Heather MacAllistar is one of my heroes.  She was the Artistic Director of The Original Fat-Bottom Revue.  She was at the forefront of the Fat Acceptance movement, and sadly she passed away of Ovarian Cancer four years ago today.  I never got to see her perform live, but her story is so inspiring and instrumental to how I feel about being sexy at any size.

Heather said:

Any time there is a fat person onstage as anything besides the butt of a joke, it’s political.  Add physical movement, then dance, then sexuality, and you have a revolutionary act.

This picture was shot by Mr. Spock, himself, Leonard Nimoy.  A few years back, Mr. Nimoy created The Full Body Project, where he photographed Heather and her burlesque troupe.  As part of his artistic statement Mr. Nimoy says:

These women are projecting an image that is their own. And one that also stems from their own story rather than mine. Their self-esteem is strong. One of them has a degree in anthropology and will tell you that ideas of beauty and sexuality are “culture bound”—that these ideas are not universal or fixed, and that they vary and fluctuate depending on place and time. They will tell you that too many people suffer because the body they live in is not the body you find in the fashion magazines.

The most important part of this statement is, “Their self-esteem is strong.” What American society does is stigmatize fat people.  This begins at a very early age.  One stigmatizes to elevate one’s own status.  It makes one feel better to put others down.  What this movement is about is empowerment.  It shows the rest of the world that we’re here, we are a part of society – not its pariahs – and you better get use to it.