Why I Write Fiction With Plus-Sized Heroines

The first (and obvious) reason would be because I myself am a plus-sized woman. The go-to advice for any writer is to write what you know, but for many years I always wrote about the women I used to read about in any of the other books I read. I mimicked Danielle Steel in creating blindingly beautiful women that every man wanted. My first version of "Picture Postcards"* was written in this way way back in 1996, whereupon publishers promptly rejected the work because the character was out of reach for being "too perfect."

I wrote two more romances before I finally decided it was time to write about someone a little more like me, which I did with "Love Plus One." And to be totally honest with you, it was the most fun I ever had writing a romance novel.

What made me sit in the chair initially, however, was that I was hacked off about the typical romance novels I read that glorified the thin, perfect heroine and cast any pudgy girl as the comic relief. If she got any guy it was usually someone who was like her, i.e. overweight and without a lot of options.

Though I loved her while I was a teenager, Danielle Steel was tops of my shit-list when it came to this kind of literary condescension. I can't remember the book but I do remember that she used fat to make a character less sympathetic. I believe it was in a book where she tackled the serious issue of domestic abuse, which of course immediately offended me.

So I decided there weren't enough heroines out there who looked like the typical American woman, and they needed a voice. They needed someone to tell them that even if you don't lose weight to get to a perfect size you can be loved perfectly for who you are.

You don't see this represented in the media. Far too many fashion designers treat the female body as nothing more than a human hanger for their clothes. Curves are vilified. Models run the general gamut of looking like prepubescent boys to underweight, sickly drug addicts.

It's gotten so bad that models who wear a size 6 may be considered "plus-sized." To put that in perspective, according to her dressmaker Marilyn Monroe was 36-23-37. A size 6 at Victoria's Secret is 35.5-27-37.5.

Technically this is still a small according to VS standards, but according to an ABC report a couple of weeks ago that is where many modeling agencies start their plus-size model criteria.

Instead these women the fashion world use to make us buy their product, whom they exalt as the ideal, weigh 23% less than the average women.

This is ridiculous. But yet it's celebrated.



In today's culture Marilyn Monroe would be smeared on the cover of the tabloid magazines; paparazzi would wait in the bushes to get unflattering photos of her backside to sell copies of their rag-mags.

IF she'd even be famous at all.

Things have changed a bit in standards of beauty and sex appeal since Marilyn's generation.



If a woman gains weight, she is subject to scrutiny and her press is generally negative. If a little 13-year-old like X-Factor's Rachel Crow loses 15 pounds she's lauded as a good role model, even though most of her extra weight was that awkward result of how her body was adjusting to adolescence.

This is why young girls are discouraged from dieting because their bodies are still developing. (Teens who diet also fall prey to other behavior problems and eating disorders.)

But in our country the very worst thing you can be is a fat woman.

You see the sob stories on talk shows where they pick that one girl who never got a date because she was too fat (when really that has more to do with an absence of self-esteem, rather than the presence of some extra cellulite.) We watch outrageous competitions like The Biggest Loser riding the sofa to be "inspired" by dramatic weight loss that is medically cautioned against.

Typically you are supposed to lose about 1-2 pounds a week for sustainable weight loss... but it's so bad to be overweight in our country the weight has to come off RIGHT NOW or else you're just a useless pile of blubber that doesn't even count as a whole person.

This results in these sort of fad/crash diets that only make us FATTER. It is by no coincidence that a country that makes billions (with a B) in the diet industry is also one of the most obese in the world.

(Note that the obese person in question in the above photo is - surprise, surprise - a WOMAN.)

Despite the fact that 34% of Americans are obese you can be discriminated against for employment and generally mocked in the media. Even shows like "Mike and Molly," which star plus-sized actors who find love with each other, the main joke of the series is how fat is funny.

It's not funny. Most fat people are burying pain and insecurities in the same way other people abuse other vices (which can include spending themselves into debt or having sex with anything that moves -- provided it's not fat.)

The only difference between any of us with impulse control problems is you can see where we need work. Generally we don't see your bank account or get a bedside view of all your kinky sex habits.

Which is why it's kind of foolish to assume that just because people don't wear their issues on their bodies doesn't meant mean they don't have any.

The fact is anyone who shuns a fat person for being fat, or judges them harshly because of it, has pretty big issues of his or her own. It's as hateful as any other bigotry... and as unfounded. Just because you know I have extra weight doesn't mean you know me.

It doesn't make me lazy. It doesn't make me stupid. Most of all it doesn't make me desperate.

Which is why I got out some aggression in "Love Plus One." If you've ever carried an extra few pounds and other girls turned into catty little jerks because of it... this book is for you.

There's some ugliness going on, but it's not what you may think you look like in the mirror. It's the disdain and condescension you get from others who think you're somehow lesser than because of the size dress you wear.

The only time you become lesser-than is if you believe it. These do not have to be your standards.

And, even more importantly, you can raise your standards in regards to anyone else. If they can't see past your weight to see how much you can contribute, your talents and your skill, your devotion and your dedication, then they don't deserve a place in your life in the first place.

Those are superficial, shallow people who would never see you as a person no matter what you do. If it's not fat it'd be some other little quirk or trait that would prompt them to find yet another reason to stuff you in a box so they don't have to bother with getting to know you AND being responsible for their side of the social contract.

A person who can be bigoted for one reason can be bigoted for any reason, but you can rise above them.

This is the "moral" if you will I addressed in my book. Find your value beyond all that petty, immature behavior and only invest yourself in those willing to do likewise.

I don't always take the self-esteem issue route. In "Groupie" my heroine was proud of her curves and knew how to use them. She understood not every guy would appreciate it but she wasn't about to change herself or make herself feel bad because of the superficial standards of someone else.

Believe me, someone out there will find you attractive even if the society around you tries to make you feel like a failure because you commit the crime of being fat. In my books it's usually more than one guy. In the last 25 years I have been single a grand total of two and a half years. And if I wasn't dating or married (and even if I was) there were those who were interested aside from my spouses.

I didn't let fat stop me. I didn't let it stop me from getting a job, getting a man, having a family, or most importantly... being happy even when the world around me didn't think I had any right to be so. (This included members of my very own family.)

Do people still look at me like I'm a failure? Of course. But I don't live my life to their standards. If I did I would not have raised two AMAZING men to adulthood, been married to two of the most wonderful men on planet Earth and made the life of my dreams a reality.

Maybe I had to work a little harder but it only made me appreciate it more.

And now I can turn all that into stories for other women and girls who wondered, like I did when I was 16, if I would ever find someone to love. The answer is yes. Look in the mirror and start there.

So far the response has been overwhelmingly positive. My two romances, "Love Plus One" and the revamped "Under Texas Skies" are my biggest sellers thus far. It prompted a rewrite of nearly other story so that I can cast dynamic, diverse women of size in roles I previously only reserved for the thin and beautiful because I thought that was what the audience wanted.

What the audience wants is someone genuine they can believe in, and so I leave a little bit of me in every single heroine.

I write fiction with plus-sized heroines because despite what the world around you wants to tell you, you're f!cking perfect. And you deserve a chance to shine.



*"Picture Postcards" is due for a rewrite and release in 2012 as a Rubenesque romance fairytale.
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Published on January 21, 2012 18:21
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