fatphobia

The truth is, we want our cats fat and our women skinny.

The truth is, we want our cats fat and our women skinny.

I have particular standards of beauty that I believe apply to my body — my body, and no one else’s.

I have particular standards of beauty that I believe apply to my body — my body, and no one else’s.

I was introduced to the concept of ugliness when I was five years old. It was, for almost all intents and purposes, the totality of who I was. Fat was me. I was fat. I was taught that fat is the opposite of everything that is feminine, moral, and beautiful. Just like ugliness. But even though I still live in the awful world that made my traumatic childhood possible, I know for certain that ugliness isn’t a physical reality, it is a cultural fabrication. I truly believe that we are born with the capacity to see beauty in all things, and it is through the dispiriting reality of our cultural education that we lose that ability.

The other night, I was eating capellini with asparagus and shrimp with a new friend/Babecamp Jamaica alum.

I am currently in Los Angeles trying to forget that the election happened.

By the time you read this, Babecamp Jamaica will be over. My 57 mosquito bites will have just stopped itching.