Chewing the fat

Featured in

  • Published 20040601
  • ISBN: 9780733314339
  • Extent: 268 pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm)

I HAVE BEEN fascinated by fat ever since I was a pre-teen anorexic. My fascination may have preceded the onset of anorexia, although I don’t remember being particularly worried about getting fat. My father, apparently, was a rare male anorexic when he was young and he would often point out what a strapping girl I was. But to place the weight of my neuroses on him is silly – although it cost me thousands of dollars in therapy before I came to that conclusion.

A late developer, I was interested in girls’ bodies that seemingly changed over night. In the locker rooms at schools, they would parade their new teenage bodies and talk about pads, and boys, and going to the local hops. For some reason the favoured scent was Fabergé Brut. It came in a green container and really stank. I’d scurry like a mouse into the showers when no one was looking, ashamed of my lack of womanly charms.

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

More from author

Trash fish, sand, sea snails

EssayWHY ARE SOME resources sexy and others not? The monumental equipment that accompanies certain forms of major resource extraction helps in the sexiness stakes....

More from this edition

Curing sick hospitals

PolicyONE THING I have learned is that the so-called "health debate" is between insiders – doctors and ministers. Usually it is about hospital budget...

Mind, body and age

MemoirON THE DAY of my birth, Boxing Day, 1921, something seemed wrong in the small rented brick house in the lower-middle-class Sydney suburb of...

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.