Emma Myles Instagram – I started putting this post together earlier when I heard that Maggie Smith had taken her final bow. I loved her. Very few people could turn the word “fork” into comedy gold but she did. She didn’t just say it. She pronounced every letter like it was a separate syllable. Forcefully. And then she blank stared at SJP until the utensil was put back on the plate. “F-O-R-K”. The First Wives Club was a turning point for me. In my love of Maggie but also in something I didn’t actually think about it until this very moment. I saw that movie in the theater when it came out. I was in middle school. I went with my naturally skinny friend Andrea who had gotten a hotdog. I couldn’t have a hotdog because I wasn’t skinny like her. Not biologically. I had to try to be skinny. Put in the effort. Refuse the hotdog. Take the sugar free red-vines that tasted like cardboard and chemicals. 12 years old and my food willpower was created. I was so good at making the right choices.
Trying to be less or trying to keep myself from being more. Normal. Solidified by what I was seeing on screen; Brenda pasting large bodied women on her fridge to deter her from snacking, all of them comparing their bodies to the younger bodies their husbands left them for, fat free ranch, watching your diet and working out everyday not for health reasons, but to look like you haven’t aged a day in 20 years, finally being happy when you’ve “lightened up, literally” and you get to wear the dress you couldn’t wear earlier in the film. This wasn’t a narrative being pushed. It was a narrative that reflected the truth of what was and is expected of us. Normal. It has never not been totally normal. That’s why I had to write this book. Because it’s not normal. And it high time we stop pretending that it is.
And in case anyone thinks I feel a certain way about this movie, I love it. I’ve seen it over a hundred times because it’s the GOAT and I am obviously neurodivergent. And I’m gonna watch it again tonight for Maggie. I have a recipe for ranch in the book. It’s not fat free. But I do think it’s close to restaurant quality. Here’s to Gunilla Garson Goldberg.
📸 @emiliaghamirzai
Preorder link in bio | Posted on 28/Sep/2024 03:32:11
