Bruce’s article, which provides a personal account of his experience “loving a larger woman” presents a thoughtful appreciation of bigger women, but does so in a discourteous manner. It is because of this that I believe both Lily and Cannie are right. Lily, who relates to the article solely because of her size, argues that the article is “great” because Bruce “really gets it”. “It” being his soft approach on discussing what is it like to love a bigger woman. Cannie, on the other hand, feels incredibly embarrassed and enraged due to her thought that Bruce’s article was over-revealing and coldhearted towards larger women, including herself.
Throughout his article, Bruce provides sensitive insight on his admiration of Cannie as a larger women, but takes away from that affection with malicious diction when describing some of Cannie’s physical characteristics. For example, Bruce says, “she was all sweet curves and warm welcome. Holding her felt like a safe haven. It felt like coming home” (14). This description of Cannie is genuine and clearly illustrates Bruce’s attraction towards her. He then procedes to explain that “at five foot ten inches, with a linebacker’s build and weight that would have put her right at home on a pro football team’s roster, C. couldn’t make herself invisible” (14). The sudden outbreak of harsh description completely contrasts with his loving recollection that occurred just a few lines earlier.
Both women are right in their claim, but fail to see the other side of the argument due to preference and bias in Cannie’s situation. Lily, who doesn’t feel the pain associated with having an article written about her personal life and body shape, strictly focuses on the good in the article. She is engrossed by Bruce’s love for all of Cannie. Cannie, who has a bitterness towards Bruce, refuses to see any good in the article, which is understandable due to the many excessive descriptions that Bruce includes. As an outsider, it is difficult to choose whether one woman is right, but it is easy to see why Lily and Cannie have their respective opinions on Bruce’s article.