FatGirl Speaks – Fictional Monologue – The Ballerina
Back in 2006, I took a road trip to interview 42 women in 16 states about their experiences of being fat – from childhood to present day. I had intended this to be stage 1 of a multi-phase plan to interview women all over the planet and then to amalgamate and fictionalize their experiences into a book of monologues for stage performance, not unlike the Vagina Monologues. I was thrown off my path by both a lack of funds to continue and a series of deaths/losses in my social circle. I also lost my aim for a bit because I noticed that the major undercurrent in all the conversations wasn’t necessarily fatness, but shame. I wanted to explore this further, to separate it out, to explore the intersections of shame among all oppressed communities. This, however, is a lifetime task. And in the meantime, there is still the boundless and constantly deepening pressure of Fat Shame.
I woke up this morning remembering how many people talked about being kicked out of ballet class as a kid for being too fat. I was amazed how often it came up. So I decided to try my hand at writing one of those monologues to see how it felt – and to see if I could at least use the information I have to make a start on this project, even if I don’t have at hand what I need to complete it.
I won’t be sharing all of these publicly. But this is the first and it is very clearly a draft. I would love your feedback. Imagine it performed aloud as you are reading it.
– Stacy
——
The Ballerina
Ballet class. 2nd grade. Mama arrives to pick me up and I light up as she enters the room. I want her to see what I’ve been learning. I wave my arms to catch her attention and start dancing on tippy-toes around the room. I’m mostly making it up but I’m pretty sure she doesn’t know that.
Mama pulls a smile that doesn’t make it all the way up to her eyes and turns her back as the teacher catches her elbow. They’re talking with heads bent toward one another. The teacher has an open stance and she keeps pointing at me. Mama has her arms crossed across her body, curled in and frowning. That’s her angry look. I’ve seen it enough to know. I stop dancing.
I wonder if I’ve done something wrong. The teacher keeps waving her hands and Mama won’t look at me. I drop my gaze and turn my little pink shoes in towards one another. I wait.
In a habit that, even at my young age, is already too familiar – I leave myself. I tuck up from my skin and climb into my head. I’m listening to the music and, in my mind, I am twirling and twirling, my arms are curved into perfect shapes and my legs leave trails of glittering light behind me. I am in pink lace with a crown of diamonds in my hair. It’s the court of a beautiful queen and she rapt with delight as I dance for her.
“Let’s go.” Mama says. I drop into the room again as she roughly grabs my hand and pulls me toward the door. “My shoes!” I say “I can’t wear them outside!”
“It doesn’t matter anymore.” she snaps. “You don’t belong here.”
A hot flush of humiliation burns into my cheeks. I pass a group of girls, clustered together near the door. They whisper and giggle and stare, except one. She looks at me with pity. That feels even worse.
I don’t know why it happened yet. As Mama buckles me into the car, I start to cry. She’s storming but she’s not saying anything. I know better than to ask but I can’t help myself. I’m crying too hard to make sense. These are new feelings and I don’t have enough words for them yet. All I manage is a plaintive “Why?” and “What did I do?”
“I told you you were getting fat.” she said “And now you can’t dance. You’re too fat to do ballet. The teacher says you’ll damage your feet and you’re holding the other girls back because you can’t go en pointe like them. GODDAMNIT!” she shouts. She pummels the steering wheel. “All that money, for classes and costumes and driving you here every week. Do you know how much this costs? This was supposed to HELP you lose weight. Do you know how embarrassing it is to have your parenting questioned because your kid won’t stop sneaking cookies in the middle of the night?”
I am horrified. I’ve never seen Mama like this. I look down at my little belly. It pooches out a bit. It’s round. Soft. I know I don’t look like the other girls in class but no one seems to really care. Jasmine can’t go en pointe either because she fell off her bike last month. And teacher won’t even let me try. I know I can do it if she’ll just let me try. I say this to Mama.
“Didn’t you hear me? You’re TOO FAT! You’ll hurt yourself! And your teacher can’t take responsibility for that. Do you understand? She doesn’t want you in class anymore. Not unless you lose weight. And by then you’ll be too far behind and you’ll have to start all over again. I’m not paying for this twice. You can’t dance any more. It’s over.”
