Ashley Graham rocked New York Fashion Week
(It is beginning to seem possible)
She didn’t just walk, she didn’t just strut
She rocked; she slayed!
(It is beginning to look possible)
Ashley Graham is a plus- size model.
Yes, yes, I know, I hate the term just as much as you do because really models are just models
(It is beginning to look possible, to seem likely)
She is beautiful; she is confident; she is bold; she is daring; she is fierce; she is healthy and she is a size 16
(It is beginning to seem possible)
Ashley Graham rocked Fashion Week and told me that I could be. That I could exist in beauty in pride in sexiness in voluptuous in allure in attractiveness
in beauty
(It is beginning to look possible)
Her and her fellow models walked that runaway in luscious lingerie, in their fullness, in their perfect “imperfections”, and I thought:
- Perhaps I actually can have a daughter
- Perhaps it’s ok for me to reproduce
- My fat genes are alright
- My daughter will be alright with my fat genes and there is a place for her in this world after all
Those women walked and it began to look possible
It began to seem likely that my daughter will get to be a woman in a world where she won’t have to starve herself; abuse her body; hate her body; harm her soul; shatter her spirit; manipulate her body; spend precious moments of her life fighting her body for its shape, for the beautiful shape which it has chosen to be
It began to seem likely that she might not hate me for condemning her to fat
(It is beginning to seem possible)
It is beginning to seem likely that my daughter, unlike me, will not endure bulimia and self-hate and a lack in confidence; that those things will not be her rite of passage `
that she will be able to confidently occupy space, without shame, embarrassment and self-consciousness; that she will not hide; that she won’t have to shrink her personality to make up for her largeness
That her self-esteem will not be obliterated by the tag, large; that her self-esteem won’t have to reside between small and medium and peak at extra-small
It is beginning to seem possible and it is exciting, and I am particularly excited because it even looks like I may even get to be a woman in that wonderful world.
Writer: Nomfundo Shezi