My Reclaim

I'm a Fat Bitch. 

Now before you grimace and gasp let me say this, I do not consider fat to be an adjective with negative connotation; nor do I consider the word "bitch" to be vulgar.

The word fat is merely a description- the same as:  brunette, clumsy, happy, sexy, and vibrant.  You see, I am all of those adjectives as well.  I use all of them to describe myself and I use them proudly.  I am fat, brunette, clumsy, happy, sexy, vibrant, and lovely.

The word "bitch" was first used as a description of a loud, vulgar, independent, and dangerous woman in 1920 during the Suffrage.  "Bitch" was claimed as a synonym for feminist in the 1960s during the equal rights movement and in 1968, Jo Freeman published Bitch Manifesto, a paper demanding that women be treated equally and be allowed to be both, "Women and humans."  In the 1990s the word "bitch" was reclaimed as a word of power, not an insult.  In 1999 Elizabeth Wurtzel published Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women and created her definition of the word...
"I intend to scream, shout, race the engine, call when I feel like it, throw tantrums in Bloomingdale’s if I feel like it and confess intimate details about my life to complete strangers. I intend to do what I want to do and be whom I want to be and answer only to myself: that is, quite simply, the bitch philosophy."


So, in honor of the many feminists before me who reclaimed the word "bitch", I am reclaiming the word fat.  No longer will it be used to degrade, harm, or insult me.  No longer will it cause me to stay in the house, refusing to go out dancing due to body shame or fear of what others might say about a "fat bitch" shakin' what her mama gave her.  I will OWN the word fat,  I will WEAR the word fat, and I will LOVE the word fat. 

I am proud to be fat and I hereby reclaim the word fat.  I believe that my fat self is beautiful, loving, and amazing and even if I was to lose weight, I would still identify with the word fat.  Fat is not negative;  it describes me and I am beautiful.