The reality sinks in. No more ballet. No tiaras. I will never dance in the court of the queen. A sick, hot feeling fills my stomach. Shame. I am ashamed. Not just ashamed, I am changed by it. I have never before thought to question what my body is and is not capable of. I have never thought of my body as a danger to itself. I’ve never really given much thought to my body at all, except to dress it up in silly clothes and use it to climb trees. I have always been chubby, since the day I was born–but suddenly my own soft belly seems foreign. Alien. I poke it with one finger. It bounces back defiantly. There is something on my body that shouldn’t be there and it’s my fault. I stop crying. I wipe my face and something in me hardens. It’s my own fault. I don’t get to be sad.
These years later, I keep re-living that moment because it’s exactly then that everything changed for me and my body. My mother apologized for yelling at me but she never took back the meaning behind what she said. It could have gone so differently. And that’s the thing that kills me. I was never going to be a ballet star–not because I wasn’t capable but because I really wanted to be a journalist. None of those other girls in my class ended up being Prima Ballerinas either. In fact, there isn’t a single girl who came out of that town that ever amounted to anything on stage — I did the damn research! But that’s not the point.
The point is, those girls, the ones that got to stay, they got to see the proud smiles on their mother’s faces at recitals. They got to wear pink lace and tiaras. They got to be kids. But most importantly, they got to maintain a sense of trust in their bodies. They got to form a relationship with it. They weren’t divorced from it by shame or chased out of it by the unfounded fears of careless adults. Sure, they had pressures as they went along – all of us do – but no one ever told them that they couldn’t be anything they wanted to be with the bodies they had.
But me — my body went from being my favorite playmate to being a constant source of self-loathing. I internalized that fear of “damaging” myself and I stopped being a daredevil, running and climbing trees. I stopped being physical in general and curled up instead with books or music. I loved softball but I never went out for the team both for fear of rejection and the simple belief that I was incapable of being competitive at anything. I lost my skin. I became a big, floating, disembodied head.
It took me until my 20s to even start questioning all those beliefs I had. By that time, all the crash dieting had killed my metabolism and I was realizing that I might just have to deal with being this size indefinitely. Something about the realization that it might never actually change felt freeing. I’d been dragging myself begrudgingly to the gym for months as part of my diet plan and I hated the monotony of it. The boredom of the treadmill and the weightlifting and the stupid rubber ball squats was making me feel homicidal. I liked feeling strong and I liked moving, but this all felt like punishment – over and over and over again – I’d been punishing myself for years and had gotten nothing from it but fatter and less joyful.
Suddenly, I had a thought. I called my best friend and told her to meet me at the fabric store on her lunch break. No questions, I told her. Just be there. I met her at the door holding yards of pink crinoline and elastic. “We are making Tutus,” I said “And then we are going to do some goddamn ballet. Pick your color.” She thought I was insane but she was used to thinking that, so she played along. I called every fat girl I knew and did the same. I was not taking no for an answer. Three weeks later, in the basement of a local church, six fat friends and I started Fantasia Ballet.
We were terrible, but that didn’t matter. We were full of joy. We were grounded in our bodies. We laughed. We wore sparkly tiaras. We recaptured ourselves and that feeling of joy in our skin. We even started performing recitals for friends and family. Every time we had a recital, the number of attendees grew. Not only were we becoming better dancers, our joy was palpable. And we still meet every Thursday.
Even now, some days I still have to remind myself to climb down that long, winding staircase from my mind into my flesh. I am angry that it took me 20 years to undo the damage done in one afternoon. I am angry that the narrow-mindedness of this ridiculous consumer culture stripped me away from my body for so long. But I embody living proof that it is never too late to take yourself back.
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April 1, 2019 at 8:37 am
Faye Allen
Thank you for this powerful piece. It brought me to tears. I’m stepping back into the acting arena after a 35 absence (college, marriage, kids, 30 year teaching career…) and would like permission to use your work in my acting classes. I’ll give you full credit, of course! Thanks ahead, Faye Allen
January 6, 2015 at 1:18 pm
kallea
this is so powerful i am doing a monologue for school is it ok that i use this ? thanks
January 7, 2015 at 6:33 am
Stacy Bias
Feel free! Let me know how it goes!
April 18, 2014 at 7:51 am
Abby
Hey, I am absolutely in love with this. It’s an accurate depiction of the abuse all too many people go through. Is it also alright if I use this and maybe cut it down some ? You get full recognition.
April 18, 2014 at 10:38 am
Stacy Bias
Hi Abby – I’m glad you like it. Can you clarify your intended use? I generally don’t have any trouble with folks performing it but I do like to understand the context before I grant permissions. Thanks!
