5/5/2006

Role Models

By Laura Moncur @ 5:00 am — Filed under:

Picture via FilmNight.comWhen I was a kid, my two biggest heroes were Nell Carter and Miss Piggy.

Seriously. This isn’t a joke.

My personality is 20% Nell Carter and 30% Miss Piggy. I have a little bit of Jo from the Facts of Life in there, but anything that isn’t me, is probably Nell Carter or Miss Piggy. Both of them were strong and independent women who KNEW they were divas. They knew it with all capital letters. It didn’t matter that Miss Piggy was a pig. She was a diva and she demanded the spotlight every week on the Muppet Show.

Picture via Hamilton/Turner AutographsIt didn’t matter that Nell Carter weighed over 200 pounds. She was the star of Gimme A Break! It should have been called the Nell Carter show, she was such a diva.

Miss Piggy will live as long as Frank Oz can still talk, but Nell Carter died in 2003. She died of heart failure complicated by diabetes and obesity. When the fat acceptance people say that fat doesn’t kill you, I know they’re wrong because we lost Nell Carter far too soon.

For some reason, my childlike mind made the connection between fat and strength. Since Miss Piggy and Nell Carter were such strong women, I assumed that all fat women are strong. When I started losing weight, I felt like I was losing my strength. I’m just as tough today as I was when I weighed 235, but now I can kick your butt and run away fast as lightning if I need too.

I need new role models…

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2 Responses to “Role Models”

  1. vh Says:

    I loved Nell carter and Miss Piggy too when I was a child. I will miss Nell, diabetes runs in my family.

  2. Kim Says:

    I must say, this post and last sentence in particular really got me. Our common love of Miss Piggy aside, I don’t suppose I ever truly associated fat with strength, but looking back at the process of having lost 60 lbs, I really identify with the feeling you mentioned. I’ve been maintaining the loss for a year now and have been surprised at the way I’ve needed to mentally redefine my relationship to the world in so many ways. Adding “strength” to the list hadn’t occurred to me. Very thought-provoking.

    Sounds to me like you’ve got an amazing role model right there in the mirror.

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