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jimhines, Jim Hines is running essays on diversity. One was about a young lady who never saw herself in SF/F because she was overweight. Fat girls not allowed in space or on the unicorns.
It got me thinking.
I grew up thin. I was tall and curvy but thin.
I don't come from the same place she does.
However, I was tall. Like towering tall. Like back row of every picture tall, a head taller than my classmates, "You're so big, what grade did you fail?" tall.
Five pregnancies, a sedentary life, and a minimal food budget (heavy on pasta and rice) have resulted in the picture in my icon. I'm not thin now.
I'm 6' and 300+ lbs of intimidating Mother Trucker. (even if I am doing merchandising work)
I don't know what it's like to try on my boyfriend's jacket and be swallowed by it. I don't know what it's like to have everyone in the room be the same size as me, or up to a foot taller. I've very seldom been carried.
And I was never the Princess.
Being the princess was for petite girls, pretty girls, girls who weren't able to look over their rescuers' heads and shoot the bad guys, girls who could be picked up and carried.
When I write female characters, I come at it from my perspective. They tend to be taller than average. I don't write five-foot nothing wisps. They tend to be broad and strong. DJ Admire is taller than most women, and plain. Yolanda in the trucking series of shorts is a larger lady. Several of the women in Adventuresses come in large size. Only Carla in Fruits of Thine is explicitly fat.
I'm working on a story where the lead female is ordinary sized. It's awkward, remembering she is shorter than the men around her, that she can't just loom and bark and intimidate like DJ can. And her female lover is a little bit of a thing, but all temper and strength and power. She may come up to their shoulder, but she scares the daylights out of the men around her.
I was going somewhere with this and totally lost track.
Let's call it To be continued.
jimhines, Jim Hines is running essays on diversity. One was about a young lady who never saw herself in SF/F because she was overweight. Fat girls not allowed in space or on the unicorns. It got me thinking.
I grew up thin. I was tall and curvy but thin.
I don't come from the same place she does.
However, I was tall. Like towering tall. Like back row of every picture tall, a head taller than my classmates, "You're so big, what grade did you fail?" tall.
Five pregnancies, a sedentary life, and a minimal food budget (heavy on pasta and rice) have resulted in the picture in my icon. I'm not thin now.
I'm 6' and 300+ lbs of intimidating Mother Trucker. (even if I am doing merchandising work)
I don't know what it's like to try on my boyfriend's jacket and be swallowed by it. I don't know what it's like to have everyone in the room be the same size as me, or up to a foot taller. I've very seldom been carried.
And I was never the Princess.
Being the princess was for petite girls, pretty girls, girls who weren't able to look over their rescuers' heads and shoot the bad guys, girls who could be picked up and carried.
When I write female characters, I come at it from my perspective. They tend to be taller than average. I don't write five-foot nothing wisps. They tend to be broad and strong. DJ Admire is taller than most women, and plain. Yolanda in the trucking series of shorts is a larger lady. Several of the women in Adventuresses come in large size. Only Carla in Fruits of Thine is explicitly fat.
I'm working on a story where the lead female is ordinary sized. It's awkward, remembering she is shorter than the men around her, that she can't just loom and bark and intimidate like DJ can. And her female lover is a little bit of a thing, but all temper and strength and power. She may come up to their shoulder, but she scares the daylights out of the men around her.
I was going somewhere with this and totally lost track.
Let's call it To be continued.