April 19, 2014 at 12:07 pm
Abby
I’d probably use it at least for practicing, and maybe in an audition or two at some point. I wouldn’t use it in anything too big.
April 28, 2013 at 12:30 am
808bbw
Oops… Found a typo in my comment.
Stacy Bias, I will give you recognition for ‘your’ work, not our work.
April 28, 2013 at 12:07 am
808bbw
Awesome!!! I love your monologue. Very moving and brought tears to my eyes.
As a big girl, I related and felt your pain. I appreciate how you embraced your body size and didn’t let it stop you from pursuing your dream of wearing pink lace and a tiara.
It’s unfortunate that “The Well Rounded Mama” was tossed out of yoga class. I’ve been a yogi for ten years. Sometimes a new girl will look at me like I don’t belong there. But I don’t let them intimidate me. I show them that we big girls are strong and can do camel, updog and warrior 3 as good as, or better, then they can.
Stacy Bias,I’m working on a Monodrama project for Toastmasters International. Can I get permission to use your monologue? I will give you recognition for our work.
April 28, 2013 at 12:28 am
808bbw
Oops… found a typo in my comment.
Stacy Bias, I will give you recognition for your work, not ‘our’ work.
April 28, 2013 at 6:55 am
Stacy Bias
Hi — thanks for your kind words. You’re welcome to use the monologue. Let me know how it goes? :)
December 7, 2012 at 11:09 am
Heather the Magnificent
Thank you. With your permission, I would love to actually do this as a monologue for an audition at my college. It speaks to me in every way and I have been dying to found an actual monologue that relates to ME.
December 7, 2012 at 2:26 pm
Stacy Bias
Hi Heather. By all means, do go ahead. I’m glad it resonates. Good luck with your audition! Let me know how it goes?
February 27, 2013 at 3:05 am
Heather the Magnificent
My audition went very well! Thank you for asking!
I am thinking of using this monologue again for a dance piece that I’m going to choreograph at the dance showcase at my college. I really want to do a piece that speaks for women of ALL body types that we are meant to express ourselves regardless of our body size. Could I ask for your permission again to use this monologue for my dance piece? Of course, I will give recognition to your monologue in my showcase :) Your monologue has really inspired me and I hope I can use it to inspire other women!
February 27, 2013 at 10:02 am
Stacy Bias
That’s awesome! I’m so glad your audition went well. And I’m so excited you want to do a dance performance with the monologue. Yes, by all means, go ahead! Do let me know how it goes and if there’s a video of it, please send! Yay!
February 27, 2013 at 3:39 pm
Heather the Magnificent
If I can get someone to record, I will send you the link! Do you want to be recognized as “Stacy Bias” for your monologue? Email me privately (if you wish) if you have another name you would like me to use so I can give the appropriate recognition. Our performance isn’t until May 9-10, I have plenty of time to work out some ideas!
February 28, 2013 at 10:05 am
Stacy Bias
Stacy Bias is fine. Thanks, Heather. I’m excited to see what you come up with if possible – if not, just come back and describe it to me. ;)
Pingback: I always wanted to be a (fat) ballerina | I AM in shape. ROUND is a shape.
January 5, 2012 at 6:25 pm
April D
I LOVE this. I have tears in my eyes writing this. This was incredibly powerful. I too wanted to know just a snippet more about the “cookies” thing and where that was leading. Otherwise I could very much see these characters in front of me; particularly with the simple but rather descriptive language around the beginning with the young girl turning her feet in and her mind away. I would definitely look forward to reading more of these!!!
I ALWAYS wanted to be a ballerina and while I don’t have a particularly crystal clear moment such as the one described here which informed me that I didn’t get to go because I was fat; I definitely knew that was one of the very big reasons. It took so long for me to break out of the hiding and dance with the body I HAVE rather than waiting to joyfully move until I “Looked Right”.
December 10, 2011 at 9:22 pm
DeAun
Thank you.
November 19, 2011 at 2:25 pm
Susie Kline
I love this post! I hate that ballet teacher!
xo Susie
November 18, 2011 at 9:59 pm
AnotherFatPrincess
wow…. this was heartbreaking to read… I would simply LOVE to see more of these accounts. This was very moving.
I was also a dancer as a young child, and blood good at it let me tell you. I never got told I was too far (I’m not sure I was back then) but I do remember being told that I didn’t have dancers feet, and that it was a miracle I could dance as well as i could. I have hated my feet since that day – and feet in general – I feel like my feet are huge unnatural barges on the ends of my legs, fat and masculine, not petite and feminine like they are “supposed to be”.
xx
Thank you for sharing.
