It looks like Eve Ensler is coming out with a new play, and this time she’s not going to be obsessing over her vagina. This time, the fetish has moved six inches up. "
Yes, Ensler’s tummy has been the inspiration for her new 85-minute broadway play, "The Good Body," reported the New York Times yesterday. "It has become my tormentor, my distractor," she laments. "It's my most serious committed relationship. It has protruded through my clothes, my confidence and my ability to work....My stomach, is chicken wings, dipping butter, fried shrimp, fried zucchini, fried ice cream, fried dumplings, fried anything, fried right. My stomach is America.” I would be careful Eve, your vagina might get jealous...
There is a discussion in the article of how there seems to be a fad of shows concerning weight like "The Biggest Loser," where weight-challenged contestants compete to see who loses the most weight, “Fat Actress” on Showtime where Kristie Alley plays an actress struggling with her weight, and "Flab to Fab" from VH1 where peeps follow a weight-loss program inspired by their favorite celebrity. Ugh, when does it end??
What I found interesting was the question posed concerning social beauty standards and being overweight -- is Eve Ensler’s belly subversive to these norms? Is "fat" a feminist issue? I would say yes. But please, let’s not replace the vagina speak to tummy talk.
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i saw "the good body" a couple of months ago with several other women. we all enjoyed it thoroughly and those of us who've struggled with body image issues for a number of years choked up several times during the play. it was really, really good and really, really moving. i'd highly recommend it.
the analogy of the trees and how just because they don't all look alike doesn't make any of them less beautiful than another had me and krista openly weeping. it was really amazing.
xoxo, jared
i'm going to see this with a friend of mine in a couple of weeks...definitely looking forward to it
I think that tummy talk is just as important as vagina speak. I cried throughout the entire play, because of my lifelong struggle with my protruding stomach (which, according to everyone, is all in my imagination but seems huge to me). We need an updated version of "The Beauty Myth," 'cause things have gotten worse since then.
I think fat is a feminist issue, but that maybe feminism hasn't quite come up with the best way to appoarch it.
Besides, FAT! So? and some articles in Bitch, I can't think of any feminist work that deal solely with fat, most if it seems to be concerned with eating disorders. It's not that I don't think anorexia or bulmia don't deserve the attention, but I wonder why so few feminist actually write about the experience of fat women. I haven't seen Ensler's new play, but, she just ISN'T fat, she is an average size woman, so maybe it's not quite fair to say that she is dealing with fat...but then-I haven't seen the play. That being said, I think it's great that she talks about body issues and self esteem. However, I'd like to see more work on why it's so difficult for plus size women(and there are many, many of us) to buy clothes that don't feature wooden jewelery or rhinestones. Why we have to shop at seperate "speciality stores" and on different floors of department stores(usually somewhere close to the kitchen appliances), why it's acceptable for actresses, such as courtney cox, to put on fat suits. I sometimes think that feminist scholarship, by ignorning the experiences of big women, secretly has a hatred of fat and would rather ignore it.
I saw an episode of ET and I was appalled by the woman who wore a fat suit. Her name is Vanessa Manilo. She went down town to stores and rode the subway to see how people would treat her. But when is it okay to wear fat like it is a suit? That is totally stereotyping overweight people to say that they have no reason to live because they are apparently treating badly by people in big department stores. I am overweight and I have never hoped that any skinny girl would put on my suit and tell me what kind of ridicule she goes through now that she isn't "skinny" anymore. Give me a break.