OH, OPRAH WOMAN… (R)*

Why, oh why, can’t you get to grips with the fact that YOU ARE FAT?
What’s wrong with BEING FAT?
Who made you believe that FAT means NOT BEAUTIFUL?
And what is BEING FAT anyway?
Everybody in the world must have heard by now things like “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and that there are as many concepts of beauty as there are cultures and societies in the world. Why, how come, apparently NOT YOU OPRAH?

I mean, I am a Oprah admirer, for her beauty and her accomplishments – yes, we out here in the world outside the US of A watch and know about Oprah’s existence, life history and… weight problems! But, really, what and how much do we care about her weight problems, except perhaps to the extent that they make any sense in some of our own cultures?

I must confess that, in my teens, I had a weight problem. And what was it? It was that I was too skinny for the prevailing notions of beauty of that particular time in Luanda – Angola. So, I went on to the pharmacy to buy what I was told were 'fattening pills'… but I never gained any weight worth noting by anyone around me. The fact was simply that my genetic make-up didn’t make me as curvaceous as all the girls about my age who attracted the most attention. These days, I often feel weightier than I was made up to be – could it be that those alleged 'fattening pills' I took in my youth only now started to make effect? I don’t know. But I know exactly why and when that comes about and how to control it if I feel like or absolutely need to, without necessarily becoming paranoiac about it, provided that I feel healthy, both physically and psychologically.

So, I keep asking myself why can't Oprah come to terms with the fact that her genetic make-up made her fatter than others or just than what she would like to?


*[First posted 14/12/08]

Why, oh why, can’t you get to grips with the fact that YOU ARE FAT?
What’s wrong with BEING FAT?
Who made you believe that FAT means NOT BEAUTIFUL?
And what is BEING FAT anyway?
Everybody in the world must have heard by now things like “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and that there are as many concepts of beauty as there are cultures and societies in the world. Why, how come, apparently NOT YOU OPRAH?

I mean, I am a Oprah admirer, for her beauty and her accomplishments – yes, we out here in the world outside the US of A watch and know about Oprah’s existence, life history and… weight problems! But, really, what and how much do we care about her weight problems, except perhaps to the extent that they make any sense in some of our own cultures?

I must confess that, in my teens, I had a weight problem. And what was it? It was that I was too skinny for the prevailing notions of beauty of that particular time in Luanda – Angola. So, I went on to the pharmacy to buy what I was told were 'fattening pills'… but I never gained any weight worth noting by anyone around me. The fact was simply that my genetic make-up didn’t make me as curvaceous as all the girls about my age who attracted the most attention. These days, I often feel weightier than I was made up to be – could it be that those alleged 'fattening pills' I took in my youth only now started to make effect? I don’t know. But I know exactly why and when that comes about and how to control it if I feel like or absolutely need to, without necessarily becoming paranoiac about it, provided that I feel healthy, both physically and psychologically.

So, I keep asking myself why can't Oprah come to terms with the fact that her genetic make-up made her fatter than others or just than what she would like to?


*[First posted 14/12/08]