Digital illustration of a Black fem’s back. They are wearing a lilac bra and underwear. The background is littered with flowers. The text reads, ‘weight is not an indicator of health.’
Going for a “shut up and dance with me” vibe this Friday, except my dress isn’t backless and my sneaks are brand new. The dress is Taking Shape in size XL, the shrug is Autograph in size XL and the sneakers are from Volley’s Pride range.
Can always tell it’s Monday because I look slightly sad and very tired. Today’s whole ensemble is from Taking Shape. I love the paint splash print on the top.
The reason I’ve been buying so much Taking Shape is that they are one of the few plus size clothing suppliers in Australia that aren’t owned by Noni B. Since Autograph and BeMe were acquired by Noni B the quality had dropped and the clothes are just ugly and unflattering. They are just extending their straight sizes (to a whole 22!) rather than designing for fat women. Imagine scrolling through a “plus size” catalogue and then seeing this…
Really going to make plus size women feel good about their bodies and included in the brand.
Loving this bright, cool and comfortable dress from Virtuelle in size XL. The fibre is viscose, which has just a little stretch. One of the best features is the crush design. No ironing, yay! The only thing in unfair about is the sleeve length, I wish they were like 10cm longer.
No photo today because I am feeling ashamed and disgusted about my body this morning. But I thought this is an opportune moment to acknowledge that loving and accepting our bodies is a daily struggle for many of us and it’s ok to occasionally have those negative feelings.
I acknowledge my negative feelings about my body and then I let them go. I then find just one nice thing about my body and replace those negative thoughts and feelings with that positive thought.
So my positive thought for today is my skin looks and feels amazing thanks to a new skin care regimen.
So I hope you all can find at least one thing to live about your body today and remember that self love is a journey.
I love, love, love this print. Reminds me of raindrops. It’s also light, soft and very comfortable. I’ve paired it with a multicolour necklace that kinda reminds me of raindrops. The top and jewels are both from Taking Shape.
Injecting a bit of colour into Monday. It’s going to be a bit warm today so light layers are the way to go. The purple top is a bamboo blend from Taking Shape and the red cover up is from that cute dress ensemble I slayed a few weeks ago. The chunky necklace is also from Taking Shape. Looking forward to showcasing more bright and bold colour over the summer!
“But NORMAL People’s Bodies Didn’t Look Like That!” …right?
Some of you may have seen my post about Baroque artists and their realistic depictions of human bodies as having skin and fat.
I’ve had a lot of negative and frankly fatphobic comments on that post, calling the people in the paintings “fat” and “obese,” mostly along the lines of this:
“It’s because the artists are depicting rich people, who were fat and lazy. Normal people didn’t look like that!”
The idea, of course, is that these artists wouldn’t have ever drawn bodies that looked like those in the Baroque paintings, if they weren’t painting super-rich people that stuffed themselves with food all day.
Supposedly. We’ll see how well that holds up.
Today I was in the library looking at a collection of drawings by Albrecht Dürer, and learned that in the early 1500’s, Dürer tried to put together essentially a “how-to-draw” book, showing how to draw people. His work was controversial, because of his technique of “constructing” figures using rules about proportions. (A quick and easy method of inventing realistically proportioned bodies out of thin air? Cheating!!)
However, in his “constructed” drawings, Dürer had to figure out how to handle the range of variety in bodies, and ended up breaking down how to create a variety of body types in correct proportions.
I’m showing the women, to contrast with the post on Baroque paintings. Here are some of his drawings that I thought y'all should take a look at.
These are a couple of his more “average” women—the one on the left is from his drawing book, and the one on the right is one of his drawings.
Here’s a “strong woman” and “A very strong, stout woman”
This is what he refers to as a “stout woman.”
Here’s where it gets interesting: this is what Albrecht Dürer refers to as a “peasant-type” woman
^That. That’s what a “peasant” body type looks like.
He labeled this one “A peasant woman of 7 head lengths”
in case you missed it: this figure drawing by a guy in the 1500’s is literally labeled as being of a peasant woman! this is what a “peasant woman” body type looks like!
He did draw similar amounts of thinner figures, but they’re not particularly emphasized over the “Strong” and “Stout” figures. Nor is there exactly a “default” figure. He’s just…going over the range of variations that there are?
Here’s another “stout woman,” covered in notes on how to draw the proportions:
now that’s too technical for me to make any sense of but
this was in the 16th century!! This body type was apparently not incredibly rare in the 16th century. This body type was important enough for you to be able to draw, as an artist, in the 16th century to be handled in detail in a 16th century artist’s drawing advice
In conclusion: yes this is just what people look like, yes it’s important to know how to draw fat bodies, even this dude from the early 1500’s is telling you so, Die Mad About It
all of this is from “The complete drawings of Albrecht Dürer” by Walter L. Strauss
So I’m at work right now sitting down on my computer. I have a full draw dedicated to snacks and treats then I realise and look down at how many rolls I am starting to gain and noticed that it’s getting really embarrassing being a fattie now but I enjoy it everyday
