I was always considered pretty, “for a chubby girl”.
I didn’t really know what that meant. I knew I was happy and smart and popular.
I excelled in school. I always had friends. Then when I was 6, everything
changed.
I remember this day as clear as a
bell. I was at recess and near
the merry-go round. As I approached a group of kids, one turned around to see why the laughter stopped and then
he said, “There she is. Heeeey, Fat Mama Pig!” And the other kids burst into
laughter. And, it was then that I realized some things. 1. They were laughing
at me. 2. They were laughing at me because he called me Fat Mama Pig. 3. Being
fat was not ok. 4. I was devastated.
The realization that fat wasn’t ok
made me develop my comic chops. If I was going to be fat, I had to have an
angle. Up until 10, my angle was that I was funny. My teachers loved me. My
friends thought I was a riot. My parents couldn’t be more proud of me. And, I
almost forgot that I was fat. Until someone would remind me.
By the time I was about 12, I’d
emerged as quite the social butterfly. I was eloquent and articulate. My
teachers chose me to do public speaking. At church, I was always the
spokesperson for my age group. I realized that funny and great public speaking
skills were phenomenal. Looking back, I wonder if these things would have
naturally emerged or was it just a defense mechanism. When I read Alice
Walkers, biography, that’s when I started asking myself this. In her biography,
her injury caused her to retreat. My humiliation caused me to seek out other
areas of validation when pretty had a qualifier.
In high school, I was the still the
girl with the ‘pretty face’. I had tons of male friends and a façade of very
high self-esteem and self-awareness. Yes, I was big. However, I wasn’t going to
let that dictate my life. That’s what I told people. Truth of the matter is, it
dictated almost every waking moment of my life. My thoughts toward myself would
have been considered abusive if they came from someone else. I beat myself up.
I dreamed of a life where fat wasn’t a part of my description. Even though my
fatness bothered me, I never once chose to diet. Exercise was as near to an
expletive as you could get. Now that
funny and well-spoken had taken me places that fat did not, a new validator
emerged; clothes and quirkiness
At about 16, I decided that if I
was going to be fat, I was going to be fabulous doing it. Every dollar I earned
went one of three places: clothes for my body, shoes for my feet, expensive
handbags for my arm. Finally, this is it! I’m admired for me. I’ve shed the
qualifiers, I thought. Until, a handsome boy I’d had my eye on said the dreaded
words. “Wow, you dress really nice for a big girl!”. Are you kidding me? Still,
we’re on this. There was just no getting away from it. Everything I did, the
validation/compliment was always, “for a big girl”. I suppose at this point, I
could have just retreated into the background. Instead, as a sassy young woman
in Chocolate City, I came to grips (somewhat) that ‘dammit, I’m fat and that’s
that’. I never had a shortage of potential suitors and boyfriends. My fake self-confidence said something that
was contrary to what the media tells us. So many guys tell me that they’re
drawn to that.
At 17, I started dating a childhood
friend. He loved my body. He told me often how beautiful I was. This was
different though. Not once did he ever say, ‘for a big girl’. I was just
beautiful. I loved him for that. I stopped having to be the prettiest big
girl, the best-dressed big girl, the smartest big girl, the most outgoing big
girl or the most articulate big girl’. I was just beautiful. And, he made me
feel like it wasn’t just my outer appearance that made me pretty.
I decided to run for Homecoming
Court that year. My best friend told me she thought I was Court material, but I
wouldn’t win because I was big. Against her advice, I ran anyway. And, I won.
She was shocked. I told her and everyone else that I wasn’t. On the inside, I
couldn’t believe it. I was in the Homecoming Court, but did not ultimately
become the Queen. I told myself it was because I was fat. As a matter of fact,
almost everything negative in my life, up to that point was blamed on the fact
that I was fat. That had to be the only rational reason. Right?
It is the fall of 1992. I am now a
student at Tuskegee University in Alabama, in the south where thick girls are
celebrated. I am still dating my high school boyfriend. I meet a guy. He
nicknames me “Stacks”, as in stacked like a brick house. He compliments on my
body all the time. He is never ashamed to be seen in public with me. I tell him that I am not looking for anything major. I
have a boyfriend up north. I am only looking for friendship. One night after hanging
out with me for about a month, he starts getting aggressive with me. He is
trying to pressure me into kissing and sex. At first, he’s complimenting me
left and right. Then he’s reminding me of all the things that he has done for
me. I really do like him, however I am not promiscuous and am not interested in
a physical relationship. I have never been with another guy other than my high
school boyfriend. He is growing angrier and angrier and then he says, “You fat
bitch. You think that I was doing all this stuff for nothing. You know what it
is. You didn’t really think I just wanted to be friends with your fat ass, did
you?” Instantly, I am 6 and I’m back on that playground and I am devastated.
For the next 2 years that I’m at Tuskegee, I do not socialize much, even though
I met several great guys. I am never again opening my heart to a man even for
friendship for him to turn around and call me Fat Mama Pig.
1994, I move back to the DC area.
My high school boyfriend and I have still been dating. We are ready to make
things more permanent and more official. I genuinely love him. But, I don’t
trust that he’s not going to use my fatness against me. I make him prove his love to me over and over
and over and over again. The difference
is now; I am not just curvy or voluptuous. I am rapidly gaining weight. And I
am waiting on him to be done with me. I
am doing all these things while still walking around appearing like I have it
all together. I am the go-to chic for all types of advice. People see that I’ve
got it going on and they want a piece of it.
2006, I am now married. I have been
married for 10 years to an amazing man. He never mentions my weight. He tells
me I am beautiful. He touches me. He loves me. And, I HATE me. He never once
calls me fat. It is almost as if, he does not notice it. That can’t be
possible. I love him for this. But, I
also resent him for this. How can a man raised in America with images of beauty
thrown in his face every day honestly think I am beautiful? I don’t even think
I am beautiful. He reminds me of when he
first met me, at 14. And then, when he started dating me at 17. Over the course
of our relationship, I have gained over 130 lbs. Yet he says “you’re just as
beautiful now as you were then”. I think, ‘clearly, this man has lost his
mind’.
2009, I cannot take it anymore. I
am lying to myself. I am lying to the world. I talk to my doctor about lap band
surgery. She is not that crazy about the idea. She challenges me to lose 50
lbs. on my own. I do and then decide surgery is not for me. I am now a successful woman. I am a mentor to
girls. I am an encourager of my friends. But, I am still fat. Slowly, but
surely, I am starting to become ok with that.
2014, I am turning 40. I am
comfortable (mostly) in my fat skin. Sometimes, I dream of skinny. But now,
those dreams are few and far between. Mostly, I see this beautiful woman that I
have become. Fat is a part of me. But, it’s no longer ME. When people qualify me now, ‘for a big girl’,
I just think that it is ignorance on their part. I sometimes worry about health
and life expectancy. I am proud of the now 70+ lbs. that I have lost and kept
off. On a whim, I enter an online
modeling contest to be the face of a website for the month of December. I
become the face of 2014. The comments
are things like “gorgeous”, “stunning”, “so confident”….and not one ends with
‘for a big girl’. And, I honestly believe it. And accept it. I am no longer Fat
Mama Pig. I am LaTrelle. I am beautiful. Not for a big girl. Beautiful. Period.