Friday Fluff: Me and Oprah, and a very amenable beluga.

By | May 27, 2011

Animated gif edited to demonstrate Oprah releasing the bees on her show, and audience members celebrating/weeping in terror.

YAY THANKS OPRAH!

Over on xoJane, I wrote a post about what Oprah and I have in common.

When Oprah tries something new, millions of women will follow, diets included. And yet, if Oprah can’t manage to make herself permanently thin, with all her resources, then what the hell kind of chance do the rest of us have? In 2008 Oprah said she was “embarrassed” by her recent weight gain, and yeah, that’s understandable. This is a woman who can afford to employ a whole bloody team of nutritionists and cooks and trainers and coaches. If anyone can buy self-discipline and success, Oprah can. If anyone can overcome biology or behavior or whatever we think is responsible for making us fat this week, Oprah ought to be the one.

Read it all here.

I’ve mentioned before that I have a Tumblr, whose purpose continues to be hazy and undefined. Well, about a month ago I used it to invent a beluga who boosts your self-esteem and loves you unconditionally, and occasionally gives you thoughtful non-professional advice. Thus far Your Beluga Best Friend has talked about looking different, the challenges of moving into a new stage of life, the longing to be normal, and most recently, the difficulties of coming out, among other subjects.

You can read all the Beluga posts thus far here. The response has been pretty incredible. I suspect this is because it’s easier to accept kindness and advice from an imaginary beluga than from a real person; it speaks to the scared kid inside all of us, I think—those parts of ourselves that want to be reassured that we’re okay, and that we’ll be okay.

If you want to ask the beluga a question, you can do so here. I am also soliciting artwork for Your Beluga Best Friend, as I’m running low on Creative-Commons-licensed photographs. Send your beluga drawings to me at lesley at twowholecakes dot com, along with a link to credit, if you’d like.

Finally, here’s Heavy Impact performing a routine to Lady Gaga’s “LoveGame” on America’s Best Dance Crew, a season or two back. ABDC has a pretty great legacy of featuring dancers of different sizes, and I especially loved these guys.

Hat tip to Jennifer for sending this along and jogging my memory!

Have a marvelous weekend, y’all.


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