MY POSTER GIRLS

At the Women's Colony there is the occasional posting of Secret Girlfriends to counter or accompany the Secret Boyfriend posts. I have women I have admired throughout my life. But my interest in these women has mostly to do with their bodies. So I will call them my Poster Girls.

This started when I was a young teen and watching the movie "How to Marry a Millionaire". I told my mom I wanted to look like Lauren Bacall. She was tall, elegant and sophisticated. Mom told me I was never going to look like that - I was more the Marilyn Monroe type, which wasn't a bad thing since men seemed to like the way she looked!

I never got over my admiration for the tall and elegant - and I have lived much of my life as a curvy woman of average height.

In my 20's I started working out. I was an early adopter of weight training due to bad knees which didn't allow me to run, the need to burn calories and the obsession of the guy who ran the gym with a certain woman weight lifter named Lisa Lyon. He was certain he could help me get my thighs to look like "tight little sausages" like hers. This poster was on the wall at the gym. And on my wall at home.

I was not so certain my thighs would ever meet that expectation, but I loved that she had such a big round bottom and was proud enough of it to bare it! Ladies, this was in 1978, long before J Lo and Beyonce and the cult of the booty.

All that was half a life ago. Now I am about as round as I am tall and I must do something about it. So my new poster girl will be Helen Mirren.