When Fat Girls Dream

Haddaway, J. L.

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poem

Annotated by:
Donley, Carol
  • Date of entry: May-23-1996

Summary

The poem says fat girls don’t dream they are Marilyn Monroe; instead their dreams are "much smaller: a dance with a man not a blind drunk, a folding chair that won’t cringe . . . . " Or perhaps they can step "into the arms of a man with Ruben’s eyes."

Commentary

Fat girls dream of being normal--of being able to have an ordinary social life, wear a "pair of non-stretch pants," not always have some female relative telling them how pretty they used to be. And although "they awaken with possibilities that die in the bathroom mirror," they just might find a real man with Ruben’s tastes--with his love of well-rounded women.

Primary Source

The Tyranny of the Normal

Publisher

Kent State University Press

Place Published

Kent, Ohio

Edition

1996

Editor

Carol Donley & Sheryl Buckley