Posts Tagged ‘Beauty & Body Image’

On Being Invisible and Drop Dead Diva

Monday, July 6th, 2009

I have heard some talk about my new show “Drop Dead Diva.” People are concerned that we are making fun of fat people or that it is a show about fat jokes or something ridiculous like that. I want to reach out and assure our potential audience that I would never condone or be involved with a project like that. The reason I took the job in the first place was because it dealt with issues of body image with such respect and grace. I have been affected negatively by ‘fat jokes’ and the status quo of women’s bodies for as long as I can remember. I almost killed myself dieting, once in my early twenties, after being told by network executives that my ‘face was too full’ to play the role of myself on my first television show, “All American Girl.” All I wanted to be was thin enough to – well, play myself! I didn’t eat for weeks and exercised day and night and wound up in the hospital. My TV show was eventually canceled – and replaced by Drew Carey’s show – you know, because he is so thin.



“Drop Dead Diva” is a show about us. For those of us who struggle to be visible. I never lived up to the thin, blonde beauty queen ideal – the image I saw in magazines and movies and television. Because of this, I always felt invisible. “Drop Dead Diva” is about learning to become visible. Through the character Jane Bingum, played masterfully and eloquently by Brooke Elliott, we triumph because we see her beauty, we share her beauty, we show everyone her beauty. Sometimes when I have a break in a scene, I will go behind the camera and watch Brooke on the monitors, and I want to cry because she always wins, she always shines. She makes me feel like I exist. And she is beautiful. Save your judgments until you watch our show. Do it for yourself and all the young girls out there who feel like they don’t exist because they are not a size 0.



More from Atlanta…

Friday, May 8th, 2009

Access Hollywood Interviews with me and Rosie about “Drop Dead Diva:”







Liberate the Vagina Show

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

There are few things I hate more than ignorance and one of them is overly cold air conditioning during the winter. I am one of those people who is always cold. I am freezing all the time. My hands and feet are like blocks of ice and during the winter I am always completely bundled up head to toe. I think I must be part lizard or something because when it is cold outside, I am practically incapacitated. I need to stay on a hot rock or something until spring comes.



My hates collided when I did an episode of the TV show, The Doctors. I was asked to host the show because of my extensive interest in/knowledge of the vagina. I think it’s very exciting for a mainstream TV show like this to want to do an entire episode based on the vagina and to ask someone like me, a real ‘expert’ on the subject, to play co-host. It was really pretty fun, except for the fact that it was totally freezing outside and the air conditioning inside was cranked up as high as it could go. Everyone was cold! I was so cold that I got a temperature migraine on one side of my head. If you watch the trailer, you can see even though it was cold, I still managed to get some zingers in.





You can imagine how disappointed I was to hear that the show was never aired because the powers that be at the networks thought that it was too racy! That is ludicrous and ignorant and perpetuates the ‘mystery’ of the vagina! How are we supposed to learn about our bodies if we aren’t even allowed to discuss them in detail? The show was set up so that women could talk to each other frankly about what is going on down there, and if we aren’t able to bring up the subject even in a medical context, when can we bring it up? I think it is a great disservice to women to silence us when we attempt to share truths about our bodies.



Are we supposed to believe that our bodies are somehow wrong and dirty and bad because we are female? This kind of thinking is archaic and misogynist. I expect better from the world, and certainly more from television. Turn the a/c off and turn your minds on!



My Own Body

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

I make a big deal about showing off my physique whenever I can because I think it is important for people to know what a 39 year old woman looks like. I don’t see that many images of women like myself out there, so I want to be a good example. Whenever I can, I put on a bikini or even just pasties and a g-string because I don’t want to hide out. I think that too many people have body issues, and if we just confront those issues head on, we can get rid of them.



For years I kept myself covered up because when I was doing TV a very long time ago, one of the executives I was working with said after my first screen test, “Never, ever show your stomach in public again,” and it just made me feel so freaked out by my own body. I just wanted to disappear. It sent me into a dieting frenzy that was almost deadly.



Now that I am older and wiser, I just want to enjoy my life, and not worry so much about what people think of me, how I look, if I am too fat or something – I just don’t give a shit.



Donut Pussy

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

I had a new procedure called the “G-Shot,” which is kind of like plastic surgery, kind of a body modification – but you don’t see it. It is on the inside. It isn’t something I would necessarily normally do, because I am very happy with my vagina the way it is. It is one of the finest in the world, and really needs little embellishment. It has served me well for many years and there are lots of miles left on it.



