Claire Richards: My Big Fat Wedding

I rememember seeing Claire Richards (of Steps infamy) on BBLB a while back and thinking 'oh my God.' She was FAT. Like so fat if you were her, you'd avoid going on camera at all costs. She was definitely the prettiest one out of Steps, but went from being a size 8 to a size 20. That's a lot of eating, trust me, because I eat a lot of bad things, and am overweight, so I can well imagine how much you'd have to eat to get that big.
Christ Steps sold 15 MILLION records, getting 13 top five singles, only beaten by The Beatles. Woah. I wonder how much of that cash they saw? Not much, I reckon.
Anyway, after leaving Steps she spent five years eating, and doubled her dress size by eating a zillion McDonalds. At her heaviest, and at five foot six, she weighed 16 and a half stone. Wow, that's quite a bit. That's some impressive eating. Fair play to her for letting them take pictures of her fat, and all her stretch marks, I'd just go hide in a cupboard somewhere.
It was funny how she looked fat; kind of pumped up. I know I've said this before, but my face doesn't get fat when my body does, so I just look in the mirror at my face and pretend I'm not fat. I'm sure the second I got a double chin, I'd become anorexic. But then my stomach is gross and I just try and ignore it and focus on my boobs looking good. That's one thing most fat girls do have; big boobs! In your face, skinny, long-legged girls!
Anyway, Claire's boyfriend proposed and she vowed to get down to a size 12, by losing four stone. A size 12 sounds managable, four stone sounds HARD!
It was kind of sad when she was looking at her old stage costumes; I've never been a size 8 in my life, so to go from 8 to 20 must be hard.
I liked the look of her wedding food; cheeseburgers and chips, Britney Spears stylee! That doesn't exactly smack of a healthy eating regime, does it?!
Six months later she went to get her photo retaken and when she looked at the old photo the photographer said 'that's horrific!' Nice, I'm sure that made all the fat women watching at home feel good about themselves. Then he said 'the heffer is no more'. Bet you didn't call her that then, did you, you cheeky fucker?
I thought she looked stunning as a size 14. But then she went to a health and fitness boot camp where you can lose a stone in a week. They were up and running around at 6.30am! Personally, I'd rather be fat.
Isn't it interesting that women are willing to put themselves through hell just to look good in a photo? Her boyfriend proposed to her when she was big; it's not like he was bothered. I didn't see him starving himself, either.
She ended up being ten stone six, which is a brilliant loss really, six and a half stone. Good on her, because she looked really good in her wedding dress, it was beautiful; and I respect the amount of effort she must have put in. But even fat she was still a trillion times more attractive than Lisa Scott-Lee.
Will she keep it off after the wedding, I wonder. I hope so, because she seems like a nice person and it's what she wants. But at the same time, fat people aren't horrific. And some men like fat girls. Some men like goofy girls, or ginger girls. Not all men like skinny. Not all men want the same thing. And not ALL women want a man, anyway. I once had an argument with a man who said if women were on a desert island on their own they wouldn't wear make up, because what was the point if there were no men around? But they would. They would do it just to feel better, just to look better. I would.
PS: wedding dress shop woman; not EVERY WOMAN dreams about the day they'll wear their wedding dress. I have never thought about it for one second, not even as a child. Some of us dream about space, or writing, or other women, or something else entirely.
There is more to life than weddings, or being skinny. But getting married to someone you love skinny is probably better than doing it fat. My feminist principles can't deny that one.