Fatness Stephanie Powell ‘She is not in control of how her body speaks to others’ Raymond Williams on Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Fatness is given a name (i) Fatness, we’ll call her, that is the name in which she can best see the shape of herself. Fatness from heart to the dam of her thighs, the Mt Kosciuszko of bottom, the ankles flexing like winded powerlines. The broad shoulder. Built like a fjord, a net of thick valleys. A face that may someday be beautiful (if only you’d lose a little bit of weight, Stephanie). Fatness at school (ii) Fatness dreaming about being fingered. Watching couples merge together behind the sports field. Plum-stone in her mouth sucked smooth. Fatness at a party (iii) Fatness falls asleep with her head on a boy’s shoulder. She wakes up with his hand at the seam of her pants. She sees the other throttling a bottle of Jack. A small feeling born in the bigness of her body. The weight of her ass on the garage pavement. The cold shock climbing from anus to belly to lung to throat. She doesn’t move an inch. Pulls her stomach in so tight it feels as though it may rupture as his hand works its way under the elastic.
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