I’m frequently amused when I read The Julie/Julia Project but I laughed out loud when I saw that she now has an official “Nigella Lawson Ass Watch”. Julie seemed a bit disgusted in the specimens of humanity that were stumbling across her site by googling the phrase “Nigella Lawson’s ass". What most made me laugh was that one of the sickos was probably me! I admit it. I have googled Nigella Lawson’s ass, but not out of any sort of prurient interest. On the contrary, it is the ass of someone I admire.
The point is, I think, that her ass is very reassuring. It’s large, she’s admitted it’s large, we know why it’s large (large quantities of double cream, heaping mounds of risotto, and chocolate cake scarfed down in the night)—and perhaps, like Oprah, we love her for it. Not in spite of it; for it.
Hers is the ass borne of cooking nurturing food for children and a dying husband and a houseful of friends. Genetics and lifestyle have also played a part in its production, no doubt, but in turn these elements have produced a woman who is literate, witty, articulate, self-deprecating, and intelligent. That she is also lushly beautiful (in a way no 40 + year old woman can be without some padding over the bones), adds to her allure for both men and women. Babies like to look at symmetrical faces and it’s not a trait we lose as we age.
My husband read the recent Vanity Fair article on her and said, “Boy, that wasn’t too favorable—it makes her seem like some sort of opportunist.” I staunchly defended her. She’s a mother, for goodness sake. She has children to think about. If anyone’s the opportunist, it’s that journalist. And Lord knows, Nigella’s had enough bad luck, that if a bit of good fortune comes her way, whether in love or money, she should run with it as fast and far as her ample bottom will carry her.
It saddens me that at one point in her life Nigella just got on, happily doing what she loved, in the kitchen, with her cookbooks, in the midst of her life. Then fame struck, and suddenly lewd Nigella Lawson queries are all over the internet and Minnesota homemakers are prattling on about how her body makes them feel like they are in rare good company.
Well, she’s wry enough that this probably doesn’t phase her and vain enough that perhaps this even amuses her. Most likely she just rises above it.
2:33:43 PM 
|
|
