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Education, Weight Loss, and Poetry (Not Necessarily In That Order)

Weight Loss

In the past couple of years, I have lost just at one hundred pounds.  It wasn't hard once I started to see results; due to a variety of medical issues, seeing results was an arduous process.  However, I finally found a diet that stuck, and that was a lifestyle change!  I just started moving my body more (no easy feat since I was overcoming being wheelchair bound and back surgery amongst other ailments), and the weight began to melt off.  I give you this background so that you will understand the pivotal importance weight has always played in my life.  

Poetry

Below is a poem I wrote on this weighty matter of weight loss, about how women starve themselves to fit the stereotypical "one size" mold that has prevailed for so long in recent years.  I wrote this poem my freshman year of college.  Because I attended Appalachian State University, I did not gain the freshmen 15.  Instead, I lost weight.  I was carrying a heavy book bag up and down mountains, walking so much just to get to class.  And then I fell in love with hiking.  I was always active, and I became a vegetarian hippie who danced a lot.  Why, then, did I write this poem?  Because in high school, I had struggled with my weight--not because I was less active, although I substituted running and soccer for hiking--but because of (gasp!) birth control.  As I entered a phase of better body health, I was simultaneously surrounded by a lot of self-loathing girls with eating disorders, and this poem is a result of that lived experience.  I also feel like it speaks to women everywhere (and men).

 By the way, there is a real life Barbie to this story.  My best friend from freshmen year of high school was so slim, so beautiful, and more than slightly anorexic.  I never felt like I measured up to her.  I always felt like I was so disgusting in comparison with my cottage cheese thighs I talk about.

 I invite you to read this poem, "A Friend of Barbie," below.  Please share it if you find it relevant and/or insightful, and especially if you think it can make a difference in someone's life who is struggling with weight or self image.

A Friend of Barbie

There’s nothing quite like starting

really committing suicide.


At an age when many

advocate for the pleasures,

I, the friend of Barbie,

realize the futile symbolic battles we fight.


I am a woman on the edge

with nothing left to prove.

I don’t want to be scared of a grapefruit,

and I’m craving for a treat.


The little ones, they are embraced

by members of the opposite sex

as dainty, frail, and lovable.

They are full of the giddy joy of being

the smallest slice.


I refuse to be a bird watcher anymore,

and I will not have lettuce guilt.


I’m quite beyond the enormous

as I consider a new vendetta:

breaking free of intravenous tubes.


 Surveying this scene of self-imposed starvation

that is becoming a national trend,I feel the pain of weight.

As our bodies dissipate,

I intone a chant that will perhaps sustain the less resilient.

Women seem strong

but we hoard food

like some kind of junkies.
We feel true hunger

as we undergo a full withdrawal

from nourishment.

Counting caloric intake

helps digest the need to eat.


I’ve spent most of my life

arranging my thigh fat,

and I’ve never slept in the nude.
I’ve had it really lucky:
of some two dozen girls,
three died of starvation.


In that endless human stupidity,

women get caught in the silly lie

that bone skinny is gorgeous

and retraining the size of body parts

is a priority that is emergency.


As we start to nibble,

women should actually unite and try

to escape the pubescent mantra

that one size should fit all

and understand

that the world is a wide

assortment of people.


So, your thighs might look like cottage cheese.

But I, the friend of Barbie,

plead to have cellulite put on Barbie dolls.

We deserve to eat,

and have our pictures taken, too.

Boone, NC                 Fall, 1997                B. Faulkner

Education

Below is a video performance of the poem "A Friend of Barbie" with curriculum connections.  I use this video as a model for my students of how to create videos that adhere to copyright laws for projects such as the digital book trailers I discussed the other day, and of course for the PowerPoint Poetry Slam assignment.

Other Musings

Does this Barbie disgust you? What message would a fat doll send to kids?

Click here to read the article about the controversial ad, above, aimed at reducing childhood obesity.

Weigh in.  Do you think fat people choose to be fat?  

 My boyfriend thinks so; he is of the persuasion that fat people must be sloths; that there are few (if any) legitimate health reasons that cause obesity.

 I do not agree.  I did not choose to be fat before.  I did not miraculously start working harder to get smaller.  I would have done anything (except for develop a serious eating disorder) to have been smaller.  I worked out.  I controlled my diet.  I loathed myself.  None of my accomplishments seemed to matter because I wasn't the person I wanted to be physically.  What changed?  I started drinking water and stopped drinking soda.  From there, my other efforts started to pay off.

Still Bored?

Click here to visit the Fat Barbie Doll Fantasy Fan Club:  really, there's a club for EVERYONE!

Read my first post about weight loss, "Putting Cellulite on Barbie Dolls: The Fat Debate," posted September 7th, 2009, my 14th post on this blog way back when.  At the time, I was struggling with weight loss, and I didn't even know how bad things would get before they got better.  I weighed around 190 at the time; I ballooned to 240 at my heaviest in 2012.  I currently weigh 145.


Before and After: My Weight Loss/Gain/Loss Timeline (The Bounce of the Yo Yo)

Premie Me, Five Pounds, late 70s
Skinny me; I wasn't quite 10

Skinny in High School
Chunky High School, 1995
Skinny in College, 1997

Chunky High School, 1997


Fat in 2010
Living Large in 2010




Slim in 2014

Brave in 2015

Gotta story? Share it here.



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