Do
you think it’s unrealistic for fat chicks (or insert
euphemism of your choice) to be portrayed as fully secure,
happy and confident?

Latest update:

A column I wrote for Romancing the Blog asked why weren’t there more fat chicks in romance? There are plenty of fat women reading romance, writing romance and living romance, so why aren’t more fat romance heroines finding love and happiness?

Thin women are represented well in all genres, across society as a whole and expecially in the romance genre. Yet, there was exception taken to this column asking for more variety in heroine body shapes rather than less by at least one thin reader. Ihave heard from other thin readers who felt dismissed by The Look of Love. Do they ever wonder how the many fat readers feel when reading the plethora of books reaturing thin-only heroines?

My opinion is that healthy and active fat women have a place in this society and in escapist fiction.

Fat
woman who are secure and confident about their bodies
are featured in the Living
Large series. I wrote novellas in  A
WHOLE LOTTA LOVE, and again in BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY.
I wrote about fat women who accept their appearance.

But for some people (definitely not all) this concept
is outlandish. They expect a fat woman to demonstrate
marked insecurity and unhappiness with her weight to
some degree. Granted, this is the norm, but does it
have to be the rule?

My character Topaz, in A
WHOLE LOTTA LOVE, deals with smaller woman without
insecurity because she knows down deep that she looks
as good as they do. She defines her attitude about
diet and weight loss when her sister’s friend suggest
she needs to go on a diet. Topaz nicely says that her
health is good and inquires about the other’s person’s
health.
"Notice that I asked first," she says.

Later her friends agree over barbecued ribs and other
goodies that they don’t diet because they don’t want
to eat (or not eat) what would be required to lose weight.
They agree that they are healthy and fine just the way
they are, so what’s the big deal with being little when
they weren’t made that way?

In contrast, my character Carmel in THE
LOOK OF LOVE is different. She is insecure about
herself, feels ugly and unable to attract a man until
she loses weight. She can’t believe that Steve is attracted
to her because she’s fat (well over two-hundred pounds).
She feels guilty when she eats, diets constantly, but
can’t manage to stick to her diets, and is jealous
of Steve’s thin ex-wife’s figure. Carmel grows to self
acceptance about herself and her body through the course
of the book.

A few readers were upset that Carmel wasn’t wholly accepting
of her fat immediately. Some find Topaz unrealistic
because she isn’t insecure, pining to lose weight, or
jealous of thinner women. Fat seems to be a loaded and
emotional issue for some.

My opinion is that there are all sorts of fat women,
just as there are all sorts of thin woman, short women,
white women, black women and tall women.

I find that it’s usually about one’s own inner stuff
when one says that any one group of people should be
portrayed any certain way.In
my current and upcoming releases, every single one
of my heroines are big, blossomy and zaftig (although
healthy) and not a single one is invisible. They
have other things on their minds (such as adventures
and getting the good life along with some seriously
hot men) than worrying about the way the good lord
made their bodies. I’m on a roll

My
books and novellas with weighy themes and heroines:

IN
MY DREAMS
The Ultimate Diet in DARK THIRST
The Living Large Series
from NAL
 THE LOOK OF LOVE
SISTERHOOD
OF SHOPAHOLICS,
Please, Baby, Please
GETTIN’ MERRY,
The Way Back Home
The Choice
(freebie read)

More On Big Women

The Ikebe Syndrome:
Fleshy women from an African point of view
Body Positive,
a interesting and comprehensive online resource about
how to reverse a negative self image

Highly recommended
nonfiction reads:

THE
OBESITY MYTH by Paul Campos
". . . But The Obesity Myth is
not just a compelling argument, grounded in the latest
scientific research; it’s
also a provocative, wry exposé of the culture
that feeds on our self-defeating war on fat. Campos
will show: * How the nation’s most prestigious
and trusted media sources consistently misinform the
public about obesity
* What the movie industry’s love affair with
the
"fat suit" tells us about the relationship between
racial- and body-based prejudice in America
* How the skinny elite—with their "supersized"
lifestyles and gas-guzzling SUVs—project their
anxieties about overconsumption on the poorer and heavier
underclass
* How weight-loss mania fueled the impeachment of Bill
Clinton In this paradigm-busting read, Professor Campos
challenges the conventional wisdom regarding the medical,
political, and cultural meaning of weight and brings
a rational and compelling new voice to America’s
increasingly irrational weight debate."

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN: Confronting Weight
Prejudice in America by W. Charisse Goodman
A recent survey of American
women found that a great many of them would rather
be dead than fat. In every corner of the United States,
fat children and adults are subject to ridicule and
humiliation. The word "pretty" never applies to them,
they are "pigs" "cows" or "hippos," and regardless
of their eating behavior, they are viewed as "out
of control"
compulsive eaters. When it’s time to choose teammates
for a game, dates for a dance, or even just friends,
heavy women are invisible.

THE LOOK OF LOVE

Winner
of the Romantic Times Award for 
the BEST multicultural romance of 1999

A
ROMANTIC TIMES 4 1/2 GOLD medal TOP PICK

Romance
Communications Honorable Mention for 1999 :
RIVER’S END, Nora Roberts 
THE LOOK OF LOVE, Monica Jackson
ALWAYS, Trevor Meldal-Johnson
2000 KISSES, Christina Skye
ACTS OF HONOR, Vickie Hinze
THEN CAME HEAVEN, LaVyrle Spencer

Optioned
for a Movie of the Week

her
weight. Great story!"

EXCERPT

WHOLE
LOTTA LOVE January
2004
A WHOLE LOTTA LOVE featuring Donna Hill, Brenda Jackson, Monica Jackson and Francis
Ray
January 2004, NAL Signet
"When Wishes Come True"
Topaz’s mother died when she was seven, right before her sister’s birthday. Ever
since then, when her sister and their two closest friends got together on their
birthdays and made a wish
they always came true. But when Topaz wished for true love, it didn’t quite turn
out the way she’d hoped…
"I have an enjoyable time reading this story at the end of the day." –the
indomitable Mrs Giggles

The
book that started it all ( I don’t have a novella in this one, but I recommend
it wholeheartedly to round out your collection!