So I’ve been brooding a little over this, and the idea that when you have a female character of size in a written work, describing them using euphemistic terms such as ‘curvy’ / ‘zaftig’ / ‘Reubenesque’ / ‘looks like she eats properly’ / etc. only plays into the notion that there’s a right and a wrong way to be fat.
You know what I’m referring to, right? You’ve all heard this kind of thing; she’s overweight, but she carries it well, she has curves in all the right places, (or worse, real women have curves), and so on. I mean, if that describes you, then great! But ultimately it’s still a form of body policing; it’s still a narrow and prescriptive set of rules for what female bodies are supposed to look like. It still says to all those ‘real women’ - god how I hate that term - who have bellies and cankles and arm fat and back fat and double chins and spare tyres and chub rub and curves in all the wrong places (or no curves at all!), “Your body is still not acceptable.”
Like, yes, having non-thin characters whose weight is described positively (or at least, is not considered as negative by the narrative) is a good and important step! But if you couch it in the oh-so-careful language language of ladymags, where, between the diet tips and the weight-loss stories, we are exhorted to ‘dress for our shape’, taught to ‘flatter our assets’ and hide away the rest of our sins, then I think it only mirrors that attitude; that being ~curvy~ is okay, but being F A T is something to be ashamed of, to be hidden away at all costs under delicate words and clever tailoring.
SO ANYWAY, the point of all this is to ask for recs. I’d love it if anyone had any suggestions for books that don’t do this to their female characters - who let them be fat (or chubby, or chunky, or pudgy, or plus-size, or etc.) without apologising for it, or swaddling them in conditionals and modifiers. Who don’t go, “She was kinda fat - BUT NOT IN A BAD WAY.”
Because the notion that there is a ‘bad way’ is crap, and I am tired of this stuff masquerading as body-positivity.
