Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Oprah done with fat shaming

She's hit 200 lbs!

We all know about Oprah's weight saga. Tabloids have profited off of her shaming her own body into trying to be super-skinny and unhealthy. Today the big story is, however, "she's fallen off the wagon". She's "embarrassed".

Except, she's beautiful. She really is. Not "beautiful for a big woman". Oprah is beautiful. At every weight she's been at, she's been beautiful -- now, she wears pride and confidence much better than the self-shaming giant sweaters of the early 80s, and since she's also the richest single woman on the planet she can afford custom clothing that fits her body stylishly, that doesn't negate the fact that Oprah is beautiful. Oprah is fat. Oprah is beautiful.

She's also done with the fat-shaming.
"Winfrey also writes that her goal is no longer to be thin; instead, she wants to be strong, healthy and fit."
Mine too! OMG! There are a lot of fat women out there, myself included, who can take a cue here. You don't have to be thin to be healthy. You can't change your body type. Try as one might, you're not gonna get any thinner any more than you're gonna get any taller. That's what I've told myself. I've also told myself that as long as I get plenty of cardio and do my yoga (and don't stuff my face constantly with sweets and things that really should only be eaten in moderation), I can be a healthy me.

Oprah has finally learned that too. Good for her. Maybe now American will get over its own thin-obsessed fat shaming.

7 comments:

Aviva DV said...

Maybe now American will get over its own thin-obsessed fat shaming.

Unfortunately, we're probably a long way off from that, but at least this is step in the right direction. And, you're right, Oprah's gorgeous. No matter what.

The Empress said...

Probably. But if there's one thing I've learned this year, it's that America does what Oprah tells us to do. She said "vote for Barack Obama!" and he won in a motherfucking landslide.

If she says "America, we need to talk. Stop shaming yourself and be happy being healthy rather than obsessing about being skinny" we'll probably do it. But I've also learned that there's a period of time between saying "I don't care about being thin, I just want to be healthy" and actually stopping the self-fat-shaming.

jmofeminist said...

i don't think oprah is over her fat-shaming...i think she is in the throes of it right now. She announced that in Jan 09 she'll have a show where she "confesses" and comes clean. Confesses? Comes clean? Has she murdered someone one? Committed an awful crime? Nope, she gained weight. Oprah has long been a hero of mine but I'm sick to death of her talking about her weight as if it's a bad thing. What would happen if one of the most powerful woman in the world, sat in her tv studio and said, "I love myself just the way I am." Now that would be powerful.

The Empress said...

Perhaps she will confess how much she hated her body, how desperate she was to be thin because she thought being thin would make her love herself.

There are a lot of sins-against-the-self that come from obsessing over one's weight aside from over-eating.

Anonymous said...

If Oprah asked you to abandon your white-on-black format because it's an unreadable nightmare, would you do it? Cause I suspect this blog is worth reading, but I'm not willing to get a headache to do it. Please consider.

Thanks.

The Empress said...

Fortunately there's a thing called an RSS feed. Click on the Atom link and that'll take you to a black on white format.

Anonymous said...

Travel overseas, either Asia or Europe. You'll discover that what you consider "super-skinny" is actually very "average".