Fat Prom
(an illustration)
It’s always been my goal to depict fat bodies as they are, existing and living their lives. I started drawing fat bodies because I didn’t see anyone who looked like me in any of the art I enjoyed. So I started drawing myself and drawing other bodies that looked like mine. That’s my favorite thing about being an artist: When I want something to exist, I can make it exist. I have the power in my own two hands to make something exist just because I want it to. You have this power, too. It felt powerful, and still does, to depict myself and people with bodies like mine in a loving and honest way. I continue to do it in the hopes that others feel empowered by my work: whether it’s to wear that pretty dress, go to that cool event, or do that thing they’re so scared of doing.
I chose to create a piece about prom because prom always felt like a party I was never invited to. Being fat took all the fun out of school dances for me, because who was going to ask me to go with them? Would the dress shops my thin friends shopped at have my size, too? How do you even dance, like, in general? So I never even went to most school dances. I personally never even had a prom experience—not because I didn’t go, but because the arts high school I went to had something that was vaguely shaped like prom but definitely was not prom. So all my prom references come from movies like Footloose and 10 Things I Hate About You. These films depicted prom as the epitome of the high school experience, but all their prom scenes were lacking in representation, especially when it came to fat bodies. I wanted to create a piece that showed fat bodies moving and joyous and dancing and not worrying about any of the things that I worried about when it came to school dances. I wanted to draw fat teens—wanted to draw people like you—who felt like they were invited to the prom party, too.
PROVIDED BY LLUSTRATOR
SHELBY BERGEN
is a freelance illustrator, body positive advocate, and world champion cat petter from the frigid land of Minneapolis. She uses her work to advocate for body diversity and inclusivity in modern illustration and other commercial art. You can find her and all of her work online at shelby bergen.com, on Instagram @shelby.bergen, and on Twitter @shelbobergen.