I’ve never in my life bought a copy of “Cosmopolitan,” though I did see the Harvard Lampoon’s send-up of the magazine, which is hilarious (and can still be purchased on Amazon).
I might have been tempted to pick up a copy of the current edition of “Cosmo” to check out the cover story, which I find frankly mystifying. However, I managed to locate what I presume to be that story online, and after reading the title — “What Good Sex Really Means to Body-Positive Model Tess Holliday” — I decided to pass. (Forgive me if I’m shirking my responsibility as a reporter, but I don’t want to know what good sex really means to means to Tess Holliday or any other “body-positive” model.)
Body-positive, for those not in on the “fat acceptance” movement, means fat — really fat — but OK with it. Well, kind of. Whenever fat women strut their stuff in public, there’s always an undercurrent of anger. In the case of “plus-size model” Anna O’Brien, who posed in New York’s Times Square in July in the teensiest of bikinis, she confessed — again in an article in “Cosmo” — to being disappointed that the “fat-shamers” didn’t turn out. The weirdos did turn out, but that wasn’t what she was after.
It’s not what Tess Holliday is after either. The teaser to her article, which is visible in the cover photo above, says that she “wants the haters to kiss her ass” — and not in the literal sense. She wants the world to know (believe?) that she is happy with her rotundity, but her “happiness” is tinged with bellicosity.
My first glimpse of the cover was via a promotional tweet by Holliday herself that is intended to celebrate fat liberation. But the tweet also reveals something somber, almost melancholy. She writes, “If I saw a body like mine on this magazine when I was a young girl, it would have changed my life.” One can only wonder in what way. Would she have become fatter? Angrier?
The answers to those questions may lie in the article I linked to above, though something tells me that, if they are, they can only be found by reading between the lines.
Phew, I’m literally a COSMO GIRL!! Can’t believe I’m saying that! ????????
Thank you @CosmopolitanUK for this incredible opportunity ???????? If I saw a body like mine on this magazine when I was a young girl, it would have changed my life ????
Issue hits stands 8/31! ???????????????? pic.twitter.com/sBYWY7nEwZ— Tess Holliday ???? (@Tess_Holliday) August 29, 2018
