America's First Top Plus-Sized Model
She did it!
Whitney won ANTM last night - making her, as Tyra put it, "The first girl with some booty to win America's Next Top Model."
Paulina scommented (quite nicely), "This [type of body] should not be called 'full-figured' or 'plus-sized.' This should just be called 'beautiful.'
Upon winning, Whitney (a size 10-12 according to the show) said, "...in middle schooll, in high school, [I was ]always being judged and thinking, 'Am I different? Is there something wrong with me?' No! I'm here because I DO feel good about myself and I want other women in America to feel better about themselves. I honestly think that girls will look up to me and say, 'I could do that. I could be that. I don't have to starve. I don't have to have plastic surgey. I can really be like that. I could be on that billboard. I can be in that magazine. Why? Because I'm beautiful fom the inside-out.' I have breasts. I have hips. I have a butt...and I am so proud of those things. I'm here and I'm not going to change myself."
Youuuu better work!
Did you watch?
(If not...I suggest watching at around 1:20.)
And of course, vintage Zoolander. It's in another language, for full effect (OK, I'm exhausted from a three-hour kayaking trip...more on that later...and can barely lift my arms to type anymore....)
23-inch waist? You're too fat to model
Here's a heartwarming story:
Ali Michael, 17, walked all the major catwalks in Paris last year, from Chanel to Karl Lagerfeld. Oh, she also had an eating disorder. Which was encouraged by her employers, she said.
In an effort to get healthy (you know, something simple like regain her period), she put on five pounds with the help of a nutritionist.
Her reward for taking small steps to boost her well-being? Being banned from nearly every runway show this season, and being told her legs were "too fat." (BTW I don't know her thigh measurements but her waist is twenty-freaking-three inches around. That's about the size of my cankles.)
Watch the Today Show segment below...your bonus is that yours truly is the expert!
They actually taped my segment in our home on Monday so what you see in the background is my family room. I did my own hair and makeup and am very proud that I didn't end up looking like this.
A few notes about what's happening in the fashion industry to help stop the insanity, after the jump...
Everyone's talking about my butt!
My day of booty made it on to HuffPo (yay for my before/after pics being broadcast to a bazillion times more people!) and it's getting some great responses. among my favorites:
"Fake booties, huh? So, when a guy lands a bootylicious woman, takes her to bed to bounce on that big rump, and it turns out to be fake, what then?" - Pete
"So happy big bootys are back in style. Good news for us girls who got it. For a few years big ass was out and flat ass was in. Better flaunt it while you can ladies. Next year will big ass will be shameful and we'll be subjected to People's "Celebritys with out of control butts" issue." - sizzla
"Brothers been loving "Big Butts" for centuries, it's just now acceptable in mainstream society. I think those rail thin, skeletal, bone racks, they parade up and down catwalks from France to Italy are disgusting. White, Black, Brown, it doesn't matter, nothing is sexier than a full figured, curvy, thick(in the right places), bootylicious woman. You can keep the Paris Hiltons, and Nicole Richies of the world, I don't want to do anything but give them a damn sandwich." - BigMike75
"Women need to wake up and realize that men are just NOT as obsessed as women are with THEIR bodies. YOU'RE being conned. Most men are put off by skeletal bodies. We're really pretty easy to please and actually PREFER someone who eats now and then. Everyone starving on a diet is always grouchy and too many women are getting all their exercise in the gym." - XRepublican
"Booty booty booty rockin' everywhere!" - ALMJr
"What about men's butts? Nothing is worse than a guy with a flat or flabby ass." - DaphnesDad
And...in a bizarre move, the comments turned racial:
"Tries to have rhythm when they dance... tries to rap or speak slang, takes the influences of urban cities for fashion, tans to look darker, and now fake plump booties...but they don't like black people in America...this mess always leaves me rotflmao.." - Testtubebaby
At least my butt is sparking dialogue and really, that's all I can ask of it.
I have a confession...
I have been eating something truly disgusting, wholly unnatural and definitely not "clean."
Brand: Edy's® Slow Churned® lite ice cream
Flavor: Take the Cake
Description: Yellow cake flavored light ice cream with frosting swirl and multicolored sprinkles.
My unforgiveable sin: It contains an opaque teal swirl not unlike the nasty IHOP WhoCakes syrup. I did not know this swirl was hiding inside the carton when I purchased it a PMS-induced sugar frenzy but I must say, it's seriously disturbing (that I've kept eating the ice cream, I mean.) Don't get me wrong - I've been furiously and diligently digging out the swirl with my spoon and dumping as much infected ice cream in the sink but a few dribbles inevitably wind up in my mouth and I just CRINGE knowing that I am consuming something not found in anyone's nature - not even on Mars. Seriously, the thought goes through my mind, "MizFit would throw up if she knew I was doing this" - and I DON'T EVEN KNOW THE WOMAN! See how we all seep into each other's psyches?
The easy thing would be to throw out the carton but I have a weird, Depression era-esque thing about conserving food so it shall emain in my freezer. Hopefully all the edamamae, frozen chicken breasts and shrimp, whole-grain waffles, Ketel One vidka and other healthy fare in there will intimidate the Edy's into the back of the shelf, where it will remain for weeks, developing blue frostbite and never again infiltrating my mouth.
Confession complete.
Please, please do tell me - what crappy food do you find yourself ating even though you know it's about as natural as Posh Spice?
My day of booty
One week ago today, I woke up to chirping birds and soft sunlight streaming in through our bedroom windows. My husband was curled lovingly around me in a John/Yoko fetal hug and my breath smelled - I swear - like freshly spun cotton candy. It was truly a stunningly beautiful morning.
I stretched by body out, all cat-like and sinewy, rubbed the sparkles from my eyes and made a very fateful decision. "Today," I announced, "is the perfect day to wear my fake butt."
Padded boo-tays are all the rage these days - I had recently heard about Bubbles Bodywear, when a reader left a comment, as well as BootyPop, which counts Kelly Ripa as a fan (Note: Do NOT go to bootypop.com or you may be fired from your job. It's mybootpop.com Those two little letters make a world of difference, trust me - I just pulled up some extremely naughty images in the middle of a kid-infested Starbucks.)
So I wrote to the company and requested back-up reinforcements. An abundance of pink boyshorts arrived, along with separate circular padded inserts. I looked at some before-and-after pics and started to get tres excited.
I know you're all wondering how amazing my butt looked, so here is a self-portrait of my tush pre-Bubbles (and my foray in posting personal photos on the web - watch out Miley, here I come!):
And here I am, after the jump, my badunk-a-dunk firmly in place:
