The Generational Cycle of body shame.
June 15, 2021I went on my first diet when I was sixteen. I gained weight during puberty. My mother had tried to persuade me that it’s normal for women to have a rounded lower belly. But I wanted to lose weight and so we started calorie counting. I acutely remember taking cabbage in vinegar and tuna fish to school for lunch and weighing out my dinners. My mother had been openly called fat by her mother so in many ways I was lucky. But I had grown up surrounded by calorie counting and Bay Watch was popular back then so we all…
I put the Pro in Procrastination.
Good Morning. Here I am, sat at my computer writing a blog. I’ve written a lot of those lately. It’s been fun, some of you have written to tell me how much you’ve enjoyed them. Thank you! I’m so pleased.…
Why am I so het up about my age?
If there is one event in my life for which I fear I may be going to hell, it is the one that I am about to relate to you. It would have been about two years ago, I think.…
On Growing up with Alcoholic Parents. Part 3: Me.
I wasn’t sure if should write this one. It felt like I’d covered a fair amount of it in the other blogs and besides, it’s just a lot of whining isn’t it? But I’ve been doing a lot of whining…
Love is to be found in the Imperfections
A few years ago, I sat in a pub with a male friend while he explained to me his strategy when it came to securing the affections of a girl he was into. It was a long play, quite intricate.…
Madonna or the Whore? I’d rather be a Tart with a Heart.
So I wrote a rather risque blog at the weekend. Under the influence of wine and with the encouragement of an old friend. It was a lot of fun to write and it is very funny, even if I do…
An abysmal time to reach my sexual peak…
It feels like an enormous cosmic joke that women reach their sexual peak in their early thirties and early forties. Like we didn’t have enough to contend with? Like there isn’t a more convenient time for sex than when you’re…
All About Monogamy (for Coyla).
I told a friend I would write this ages ago, along with posting her a book. Apologies are owed, I did neither. The truth is that when I came to write this monolith of a blog, it suddenly seemed much,…
The unlikely connection between feminism and skinny culture.
Skinniness is next to godliness. At least that’s how it seems. It’s not all about sex. I can tell you, with absolute certainty, that not all men like their women thin as rails. Some do, granted. Some don’t. It’s all…
The things I have learned from reaching my ‘target weight’.
Ever since I hit puberty, I’ve been trying to get thinner. I remember going to school with tuna fish and sliced cabbage in vinegar for lunch. I remember carefully weighing my spagetti bolognese and being bitterly disappointed with how tiny…
On being embarrassed by your old work.
I have a friend who’s a comic book artist. A few weeks ago I sent him a message to tell him that my kids were really enjoying one of the books he worked on a few years ago. He told…
