Jemima J Sucks Week

This is one of my favorite weeks ever, just because of the history. I don’t know if it’s been “observed”, so to speak, since it’s inception, but it’s a quirky, fun opportunity to protest fat-phobia even if it’s not still… celebrated (?).

Who is this Jemima J, and why does she suck? She’s actually the star character of Jane Green’s Jemima J, a horrific fat-hating novel about Jemima, who wishes she were thin. Elaborate, you say? Certainly.

I wish I were thin, gorgeous, and could get any man I want. You probably think I’m crazy, I mean here I am, sitting at work on my own with a massive double-decker club sandwich in front of me, but I’m allowed to dream, aren’t I (Green)?

For perspective here, Jemima is 5′7″ and weighs just over 215lbs; , in the words of one of the novel’s critics Wendy McClure, Jemima “has been known to increase at a weight of two to three pounds overnight (McClure).” Elaborating on her extraordinary hate of the book, she commented on her online weblog Pound that

not only does her weight keep her from telling jokes (p. 23), applying flattering makeup (p. 15), or, really, ever experiencing more than a split second of unadulterated happiness (pp. 1-371), it also pretty much keeps anything remotely interesting from happening in the first third of the book, where pretty much every twenty pages or so, an opportunity for a meet-cute encounter with her dull love interest, Ben, totally fails to happen because old fat-ass Jemima keeps having to stop somewhere to stuff her face. Poor Jemima!

So what did Wendy do? Complain in vain and continue with life? Certainly not! Wendy instituted “Jemima J Sucks Week” which drew interest from a variety of newsblogs, including Big Fat Blog, and doubled her traffic.