Moving Target 003 – Vlogging Jessie Carty

by Bryan Borland


This vlog features:

FAT GIRL SWIMWEAR by Jessie Carty
from Fat Girl (Sibling Rivalry Press)

My mother taught me that fat women
went swimming. Maybe they didn’t
buy bathing suits; maybe they wore

proper undergarments under tank tops
and cut off pants but even so they’d
go to the river and float so I wonder,

25 years later, whether the outfit
was a choice or if it was worn because
of a lack of plus sized swimwear

in the stores we had to choose from:
Family Dollar, Kmart. I wonder where

she even bought her wardrobe
of polyester stretchy waist band pants
and the smock like button up, big

pocketed, flowered shirts that I find hard
to describe in any minute detail. I do recall
how proud she was one day when she

playfully tried on her husband’s jeans
shorts and found that she could button them.
She never complained or talked about

her weight. She never dieted but when
she finally lost some pounds before she knew
she was seriously ill, she welcomed her

smaller size
like any
other woman.