![]() ![]() thick where I should have been thin, more when I should have been less.” This can be read both literally and figuratively and offers a delicious space for rebellion against prescriptions for women (and especially Black women) to take up less space physically (i.e., thin culture) and metaphorically for women to shrink their personalities, their talent, their wit, their words, and their bodies in order to make room for the bigness of men. When I would not or could not shrink, people made sure that I knew I had erred…. ![]() ![]() ![]() In the book’s first essay, “Thick,” McMillan Cottom writes, “I was, like many young women, expected to be small so that boys could expand and white girls could shine. The lens through which I considered thickness was narrow, and Tressie McMillan Cottom was about to teach me there was so much more to being “thick” than just the amount of space your physical frame takes up. Foolishly, I didn’t even think about thick minds, thick personalities, thick topics. I dove into Thick: and Other Essays (The New Press) expecting a body positive paean, an ode to thick bodies. ![]()
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