It ain’t over till the Fat Lady sings

A friend of mine (of course after this fiasco I really don’t know whether I should still call her my friend). Anyway this “friend” of mine wanted to introduce me to her new colleague who happens to be from North India.

I wasn’t really interested but she was so persistent and said that he wanted to meet new people etc and so I thought to myself why not … it would be good to widen my circle of friends (which by the way has been seriously slashed down – only the genuine ones remain now).

She was telling me what a nice person he was, good looking ala Mr Bollywood (think Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Abishek Bachan … you get the picture), friendly, charming etc. At the same time, I guess, she must have also been doing some marketing on behalf as well. Well, what I did not know was that she had also showed him a picture of me (a group photo taken a while back).

My friend passed my e-mail address to him and one fine day I get this e-mail from Mr Kiran (that’s his name). After the usual pleasantries, he mentioned that he saw my photo and these were his exact words to me: “You are quite attractive, but you look heavier than me.”

What was this guy thinking? Had he already envisioned trying to carry me across the threshold or had he gone a step further and was thinking of the ‘woman on top position’? I mean what did my weight have to do with him wanting to have a friend?

Here he was, a total stranger, and he had the audacity to pass a disparaging comment about my weight. Who the hell did he think he was?

I admit that I certainly do not have the figure of a beauty queen but I certainly do have curves in all the right places and I am not going to apologise for that.

What is it with men and their obsession of pencil-thin women so much so that they don’t even want to be seen in the company of girls who are on the heavy side?

Have you ever seen the paintings by Michelangelo or Rembrandt? Have you noticed how well endowed the women in those paintings are?

I came across an article about this African painter, Aka Augustin Kassi who is well known for his paintings of ‘big’ women.

Here is what he has to say about them: God has created fat women, painting them is my way of celebrating and appreciating them.

Yes, there is a difference between fat and obesity. In various cultures world wide, certain amount of plumpness signifies prosperity and security. So it’s okay to be healthy and plump – it’s beautiful. And I’m not going to starve myself just because some jerk thinks that I look heavier than him.

I’d like to leave you with this poem by Tracie Brown who just sums it up beautifully:

BIG AND BEAUTIFUL

I'm Big and Beautiful
I am proud to be me
I'm happy the way God made and shape me

I may not be Skinny, Slim or Trim
but baby, I'm not trying to be like any of them.
I'm Big and Beautiful that's who I am

I never question my Size or my Weight
I'm Big and Beautiful
And still able to get Hot Dates.

I love me!
And a Big, Beautiful, Queen I am
Even if I'm not very Slim.

I love my Curves and my Big Golden Brown Thighs
No one can handle this if they tried.

I'm Big and Beautiful
What a honour it is to be me
Even if I don't have the Perfect Body.

I may be a Little Hippie with a Little Extra Meat
But men would consider this to be a Delicious Treat!

I may not have a Six pack or meet Society Standards
but this Big, Beautiful Sister can surely handle hers.

- Tracie Brown