If You've Got It, Flaunt It-- If You Don't Got It, Don't Make Me Look At It!

While in Daytona Beach for a conference I could not help but note the bravado of the morbidly obese. The weather was atypically cold, yet a subset of vacationers felt it necessary to defrock to a string bikini and wander the beach sand. In my recollection, beachgoers wearing revealing swimwear was rarely a problem. Chisly guys and women that are puffy in the right places were usually not patently offensive to the eye. Now with the acceptance of the obese body as the norm, going to the beach and people watching might as well be whale watching.

This weekend the bikini-beachworthy were absent and in their place frolicked tubby, white, statues of cottage cheese. I thought they must be from the Michelin-Man Conference at the hotel, but careful scrutiny would reveal that they were just tens of very heavy women oozing out of inadequate 2-piece swimsuits. The strings that held the minimal fabric together cut grooves into the chubby fatness; like a marshmallow tied tightly with fishing string.

This comes from a new unconsciousness about the way today's minimal fashions mesh with our body parts. Sure, I'm a bit gooey around the middle, so this is not an indictment of fatness. Instead, it is the way we choose to conceal the excess body weight, or in this case, proudly display it. My guess is that people are feeling comfortable with their spare tires and saddlebags enough to the point where they like to let it hang out. Women's low-cut jeans are a perfect example. 95% of women wearing these things have significant squazz goooping out the top, and to complete the look they match the pants with cropped top.

Again, I'm no picture of health, but I'm hardly in bad shape for my age. Still, you won't see my dunlop ("the stuff that dun lop over you belt" as it was said in the Fat Albert cartoons) on any beach soon. I'll sit in my muumuu and watch the whales go by.