That’s Classy

I was throwing myself a huge pity party earlier in the week and everyone was invited. Thanks to some wonderful advice and suggestions from Author Lisa Rayns I am ready to write again! Wahoo! By the way, check out Lisa’s website, I can’t wait for her upcoming books!

Now, on to Classy Thursday.

The Judgement of Paris - Peter Paul Rubens

Rubenesque. I used that as an adjective to describe my heroine today. I think most everyone has heard the term, and with the internet, most everyone has looked up the paintings of Peter Paul Rubens. I think the term is a pretty classy way to call someone fat, or chubby, or chunky.

 I am 5’9″, and a size 16, on a good day. The BMI charts call me obese, yikes! I remember sitting in class in high school, flipping through a Cosmo and they had a teeny tiny section about plus size clothes. I looked at a pair of khakis and the caption said “size 10, the Gap, $48.” Oh hell, I wore a size ten at the time, I was plus sized! I didn’t realize I was so fat!  I think that was the day I gave up on modeling and acting and I no longer cared about my body. Soon I would be one of those people so large, they would have to cut away the side of my house to get me out. Pass the twinkies. I was a plus sized 16 year old girl. I would never have a boyfriend and no one would want to marry me. I hoped my friends wouldn’t find out my disgusting secret. I ran home and cut all the tags out of my size ten pants. I left the tags on the eights.

It is funny now, I took out my old pictures and realize how small a size ten was. I look back at those pictures and wish I would have embraced my body back then. I was not fat or plus sized, I had boyfriends and I found someone to marry me. I can’t imagine what it is like these days for teenage girls.

Judith Beheading Holofernes - Artemisa Gentileschi

Through the years (there have only been 30 of them) I have looked at Rubens paintings and wished I could have lived back then. I would have been one hot bitch. Princes and dukes and kings would be after my hot bod. People like Rubens and Gentileschi would have immortalized me in paint. Sadly though, if I had lived back then, I would have probably been skinny. It was the rich people who were plump, not the poor folk. Being large was a sign of wealth, you didn’t scrub the floors, or work the fields, and you had the money to eat.

The two paintings I posted today  were probably commissioned by a wealthy family. The artist probably used the commissioner’s wives, daughters and mothers as models, all pleasantly plump. I could get into a pretty good discussion about the Baroque Period compared to current society, but I won’t. I just wanted to put a picture with a word this week.

Off to write!