Balingkinita–NOT: The Plump AND Proud Pinay

By Aby Yap

Main Photo by Rae Miranda; Model: Leslie Fiestan

She’s far from the 33-25-35 slim and dainty physique typically perceived of Asian women. No biggie actually. But in a society which defines beauty with perfectly sculpted cheekbones, a tiny waist and bony limbs, measurements become a biggie – a burden for the full-figured Filipina.

She becomes invisible, if not the target of unwanted attention. She’s “napabayaan sa kusina,” “tabachingching,” and “tabatchoy.” She’s egged on during feasts to get more food because “baka kulang pa.” She can’t go out in sleeveless tops and non-puruntong shorts, or she’ll be compared to “pata tim.”Family and friends joke about her impending due date, often with a warning that she won’t be able to hook a boyfriend or keep a husband. Gym representatives in malls ask her bluntly if she wants to be fit and pretty. Sales staff eye her curiously as she checks out the clothes rack, sometimes apologizing that there’s no size for her in the regular section.

Battle against Bulge

Public school teacher Marnelli Bautista, 31, knows the picture all too well. She started gaining weight way back in college and last year, she reached 217 pounds. People would compliment her pretty face, only to remark “What a waste!” afterwards. While Marinelli says she can level-headedly handle the mockery, either for fun or as an insult, it’s when people blame her weight for “misfortunes” that it gets to her. She explains, “They may not say it out of politeness, but I can feel it especially when they give you the stares and the giggles. Sometimes it can be very hurtful.”

To deal with her insecurity, she decided on a lifestyle change last year. Braving her colleagues’ challenge to be The Biggest Loser in 10 weeks for the prize of PHP20,000, she took meal supplements and enrolled in gym classes. “I spent a fortune to pressure myself to get my act together or my hard-earned money would just go to waste,” reveals Marinelli. The meal supplements alone, which she took religiously for four months, cost PHP1,100 and was good only for 11 days.

It all paid off. She became 24 pounds lighter and performed two belly dance shows for the gym recitals. She also learned to discipline herself: doing daily exercises, watching her diet, checking food labels, and bidding sodas goodbye. She didn’t win the cash, however. But to have earned the respect and admiration of her friends and relatives in the difficult process of losing weight, Marinelli relates, has given her back her self-respect. She adds, “I’ve begun to consider my happiness first and not what others would think of me.”

For 19-year-old twins Danah and Stacy Gutierrez of www.theplumpinay.com, a body-acceptance and appreciation blog that challenges the media’s restricted definition of beauty; fat is just an adjective and shouldn’t hinder plump Pinays from becoming fab.

Openly admitting to having the “fat genes,” both suffered the effects of trying to lose weight in all ways possible during high school. Stacy was diagnosed with Anorexia-Bulimia for seven months, while Danah became obsessed with dieting.

One good thing came out of the experience though. They realized they had to fully accept and appreciate their bodies, and encourage others to do the same. On November 29, 2009, they started the blog www.theplumpinay.com. More than just talk about body acceptance and appreciation, it shows fabulous, plump Filipinas who are confident and much comfortable with their bodies. The twins, students at the University of Asia and the Pacific, also blog about plus size fashion tips and even share their unedited photos, fearlessly revealing their bodies’ imperfections.

The response of their readers from all over the globe is “amazing and overwhelming,” says Stacy. “They often are stumped that we have the boldness and courage to talk about fat without being offended or offensive.”

Their blog, they disclose happily, has over 500 clicks a day and they have nearly a thousand fans on Facebook. They’ve also been featured in various blogs and magazines.

“Women who are like us feel good that finally, they’re being acknowledged,” Stacy remarks on their blog’s success. “It’s a breather for people who’ve been bombarded with fake and much altered images of stick-thin women. What we show is real, and I think that’s what people are craving for nowadays.”

For those who find it hard to accept and appreciate their bodies, she has this advice: “Throw away the magazines. That’s the ultimate source of false beauty ideals.”

Our Fierce Curves

Raisa de Guzman and Berna Cuevas, owners and designers of Erzullie, a plus-size clothing line for women, believe that self-love is key. Their brand is actually the name of the voodoo goddess of self-love, Erzulie. Their advocacy is plus-size women empowerment through fashion.  Both plus-size women themselves, 155 pounds and 175 pounds respectively, they disclose that Erzullie was born out of their own need for moderate to high fashion clothes.

