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"Raise a glass to mend," scrawls Lady Gaga on a t-shirt she's selling for Valentine's Day, "all the broken hearts of my wrecked up friends." We've heard -- and heaven knows seen -- lots of over-the-top-rawness from this performer lately. But how much is designed to sell t-shirts and how much is actually real?
As beautifully, achingly real as, say, a blogger who calls herself Dearest Fatty. This week Fatty took self-exposure to a new level of raw in an essay she called Fatty faces up to the mirror.
"A wedding should be a happy occasion and you ARE so very happy for the bride and groom, but face it, you are terrified of having to buy a dress, horrified about the limited choices available to you and mortified of how you know you will look in the wedding photos.
"You found a dress..."
Dearest Fatty writes to the most naked self in her essay. With lovely prose she builds the tension between the woman struggling into a dress in a dressing room and a brutally honest internal observer. Forget nudity -- Fatty strips her own emotions down to bare bone, exposing day-to-day coping mechanisms that fail when her body is forced under the glare of dressing-room lights.
"You have no full length mirrors at home, instead you dress with the help of a mirror the size of an A4 piece of paper, that way you can only see one bit at a time...its a system that works for you.
"You undress and can't help but see your whole body in one go.
"Poor Fatty. It must feel like a hermit who hasn't seen his own face for 20 years, on account of living in the mountains in a cave, getting cleaned up and having a shave. Where DID my young face go?"
As Fatty faces the stranger in the mirror and wonders after the self she used to know, she finds room for compassion. Compassion and hope that she shares out loud, using her guest blog on BlogHer.com as a megaphone to comfort herself as loudly and as anonymously as possible: "I love you."
To us that seems the finest use of words -- or a stage. For real courage, Dearest Fatty is our BlogHer of the Week.
Thanks to everyone for continuing to send in your nominated posts. Remember to nominate individual posts, not entire blogs, and keep them coming! If you want to check out all the BlogHer of the Week posts, check out the BlogHer of the Week archive.
Best,
Lisa
For Elisa, Lisa and Jory
BlogHer Co-founders
Lisa Stone BlogHer Co-founder Surfette BlogHer is non-partisan but our bloggers aren't! Follow our coverage of Politics & News.
