ve mentioned before, Mr. Twistie always finds interesting things at flea markets. A couple weeks ago, he found an issue of the Ladies’ Home Journal from 1961. There were several articles in it he wanted to take a look at, but as soon as he got it home he handed it off to me so that I could take a look at the article about how three Hollywood stars – Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon, and Natalie Wood – manage to stay so slim.

I thought in light of Plummy’s recent call for your stories of fad dieting, some of you might be interested in a couple quotes. For those of you who may have been dealing with an ED, be aware that some quotes may well be triggering and proceed with caution, if at all.
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September 17, 2010

Elle throws us a bone, with meat on it (see what I did there?)

Filed under: Fashion,Makeup,Media,Models,Movies — Miss Plumcake @ 9:08 am

So everyone else has written about it but I guess I’ve got to toss my lovely Peter Bettley chapeau in.

Fat Girl of the Moment, Gabourey Sidibe — plus-size star of Precious, in case you just got off the boat from Mars– graces one of four covers of Elle this month and people are getting their collective knickers in a twist, and for once it’s not that a fat person is on a magazine.

Nope, it’s skin lightening. Apparently Ms Sidibe’s cover shows her skin several shades lighter than how she photographs in natural and/or red carpet lighting.

Is it whitewashing?

Eeesh, I don’t know. Frankly I wouldn’t put it past Elle, but on the other hand, I really do think it’s the lighting this time. It looks like the lighting rig for that cover was pretty simple and I know from my experience my own skin shoots way way lighter (inasmuch as it’s possible for a girl who has been known to MAC face & body in WHITE as foundation to shoot lighter) in a rig like that than I do in natural light.

But I gotta say, I don’t just love Gabby on the cover of Elle. It’s a gimmick. It’s a bone to the people who complain Elle and its ilk only put thin, pretty, white women on the covers of their magazines (possibly because Elle and its ilk only put thin, pretty, white women on the covers of their magazines). It’s Beth Ditto 2.0 but even less plausible because Beth Ditto truly is interested and interesting when it comes to fashion.

Gabby, talent though she might have, is just the token fat girl 2010.

I’m fat, not stupid. I’m not getting excited over this (and yeah, don’t think we didn’t notice all the other covers are mostly body shots while Gabby’s body is mostly obscured)

Do you know what gets me excited?

When there are all manner of body shapes represented and it’s Not A Big Deal. It’s not part of a Size Issue or some nonsense about Celebrating Your Curves or Realness or (gag) Goddess blahdeblah.

For example:

Here in The Killers video Mr Brightside –which for my money ranks up there in the echelon with Express Yourself, Vogue, and Freedom 90 for Most Important Fashion Videos of All Time— you have a perfectly gorgeous luscious plus-sized woman being treated just like all the other ahem, courtesans.

Super sexy outfit, clearly comfortable with her over-the-top sexuality, she’s a featured dancer with plenty of screen time, and somehow it’s Not A Big Deal. She’s not hidden or dropped in there as a token and her skin almost certainly wasn’t lightened (the heroine’s was, although obviously that was for effect. I’ll also bet you a million imaginary dollars the makeup artist used Mac face and body in White on her, too, albeit in a heavier application than I use). THIS is progress.

And do we have to talk about how cute Brandon Flowers is in his sharp jacket (that, btw, is how a dinner jacket is supposed to fit, slim through the shoulders and arms) or how when Eric Roberts became so filthy hot? Because I am currently associated with the hottest man on the planet (seriously, you would die) and Mister R and his smoking jacket STILL make me need to take a lie down.

May 11, 2010

Is This Progress?

Filed under: Lingerie,Media — Miss Plumcake @ 10:45 am

This morning I was toodling my way up Austin’s famed South Congress Avenue, home to such beloved Austin institutions as The Continental Club, Austin Motel –one of the last great rock ‘n’ roll hotels, it’s affectionately known as “The Balls Out Inn” for reasons I cannot possibly fathom —  the world’s largest urban bat colony, and well…me.

austin motel

And I was struck by a sign.

Well, not literally, but I was briefly taken aback by a sign for what I can only assume is a local adult novelty shop.

Right there, on a billboard in a yellow babydoll of questionable taste was an unquestionably plus-sized model posing alluringly under the headline Xtra Xtra Sexy.

And that’s…good. Right?

On one hand, I’m glad that a store pretty much built around sex and sexy things feels confident in the sex-selling potential of a plus-size woman.  Plus, since it’s advertising TO big girls and their partners without fetishizing their size (i.e., big women are ravenous for sex and food and everything else)  there’s something positive about treating the 14-plus set the same boring phoned-in way that straight sized women are.

On the other, I don’t really ever want to see ANYONE towering twelve stories above me all nips akimbo on my drive in to work.  What do you think?

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