Hannah Simone is young, hot, fresh
and by most accounts a talented actress. She is educated, Canadian and
even multi-ethnic. But, of all of the things she is, she is not
thick. At least, that's what she says.
In a recent interview with Glow, a Canadian fashion magazine,
Simone says, "Curvy is just a polite way of saying fat. And I’m
not...Curvy and voluptuous—that one also got dragged through the mud, that poor
word. It really just means a woman with breasts. [But] I’m confident with my
body.”
We tend to agree with Simone. Our culture and the fashion industry
have used terms like big-boned, thick, plus-sized, voluptuous, and even
curvy as synonyms for overweight, heavy and
big. We do it because we believe it is kind and polite and
because we feel like we need to put a spin on someone's weight if we believe
they are too heavy or big.
And, as news of Simone's comments broke, many, many people have come to
her aid and supported her comments--they have said almost in a singular voice,
"why can't women who have curves be called by their most appropriate name:
normal?"
Pardon me, but these are the same people who would want women to
be called simply, "human," or Irish-Americans, or
Italian-Americans, or African-Americans, simply "Americans."
That may be fine for their bland, unrealistic homogeneous world, in which they
want everyone to "fit in," but it's not acceptable for us.
We value differences and diversity. It is what makes us
special. It is what makes us beautiful and unique. Melissa
McCarthy isn't normal. She isn't fat. She's big...and she's
beautiful. Halle Berry isn't normal. She is, by her own
identification, a black woman, and she is beautiful. Christina
Hendricks isn't normal. She has more curves than a professional
baseball pitcher, and she is fabulously beautiful.
You get the point.
We will respect Simone's wishes and not call her thick or curvy.
But, as for us, we prefer to reclaim the term curvy as it accurately
describes what we are, is not a code word for fat, and it is part of us
that makes us beautiful.
