The Joyful Legacy of the FatGirlsDanceMovement
Cathleen Meredith’s Fat Girls Dance begins with a death. The author’s, specifically. Released posthumously, Fat Girls Dance is a fictionalized version of a real-life movement by the same name. The real Fat Girls Dance became a sensation, gaining traction as people watched themselves be represented on screen through its fabulous women. In my opinion, the book deserves the same acclaim.
Though the author is no longer with us, Fat Girls Dance is not a gloomy read. As the first page states, it’s “not the woeful lament of disconsolate, forgotten fat girls”. Rather, Fat Girls Dance, in all of its hot-pink glory, is a heart-felt, pulse-quickening ode to the power of female friendship and unconditional acceptance.
The book follows an ensemble cast: Faith, Reese, Avery, Liv, and a rotating group of extras, including men Dom, Javi, and Caleb. Put down by society for their fuller figures in the skinny-centric field of dance, the main four assemble Fat Girls Dance to gain notoriety and exhibit their expertise in their craft. Fat Girls Dance, at least in premise, is also an effort to reduce the stigma of fat bodies experiencing joy. The women record themselves dancing choreographed routines, using their experience and passion as dancers to guide them. The experience level varies, and tension eventually bubbles up between the characters. For instance, Faith, an expert dancer and devotee to the art of movement, cast a shadow on newbies like Avery, a heavily pregnant woman seeking liberation through dance. Dedicated greenhorns and hard-ass experts continue to clash as the group nears their first professional competition, trying to retain the soul of their movement while polishing their art enough for measurable reward.
My favorite scene—the one that, to me, captures the soul of the book—is the nude photography scene. To further their growth and connection, the women of Fat Girls Dance challenge themselves to be photographed naked—sans their clothing and even their usual workout wear.
Reese, one of the shyer women of the group, hesitates, even as every other girl frees herself. One by one, to the beat of Cardi B, the women drop their robes. Caught in their fury, in the power of high feminine indulgence, Reese relents.
“Right on the part of the chorus where the horns explode—bam! Robe on the floor. The entire room filled with shouts, screams of joy, and elation.”
The scene is so indicative of the girl power nature of the book. With no distractions in the hearth of female affection, the cruelty of the world is wiped away. Reese can truly be herself, in her mixed identity and in her fatness. There’s no judgement in the vacuum, only dance.
As for the flaws of the novel, which every novel has some, the main issue I noticed was voice inconsistency. Some chapters require flipping back to comprehend who is speaking, instead of knowing that intuitively. Still, as the book went on, voices solidified. Reese became Reese, Avery became Avery, and each girl retained the voice characteristics that made her distinct. They grew with each other, too, softening and hardening as the story demanded it. They butted heads, they swore, they laughed, they jubilated.
And as the book went on, scene by scene, I was enraptured. Fat Girls Dance is a modern, fun, campy tale of turbulent success. The women aren’t perfect; there’s no tokenism to be seen. No single woman is supposed to represent her population entirely: not for being queer, or fat, or Black, or mixed, or pregnant. Each woman is her own contained story with her own, very human, idiosyncrasies.
“You can be whoever the fuck you want, whenever the fuck you want, however the fuck you want.”
Though I may be neither Black, female, nor fat, this book made me laugh and cry. Most of us know what it’s like to be rejected for who we are. Whether it’s for our sexuality, gender identity, skin color, or something else entirely, feeling out of place is universal. Oftentimes many people are left to ask where they belong in the world, and whether other people will love them as they are. Well, Fat Girls Dance is an answer to the age-old search. The book is a framework, a guidepost, and an inspiration for building your own belonging. There’s no need for pulling a chair up to the table of whiteness and thinness when you can construct your own table from scratch.
If you’d like to laugh and cry too, get Fat Girls Dance through Kensington and all of its affiliated sellers.
