I've now been a Writing Center Consultant (read: tutor) at the main campus of our local technical college for some months. I love it here. I love the atmosphere. Everything that could possibly come up has been thought of.
And it makes me so, so happy to be fat.
Readers will have realized that I am Remarkably Curvy. I get a lot of male attention since I've moved, I notice -- whether because I'm dressing up for work or because the South likes their girls plump and breeding-hip'd, I can't say. Other advantages have lately been becoming clear.
The next-youngest WCC got her master's the same time I got my bachelor's, and works with me on Fridays. She tends to dress a little younger than I do, and observes Casual Friday with relish.
This will shortly become significant.
T'other day, a student we see a great deal of (older male, generally quite pleasant to me at any rate, makes several appointments per paper and yet never seems to believe us when,for example, we point out that plot summary and literary analysis are not the same thing) just walked in and scratched out his appointment and told us he was going to only make grammar appointments in the future. He "only" got an 85% on the last paper (horrors!) and the professor was pointing out things we never said. Therefore, he feels that there was some inconsistency and and he and his instructor agree that a grammar-readings-only pattern will be more beneficial to him. He was most pleasant about it, but the content was essentially that he didn't think our seven (7) appointments with four (4) different tutors had been helpful in achieving that 85%.
We can't decide whether to be offended, send the instructor a nice thank-you gift, or both. See, many of the tutors despise this student, because he flatly refuses to make the changes they suggest. At first I thought they meant someone else, because he generally accepts it from me; I think perhaps he finds me and my confident work persona intimidating!
Half an hour later, a generally lovely single-mom student, who I've worked with a time or three before, asked me if I was still in classes here. She explained that I didn't quite look young enough, but since the other tutor on duty looked like she must be a work-study student, she wondered if I was too.
When I told her no, I just finished my degree in December -- but [other tutor] taught classes -- she looked stunned for a moment, then graciously changed the subject.
The student following her was writing a paper reminiscing about receiving a Holly Hobbie doll. "Do you remember those?" she asked me. I told her I did. "Oh no -- showing our age, aren't we?" she laughed. I laughed with her, not having the heart to say it was Mom's.
A couple of hours later, along came another student, who is here to check her email when I open the writing center every morning and who I've always taken to be in her early-to-mid thirties. In her appointment, I asked her when her recalled event happened. As she tried to work this out, she said, "Well, my daughter was born in '79 ..." I would have liked to compliment her, but I couldn't work out how to approach "Wow, I'd never have guessed you could have a daughter ten years older than I am."
Everyone takes me for older than I am, and everyone takes my tutoring counterpart for younger. Why? Actually, if you will forgive professional bias, I think a big part of it is jewelry! Wearing "fine jewelry," or fashion jewelry that imitates its look, with casual clothing is a sign of youth. Delicate crystalline pendants, fine chains, names or initials especially, those read as either precious jewelry for Occasions or young girl's treasured gift pieces. The exceptions are those annoying let's-invent-a-holiday pendants like the Journey Diamond ones and the "open arms" one with the irritating sexist commercials. Unusual art jewelry, however, suggests more mature and quirky taste.
She's also slender, with blonde highlights. And there, I think, is the rub. Being heavier and the top-heavy hourglass shape (I'm actually rounder at the hips, being a true-to-type Sicilian, but I dress drapily so it doesn't look like it) gives me a measure of gravitas.
I'm not the only one to have noticed this; in her column "How to Dress for Battle," Jen Dziura mentions a study where women in a suit jacket were taken by office professionals as higher-ranked -- but women who were over forty, conservatively dressed, or larger seemed to already have a boost in that perception, so the jacket helped less than it did for petite, slender, or young women.
Conclusion: being fat and well-dressed is a really good thing career-wise.
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