And then, I read the letter “to his body” which accompanies the photo. It’s difficult, especially when you’ve struggled with your weight all your life, like me, not to be touched by the truth of your words. “There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t think about how my body looks. From my cocoon. From my outer envelope. Each. Fucking. Day.”
Why show it? “I love exposing this body,” she wrote. “Not to be cheered. Nor so that we like but to normalize it. To prove to him that he has his place in this complex universe. Disturbing. Too often criticized.”
Normalizing imperfect bodies, the bodies that most human beings have, is indeed a noble task. Perfect bodies are rare: that’s why Photoshop was invented. To smooth out the roughness, make the waists smaller, make the double chin disappear (my obsession), cut into the bingo fat of aged arms sucked down by cursed gravity, in short, make us all identical, all thin, muscular where it is. you have to, lean where it’s better, the texture of your skin very firm and your mind at peace. For a few more years.
No, Mariana Mazza’s gesture is not gratuitous. This is the epitome of strength in vulnerability. With a lucidity that is both violent and benevolent. With a punch in the face of those who judge – let’s be serious, we all do it – these bodies that nature has given us for life.
You can lose weight, or gain weight if you find yourself too thin. Using a scalpel or laser to correct imperfections that are often invisible to others but our original body is imprinted in our minds. Fat people – let’s not be afraid of the word – who lose weight often continue to buy clothes that have become too big for them, unable to see themselves as they have become.
Yes, the body is also a state of mind and this is what Mariana Mazza makes us understand.
But is there a limit to accepting yourself? Are obese people, like the singer Lizzo, sinning by preaching self-acceptance even when extreme overweight undermines health and endangers life? No, say the expertsfat studies» (there is no French translation for this “academic” term) which are taught in certain North American universities and which go so far as to associate weight, racism and colonialism. Any criticism of weight would be unhealthy, they say, going so far as to compare the fight for LGBTQ rights to the fight against fatphobia, discrimination against marginalized bodies. Acceptance of weight, whatever it may be, has become a topic “woke“. Some even go so far as to compare weight loss and eugenics, this dangerous pseudoscience which aims to improve the human race.
Mariana Mazza is not morbidly obese. She is, let’s say, enveloped, luscious. She does not promote “big infinities” (the English expression infinifat describes in university language those wearing size 34 and over). I don’t know her opinion on the subject, but I am certain that she speaks first of all on behalf of the majority of human beings, poor little – or big – imperfect creatures that we are.
For my part, I believe that the body acceptance movement goes too far. Morbid obesity, the real one, is a serious pathology. We don’t say morbid for nothing. And not only. It is also an obstacle to daily personal hygiene, mobility and physical and mental well-being. Permanent discomfort. Real suffering.
Journalist and author Geneviève St-Germain once wrote “I don’t know any fat people who are happy.”
I remember being strongly shaken by his words, because at the time I was going through a phase of happy and blissful acceptance of my body. But I think she was right.
About her body, Mariana Mazza writes: “Some days it annoys me. Other days, he looks at me with his naughty look. Worse even if it resonates too loudly sometimes. This is the one that was lent to me for my years of life. I have a limited contract with him. And one day he will be buried with everyone else. It will end up in the same place. But for now it exists.”
Mariana Mazza does not promise anything: she notes and invites us to make a big f…you to those whose sight of an imperfect body drives them crazy.
Thank you for this existential reminder.
