Everything from:problems

In which I think about bodies

My colleague has an eight-year-old daughter who worries about having fat thighs. Let’s pause to contemplate this.  She’s eight.  She’s active–she rides her bike and hikes with her dad–and she’s skinny.  And so what if she wasn’t skinny… (a) that would be fine and (b) she’s eight. This kid isn’t a woman yet, won’t be for years, and she’s already dealing with the pernicious body-consciousness that women face.  She knows the standard, and she knows she doesn’t measure up. What she doesn’t know yet is that it’s a fucked-up standard, and that no one measures up.  The most beautiful women in the world don’t even measure up.  Tabloid headlines find imperfections in Jennifer Lawrence, Michelle Obama, Jennifer Lopez.  How’s a kid supposed to read that? I really want to fight this standard.  I want beauty to not even be a standard.  I want beauty to be a grace note, something we can enjoy and celebrate, but not a job we have to do, not a price of entry. How does this tie into writing?  I think it goes along with committing to diversity in general.  Speculative fiction, like romance, has a lot of examples of princessy female characters whose worth […]

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Things unsaid

I’ve been avoiding writing something. I’ve been avoiding saying it, too, even when it’s topical. It is the kind of thing no one, no one, wants to talk about. Not a deep dark secret or anything: those always have willing listeners. This is just a small sad human thing that for some reason is occupying the forefront of my mind this weekend. I’m not going to write it here, either. I’m going to carry it away with me, while I finish the laundry and get ready for my trip tomorrow and close up the house and brush my teeth. […]

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