Berna, 24, who wished to be slim then thinking it was sexy, vents her frustration over past shopping experiences, “Most of the fashionable clothes that I wanted only fit regular-size women. In my head, it’s like only regular size women are allowed to be fashionable.”

Raisa on the other hand says, “I’ve always wished that I’d be sexy, whatever the essence of the word is,” she discloses. “I’m pretty sure it’s never determined by body type. It’s the feeling that we give off (from ourselves) to others.”

For the two, size, which used to be a drawback, has now become an outlet for creativity and an opportunity to reach out to other plus-size women.

“But not all these women are insecure about their looks,” argues Berna “More women are now embracing their curves.” Berna declares, “We’re helping other women experience self-love by accepting themselves as plus-size and adorning their beautiful bodies with the right fit of clothes and the proper designs that would enhance their curves more.” The two slam the misconception that plus-size should hide their curves through loose clothing.

Erzullie has steadily gained positive feedback since its launch through social sites online. With a Holiday collection, followed by a daring Resort collection, and retail in Cinderella at Glorietta 3, as well as at the Backstage Store in Serendra and Sueno in Makati, Raisa and Berna have more plans in store for their line. But first on their list will always be the clothing needs of plus-size women, provided at an affordable price.

Berna continues to be overwhelmed when she sees customers, once desperately looking for the right clothes, leave Erzullie in high spirits. “That made me realize how wonderful it is to be a plus-size woman,” she contemplates.

Raisa sums it up, “Only when we start to love ourselves can we become happy with our lives.”

And feel beautiful, balingkinitan or not.

SIDEBAR STORY:

They Put the UMP in PLUMP

For 19-year-old twins Danah and Stacy Gutierrez being chubby fat is just an adjective and shouldn’t hinder plump Pinays from becoming fab. They feel so strongly about this that they put up www.theeplumpinay.com, a body-acceptance and-appreciation blog that challenges the media’s restricted definition of beauty.

Openly admitting to having the fat genes, both felt they were “treated as a minority” and they tried to lose weight during high school in every way possible. However, the results weren’t what they hoped for. Stacy was diagnosed with Anorexia-Bulimia for seven months, while Danah became obsessed with dieting.

“The images that are being hyped are all about thinness and one female body type, which is very slender and petite,” Stacy points out.Danah adds, “fat women were always told subliminally what they can wear and what they can’t.”

One good thing, though, came out of the experience. They realized they had to fully accept and appreciate their bodies, and encourage others to do the same by writing about it.

On their website, theplumpinay, they not only talk about body acceptance and appreciation, they also shows fabulous, plump Filipinas “who are confident and very much comfortable in their bodies,” Danah emphasizes. The twins, students at the University of Asia and the Pacific, also blog about fashion tips for the plus-size and food and restaurant reviews. They even share their unphotoshopped photos, fearlessly and proudly revealing their bodies’ imperfections.

The response of their readers—including Australian, American, Canadian, and European nationals—is “amazing and overwhelming,” says Stacy. “They are often stumped that we have the boldness and courage to talk about FAT without being offended or offensive.”

Their blog, they disclose happily, has over 500 clicks a day and they have nearly a thousand fans on Facebook. They’ve also been featured in various blogs and magazines.

“Women who are like us feel good that finally, they’re being acknowledged,” Stacy remarks on their blog’s success. “It’s a breather for people who’ve been bombarded with fake and very altered images of stick-thin women. What we show is real, and I think that’s what people are craving for nowadays.”

For those who find it hard to accept and appreciate their bodies, she has this advice: “Throw away the magazines. That’s the ultimate source of false beauty ideals.”

Danah also suggests visiting body acceptance and appreciation blogs. “They form a sense of community online, and it’s  going be a lot easier to know that you’re not alone in facing and battling the stereotypes of the media,” she explains.

“Women are definitely made in different shapes and sizes,” Stacy agrees, recalling how discovering plus-size blogs in other countries have helped her in her own struggle. “My eyes are were opened to the bigger and vaster perceptions on beauty.”

“Beauty is colorful;  it is society that makes it monochromatic,” philosophizes Danah.

[ends]