Strega Nona
Fat In Picture Books: Chapter 1, and an introduction to this section!
Welcome to the Fat In Picture Books (FIPB) section of The Wahlflower! For anyone unfamiliar, as a hobby I ran an account on instagram called Fat In Picture Books where I documented fat representation (good, bad, or neutral) I saw, or that folks submitted, in children’s books new and old. However, just as I am trying to spend less time and post less art on my personal instagram, I am doing the same on FIPB, so I am officially making it it’s own section of The Wahlflower.
I thought it only fitting, for my first post, that I feature Strega Nona, who graced the profile picture on the FIPB instagram, and is (I’ll declare it now) the patron saint of Fat In Picture Books.
But first, some housekeeping, if you’re new to Fat In Picture Books:
“Fat” is used as a neutral descriptor
My analysis comes from a fat positive/fat liberationist perspective
Books featured DO NOT always equal a recommendation
I’ll only be focusing on humanoid fat representation (sorry George & Martha!)
Reader submissions are currently CLOSED as I have many books backed up! I’ll let folks know when I’m ready for more.
Anti-fat comments and trolling won’t be tolerated, but good-faith engagement and reader commentary is encouraged!
I have gone back and fourth about what kind of commentary, if any, to include alongside the images I post. It feels like such a big can of worms to fully analyze and comment on every single book (I have over 100 logged that folks have recommended since I started FIPB), and I’d be lying if I pretended that it doesn’t feel slightly vulnerable to navigate making sometimes critical commentary as a creator in the industry. I don’t want it to feel like I’m going after my peers, or gain some kind of reputation as the “fat police” (ironically, “Police” is one of 12 fat stereotype categories I’ve logged in my FIPB spreadsheet1). BUT, I don’t want that vulnerability to entirely dissuade me from making ANY commentary, how else, are we to hold folks accountable, OR celebrate our fat kidlit wins? It feels strange to say nothing about the quality of representation. Posts will likely vary in their amount of commentary. At the end of the day, my capacity and inspiration will likely have the biggest impact on this, and as with my Substack in general, I’ll continue to figure out what exactly this new iteration of FIPB is as I go.
OK…. ON TO STREGA NONA!
Even though our profile picture is from Tomie DePaola’s last Strega Nona book, Strega Nona and the Twins, because this is Chapter 1 of Fat In Picture Books, it feels only appropriate to feature the first Strega Nona book, the eponymous Strega Nona, from 1975.
I’d say Strega Nona is fat. Right?
Because illustrations are stylized, and because definitions of fatness are complicated, it’s hard to tell sometimes if characters in books are actually intended to be fat. When I was accepting submissions for FIPB, I was surprised by how many people submitted characters that to me, didn’t make the cut (ok maybe in this case I kind of am being the fat police??). Some were just were drawn in a thick, rounded style. Some just had big boobs, or a round face, or were thin except for a small round tummy. Some just had wide, hourglass hips from straight on, but from the side looked like Flat Stanley with a BBL (à la all Pixar moms). One thing I often look at is how they look in comparison to other characters in their world; to decipher if their body shape is a stylistic, aesthetic choice or an intentional (though that doesn’t always mean positive) example of body diversity.
Overall, I feel that Strega Nona is a neutral to positive fat figure, though it’s true that her character still fits neatly into the two most common fat stereotype categories I’ve logged in my spreadsheet so far: “Maternal” and “Old Woman”. I want to write more about this in another post (and seeing as 20% of the books on my list fall into these categories, I surely will).
Mother and grandmother figures, as I wrote in my 2020 SCBWI Bulletin essay2 “are usually “allowed” to have larger bodies, having “graduated” from the maiden archetype and moved on to their next role as the neutered human body pillow that lives mostly to comfort, feed and scold thin characters during times of need (e.g. Mrs. Weasley, who is largely exempt from the fatphobia of Harry Potter due to her maternal role, and Strega Nona, who spends most of her time performing labor for characters like Big Anthony).”
My intent in naming these stereotypes (and in critiquing complicated fat kidlit depictions in general) is NOT necessarily to say “these books are problematic! Don’t read them!”. Rather, my aim is for folks to develop their language and critical thinking around how fat people are depicted in children’s books, what patterns we can see, and what those patterns reflect about our society’s opinions of fatness in general, so that when we DO read these books, we can recognize the stereotypes for what they are, even if it means holding that recognition in tension, alongside our attachment to these often beloved books. With that awareness, we’re able to have more nuanced conversations, and feel empowered to demand (and create) more, and better, fat representation in books.
P.S. If you’re NOT interested in my Fat In Picture Books series, you can toggle with what Sections of The Wahlflower you receive notifications for in the “manage your subscriptions” part of your settings.
MY FAT STEREOTYPE CATEGORIES: Maternal, Old Woman, Elderly, (I want to track “Old Woman” separately from the more gender inclusive “Elderly” since it’s such a common and loaded one) Fool, Santa, Jolly, Baker/Chef/Cook, Victim/Resilient, Villain, Lazy, Police, Dehumanized.
Can you think of others??
If you want to read more of my thoughts about fat representation in picture books, you can read this essay I originally wrote for the Winter 2020 SCBWI Bulletin, which was republished in 2022 by Bust. I should note, that the Bust version cut out some parts of the article, which were directed more specifically at children’s book industry folks, which is a bummer. But, it’s the only version online that isn’t paywalled.
I run a nonprofit that donates diverse books to teachers, and I always make sure body size diversity is on our list of look-fors. As a person who has been fat and a reader all her life, seeing bigger bodies represented neutrally and positively is vitally affirming.
"Flat Stanley with a BBL" is my favorite descriptor