November 18, 2011 at 9:56 pm
Jayne
I almost got kicked out of a rafting trip to Siberia for being fat – my boss at the time expressed the concern that I wouldn’t be a good representation of the American outdoorsperson. That one hurt for a long time.
November 17, 2011 at 8:31 pm
The Well-Rounded Mama
EXCELLENT. A very very powerful piece. I applaud your project and will be very very interested to see and hear more about it, especially as a fellow performer.
I did dance for a little while as a little girl and never got told I was too fat, but then perhaps I wasn’t there long enough. I just didn’t like ballet and tap that well. I switched to folk dancing and square dancing and body size was never an issue there. But I can surely imagine just how DEVASTATING this would have been. And then not to have your mother be supportive….! Ugh.
As for what it needs….when I read it, I wondered if she really was sneaking cookies in the night or if that was just something her mother assumed she was doing. I wanted that addressed somewhere in the piece. Did she have an eating disorder, was she just responding to stringent diet restrictions, or was she not sneaking food at all and her mom just assumed she was? I really wanted that addressed and not just leave that idea hanging. I also would eliminate the line “did the damn research” and either cut it or switch it to “I checked” or something like that. It was alienating (at least to me) in the middle of another direction my feelings were going at that moment. But YMMV.
Otherwise I like the structure of the piece. First you tell a visceral story, starting with her joy in movement and then the loss this little girl feels as her dream is shattered and the shame as she absorbs her mother’s blame; then you tell how it impacted her relationship with her body, then finish with the story of her empowerment at the end so it ends upbeat. Great story arc. *Nicely done.*
I didn’t get tossed out of dance class for being fat, but basically it happened to me with yoga class…as an adult. Certainly doesn’t feel good and it’s very humiliating. Can’t imagine how it would feel as a little girl, and with your mother yelling at you and blaming you about it to boot.
Please continue this work and keep us apprised about it. Good stuff, and I could certainly see it becoming a very powerful performance piece as well. Kudos.
November 18, 2011 at 1:55 am
Stacy Bias
To Well-Rounded Mama — Thank you for your feedback! Absolutely agree re: the sneaking of food bit. Thanks for pointing it out. I’ll offer up some clarity there. And wow – I can’t imagine being tossed out of a class as an adult. What a terrible yoga teacher! I hope you found something better.
November 17, 2011 at 4:06 pm
Anna
This is awesome. Thank you.
November 17, 2011 at 3:52 pm
Cheryl Fuller
Your description is breathtaking and I so hope you continue with this project.
I wrote about my own ballet failure in my blog, No Fat Allowed
November 17, 2011 at 2:15 pm
Renee Bianchi
These words, this story caused such a physical reaction in my heart and head. Tears what won’t quite fall, breath that won’t quite exhale, a tight ball of pain in my chest where my heart lives. Want to sob for my self, for you, for all the different ones. The aches of childhood never leave. They don’t. I am 62 years old and they are right there, just below the surface. This is a viscerally painful piece and I thank you for it.
November 17, 2011 at 11:23 am
Emerald
This is heartbreaking to read. I have a slightly different story, but basically a pretty similar experience. I’m forty-three, and I’d take up ballet again in a heartbeat if I didn’t fear the same thing happening again. Knowing that someone’s fighting for all those kids who were bullied out of doing something they truly loved (a crime which, I always think, deserves its own special circle of hell) is something that could tip the balance just a little further from fear back towards love. Thank you for this.
November 17, 2011 at 9:00 am
Sjstyle
You are an exceptional inspiration to us all. Parents take note. Love without condition. Children remember your parents are people too and make mistakes. It is up to you to creative the life you want to experience! So happy your doing that! Welcome Back!!!
November 17, 2011 at 8:00 am
Krista
As somebody who was kicked out of her dance studio for being too fat, this beautiful writing speaks to me on profound levels. It brings back hard memories, but also reminds me of how far I have come from that dejected little girl so long ago. The fact that at thirty six I now teach dance to other people and get paid to strip….still as fat as fat can be is the best revenge that I can think of. Love to all the beautiful fat ballerinas and tap dancers all over the world. xoxo
November 17, 2011 at 8:55 am
Stacy Bias
Oh, Krista – that’s amazing! I’m so glad you turned that around for yourself (and for others!) in such a profound way. Congratulations!!
November 17, 2011 at 6:09 am
erylin
i love this. thank you.