I got the G-shot as part of my new VH1 show, “The Cho Show,” which I am filming right now and it is so fucking awesome you are going to just scream when you see it – I am so excited! Anyway, the G-Shot is an injection of collagen into your G-Spot that is supposed to enhance any kind of stimulation there. It is for women who have limited sensation in their vagina, which is me. My puss is more clitoral than vaginal. I am more into the outside than the inside. I am more about display than content. Whenever I go to a party, I tend to hang out on the steps rather than in the house and I never go into the backyard. And to keep the party analogy going, I don’t even have a G-Spot, per say, one place where the party is all centered, but there are lots of smaller events happening all over the area. Mine isn’t a G-Spot. More like a G-Block Party. My pussy is a lot like Coachella. There are a lot of bands hanging around waiting to play.



So I got it done at a fancy Beverly Hills gyno office and it was somewhat uncomfortable. First the G-Spot must be located. The poor doctor had to poke around in there for a long time, and it reminded me of this one guy who was looking for it many years ago, all thumbs in there going “Where’s your spot? Where’s your spot?” It didn’t feel good and I was like, “uh, I usually park on the street.” The doctor came upon an area that felt more sensitive than the other areas (more partying going on there than elsewhere) so she shot up that region with an anesthetic – which was painful!! I needed anesthesia for my anesthesia! It was so prickly and hurting that she had to shoot me up twice with the numbing agent. Then they got the big needle out, which I didn’t feel but looked so scarily long that I thought the end might poke out through my back! OW!!!!



So since then, I haven’t felt any sexual enhancement at all. If anything it makes me not want to do it, which is incredible because I always want to do it – so it doesn’t work as any kind of aphrodisiac, but would be a good punishment for sex offenders. Now my vagina just feels like there is a gel insole in there. Like my cervix is wearing boot socks. I am totally asexual and I feel like I am sitting on a hemorrhoid donut all the time. I really feel kind of bad complaining about the procedure, because the doctor was so nice, and I am all about supporting anything that benefits women and their sexuality. I totally think that the spirit of the thing is cool. Women should feel good in their bodies and if surgery can enhance that, I am all for it. Unfortunately, the G-Shot just wasn’t for me, but it might be for you. There are lots of raves from women about it, and more often than not the results are supposed to be mindblowing, just not for me!



It lasts for four months so I will be at the convent until the swelling goes down.



I Can Make You Thin Through The TV

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

I am now super into the new tv show “I CAN MAKE YOU THIN.” This dude, Paul Mckenna, is all in your business talking about how he can make you thin – through the television! It is very exciting. I have only seen the first episode, but I am hooked already. There is a studio audience filled with people of various sizes who are also hooked on this Paul Mckenna – who can make you thin if you are within earshot of him! I like his diet ideas because basically, it isn’t about dieting. You eat what you want, when you are hungry. That is it. Sounds too good to be true? It totally is, because you have to eat super slowly, which is very hard. Also you cannot have any distractions from your food. So no watching tv while eating. These two things are very challenging because I love to watch tv and I love to eat fast! I eat so fast sometimes that I will bite my tongue and all over the inside of my mouth! Not only that, I love to watch tv while eating fast. Especially good food shows like Anthony Bourdain’s “NO RESERVATIONS” – even though he has a tendency to eat a lot of organ meats. I think it so awesome to eat food while you are watching food! It is like porn during sex, but way more fun!! So now I am totally trying to eat as slowly as I can, completely savoring every small bite, and what happens is I get so bored of eating because it is taking so long, I get sick of the food. It isn’t even that I get full, I just get over it and I don’t want to sit there with the stupid food anymore. I think this is all a good plan and I am excited about the man who can make you thin through the tv. Now I want to do a spin off show called I CAN MAKE YOU HAPPY where I just smile at you through the tv!! You can be made happy through the television!!!



Chubby

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

Just read an article about myself where I described myself as “chubby” and I think that it is a fairly unacceptable description, and I want to apologize to myself for saying it, because that is just wrong. I am not chubby – and to call myself that is to endanger the lives of millions of young girls who look to the media to define who they are, who are constantly checking themselves for fear of wrecking themselves, who are afraid to be thought of as “chubby,” who don’t realize that they are perfect as they are, and it is irresponsible. I fear they will read this article and look at my body and be scared because it is like theirs, and they will then think of themselves as “chubby” and learn to hate themselves more. To call me “chubby” is to call a billion women “chubby” who shouldn’t think of themselves as anything less than hot and sexy and curvy and built. I am not “chubby.” I am a real live perfectly beautiful woman, and just because I may be larger than the mostly anorexic female population in Hollywood, it doesn’t make me any less desirable or gorgeous because I like food. I take it back, as I must take back all the millions of insults that I hurl at myself without knowing it. I would never, ever say any of the horrible things I say to myself about myself to anyone else, not even someone I hated, because there is no one I could possibly hate that much. We must stop fighting the war against ourselves before we can truly start to love ourselves. We are not “chubby,” we are perfect. We are beautiful. We are so very very beautiful.