Who (the hell) Am I

I’m sure some of you will have questions about who am I (or who the hell am I) to be writing this blog and making judgments about plus clothing. I am a fat chick who believes in the possibility of fat chic. With a three year exception in high school, I have been plus-sized my entire life including my toddler years, and at the time I write this I am a size 26/28. The smallest I’ve ever been is a size 14. I am on a long-term fitness plan, and I aspire to hit size 18 and maintain that, so yes, I am committing to being plus sized and offensive to modern Europeans for life. I am a large woman who makes an extra effort to look good.

I am self-employed, running the independent perfume house Magickal Realism, and I also write freelance for various New Age and occult magazines. You can read more of my other writing at http://www.dianarajchel.com. Yes, I am Wiccan. I will quibble elsewhere about my religious practices, but I will say this about the Wiccan female population: a lot of us are overweight, and a lot of us have had longstanding self-esteem and financial issues that cause us to dress poorly, eat badly, and make choices contrary to our own spiritual training. I defy the Pagan stereotype by dressing as much as I can in flattering clothing that can pass in an office moreso than at a hippy festival. You’d only pick me out as a Pagan on the street if I were a Pagan, and if you took my shoes into account, you’d have some doubts.

I am an avid bellydancer. I also dabble in yoga and weight lifting. I swing back and forth between vegetarianism and a mainstream diet; at this point I eat meat about once a week. I have no particular feelings about dietary choices, because I believe that every person’s biology dictates different nutritional needs. I have an unholy addiction to cheese that is always the negative habit that foils my diets.

I am straight, and in a loving relationship with a larger man. My size has affected my dating life by limiting some of my choices of partners, but I have had an active dating life in the past, and I have confronted a lot of issues brought on by being a larger woman. I have my own set of rules for dating that works for me, and all are based on treating myself as a person that deserves and demands to be treated well. Some of my practices in handling prospective mates may not be deemed “socially acceptable” but since they work, I’ll ignore societal dictation.

I also am an unconscious nonconformist. I have tried to conform to cultural norms in the past, such as dressing with the trends and watching reality television, only to find that I am missing the skill set required to conform. Somehow an item here or there always sneaks into my wardrobe, creating a different look for me than the template presented in magazines, or I’d fall obsessively in love with an odd dress in a thrift store bin, or my shoes would somehow appear from Mars (or from an off-sale shoe outlet). Somehow while everyone was saying “Oh my god!” to some outrageous antic on Road Rules, I’d imagine and suggest an alternative behavior that equally horrified everyone, or I’d express understanding for the “shocking” behavior. I’m just not good at following those petty little rules.

So, here I am, one fat chick for fat chic. I want to have every option to dress well, be well, and feel well. I will also raise my voice when plus designers abuse their market base on the assumption that we don’t have other choices. Plus size women are not a land of low-self esteem pre-grannies in polyester pants; even the real plus grannies deserve to be hot. Rather than barraging the corporate design complexes with boiling oil and arrows of flaming elastic, however, I am going to point to what’s in style, and what’s wrong with popular design along with what’s right with it.

These are all my opinions, and you may disagree with them. If you really want to prove me wrong (or right) about some point, by all means send me a .jpg of yourself looking fabulous that I can share with the rest of the world.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 9:32 am and is filed under Fashion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.