Beth Ditto was there all along, I just wasn’t ready to let her in.

July 24, 2019 7:08 AM

A love letter to Beth Ditto
posted by mippy (4 comments total)

Thank you! I relate to this so much. I was also 17 in 2007, learning about Beth Ditto from the cover of a Bust magazine in my school library. It meant everything to see a fat woman doing, well, anything that wasn't being the butt of a joke or worrying about losing weight. My other friend who was fat was scared of her and "just didn't like her" for some reason. It was obvious why. Beth wasn't trying to do what my friend still bought into, what I was starting to question: that being fat is the number one thing we need to change about ourselves before we can do anything in our young lives. My friend and I both got there, we sing to Lizzo together now. We're both still fat and recovering from the trauma and disordered eating that diet culture and well-meaning adults encouraged in us. It's an incomplete journey that Beth helped me on. Also, the music was good.
posted by wellifyouinsist at 7:50 AM on July 24, 2019 [6 favorites]

This is a really wonderful piece of writing
posted by Maaik at 12:10 PM on July 24, 2019

Thank you for posting this!

I had a copy of 'That's not What I Heard' in my suitcase when I went to college and then tried to make everyone else listen to it as much as possible (movement was out by then but I didn't have a copy). Sorry to say I was annoying enough about it that my roommate and I ended up having an entire music subsection to our roommate contract (she mostly listened to clear channel stations/soft rock).

Just the idea of being fat and queer and proud of it seemed more revolutionary than anything else going on at the time.
posted by dinty_moore at 3:23 PM on July 24, 2019 [2 favorites]

This was fantastic, thank you for posting!
posted by ellieBOA at 4:54 AM on July 29, 2019