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A Hymn To Fruitcake And Traditionally Built Women

Nov 04, 2019
by Caroline Miller
Alexcander McCall Smith, Ashley Stewart fashions, body image of black and white American women, Botswana, First Ladies' Detective, Janet Paskin, life in sub-Saharan Africa, Mma Precious Ramotswe, The Ashley Stewart Model, traditionally built women
2 Comments

Courtesy of Rutherford Classics.com

I love sinking into a new book from Alexander McCall’s First Ladies’ Detective series. Set in East Arica’s Botswana, the area around which I lived for two years, I am well acquainted with the rhythms of life in that part of the sub-Saharan desert.  Each new book is like a trip home.  I also know I will be entertained and amused by each adventure in a land where the mantra is, “Don’t worry, be happy.”

Not that life in that part of the world is easy.  It isn’t,  But the sandy veld mixed with the riches from rivers and rain forests dazzles the eye and McCall’s heroine, lady detective Precious Ramotswe, is quick to find meaning in the shadings.  

Mma Ramotswe is a large woman, due in part to her penchant for fruit cake.  But rather than stress between her vanity and her sweet tooth, she chooses to redefine herself.  She is, in her own words, “traditionally built.”   

a Ramotswe came to mind when I read an article about Ashley Stewart, a fashion line for large women, one with a large clientele of African American women who choose to flaunt their plus sizes with a splash of color and style.  Unlike their anorexic blonde, blue-eyed sisters, these women are at peace with their measurements.  “A 2012 Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds that 66 percent of overweight black women say they have high self-esteem compared with 41 percent of average-size or thin white women.” (“The Ashley Stewart Model,” by Janet Paskin, Bloomberg Businessweek, Dec. 26, 2017, pg. 58.)

Like McCall’s lady detective, American black women seem to embrace their traditionally built figures  They have no fear of a mirror and flock to the Ashley Stewart stores to try on fashion after fashion, unlike their white cousins who prefer to shop on the web. (Ibid, pg. 59.)  As one who remarks on the beautify of African women in my upcoming memoir, I have to cheer for the healthy attitude of my black sisters.  If you’ve got it, flaunt it.   (Click)

(First published 6/6/18)

 

 

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2 Comments
  1. Sydney Stevens June 6, 2018 at 4:43 pm Reply
    I love all of Alexander McCall's books! Just read "The Bertie Project" in his 44 Scotland Street series! Such fun!
    • Caroline Miller June 6, 2018 at 5:44 pm Reply
      He as a couple of other series, not as well known as the lady detective series. A prolific writer who seems to have fun at his work. I don't know how he does it all.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published five novels

  • Getting Lost To Find Home
  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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