New writing FAT LADIES Guest Editor FAY WELDON introduces her pick of poetry and prose about fat ladies WHAT a gloriously hopeless nation of narcissists we turn into, as we consider the layer of white lardy substance beneath the human skin to which our evolution has doomed us. How thick is it, how thin? Fat: the three-letter word, arbiter of our destinies, source of so much despair and self-loathing. It has turned into formal tragedy. Near-to-death dieting no longer surprises us. It has become the stuff of literature. Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones sweeps the board with her daily calorie intake and weighings-in. To lose a pound is happiness, to gain one: desolation. It is comic yet not comic. When Mslexia chose ‘Fat’ as a theme for its New Writing section, the submissions were magnificent: not just in quantity but in quality - in their energy and their lyricism. They were ferocious in their rage, swoony in their adoration and loathing of the body physical. Even while we love ourselves - our little plump pink toes, scarlet-tipped, the white firm roundness of our odalisque arms - we hate ourselves. Yuk, the revolting wobble of the hips, the chafing thighs, the piggy eyes, the chomping jaws! The awareness of male desire, or lack of it, weaves through these pieces of writing like a sharp uncomfortable thread tearing away at the fabric of female lives. We cannot decide whether we love men or hate men. If they want us for our bodies, we detest them; if they don’t, we feel insulted. For the complete essay, and for Fay's full selection of poetry and prose on the theme of 'fat ladies', read issue 4 • Subscribe! Read a poem chosen by Fay Weldon: Why I do it by Chrysse Morrison For more on FAY WELDON, go to www.redmoon.com/weldon
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