The Femmys!

Wow, what a day! I’ve been on the phone with some radio interviews re posing nude for the NO H8 campaign Click Here to see New Idea magazine online and boy, have I ruffled some feathers (again!). There seems to be a debate about whether fat bashing is allowed because you can “do something about it” versus discriminating against someone else for something they may not be able to control. But therein lies the quandry of, if we can and therefore actually “do something about it”, in whose image do we strive to be like? Creating a race of replicas certainly didn’t work for Hitler or the millions of people he shamefully murdered so why would it work now?

Every body is beautiful and every body is different. Why do we all have to look alike? The health issue of obesity aside, what is the right or perfect body to strive for? At what point do we look in the mirror and give ourselves the freedom to be happy or have the right to enjoy our lives freely?

And more importantly, it’s not about being fat or about being skinny, it’s about loving yourself regardless and I will say it again and again until someone else burns their bra and stands beside me in this fight for the right to be treated equally, with respect and dignity, this is NOT about being happy to be FAT, this is about loving and respecting yourself regardless!

People can say what they want. I stand proud having represented REAL women who, no matter what shape or weight they are at any given time, deserve to wake up believing that they are entitled to just as much success and respect as any other human being on earth.

And no matter what people think of what I have done and whether or not my body IS in fact beautiful or whether or not I should share my non size 6 body with the world (yes, a question posed to me), what better day to promote positive self esteem and equality for all body types the day after The Emmys where not one but two bigger girls won for their category? Bulimic actresses all over Hollywood have their hands tied behind their backs and are chowing down on burgers in the hope of being considered for an Emmy next year. Oh my goodness, dare I say it, but is this the rise of the REAL woman?

I’m renaming the Emmys and calling them the Femmys with a long list of real and curvy girls representing the majority of the world’s population and working that red carpet with Va Va Voom, starting with the extremely Curvalicious and proud Sofia Vergara (Target leopard g string and all),

the slightly uncomfortable Christina Hendricks (girl I wish you’d just owned it and said something empowering!)

and Gwyneth Paltrow who we all know doesn’t have a curve on her body but she “represented” by wearing something that made her look like she had, what we call in Australia, a beer gut (the kind of belly that makes men look six months pregnant!).

Melissa Mc Carthy was so so sweet but I’m not quite sure why they had to take away the impact of such a prestigious award with a spoof beauty queen pageant and I have to ask, was I the only person cringing? Why couldn’t she just have been awarded it with the respect her previous peers have been given?

Margo Martindale, whose speech on “Making it in Hollywood” was one of infinte grace and humility. She summed up with, “Some things just take time”. She has an incredible career behind her and would no doubt laugh in the face of the producer who told me to my face that, “Women over 40 in Hollywood are casting mistakes”. And to the long line of talent managers who wouldn’t represent her early in her career because of her weight I am sure she would now say, “Talk to the hand…holding the Emmy!”

Wow! What a great day for women of all shapes and sizes! Talent comes in many forms and maybe for a few days, Hollywood agents may open their doors and their minds to women who can’t just slip underneath the crack in the door but will walk through it, loud and proud and not afraid to let their talent do the talking.

Girls around the world who think they might never make it in acting because they are not a size zero can now believe that they too might one day live the Hollywood dream. It’s a good day for curvy girls today!

Mojo  rising!