Marcelline
New Member
Hi folks,
I really don’t get a chance to post very much to discussion forums, anymore. So today I’m making not only my first post, here, but one of probably few. Having gone eight years back with several current posters to this site’s earlier discussion boards, I sense some will be relieved by the latter.
But, since the inception of the Dimensions newer posting format, whenever I’ve had freer periods of time, I’ve still tried to keep up with some of the more unique and also intellectual postings. And because I recently came across several posts referring to Maggie Macary, it appeared to me that no one had yet given this forum updated information about her. So it’s for that reason I’m making this post.
I am sure those who posted to or followed the thread on this board, titled "The Abject Body-Myths of Fatness," are familiar with the name Maggie Macary, and with her brilliant mind and communicative ability. For those not familiar with her, Maggie, a cultural mythologist, had recently attained her PhD and, at the time she posted to this site, was in the process of writing the first chapters for a commercial book based on her oral dissertation, the body myths of fatness which she said dated back to classical Greece.
I am writing about her in the past tense, of course, and for a reason.
Unfortunately, in the very early morning hours of Easter Sunday, this year, Maggie’s physical voice was silenced. She had died, unexpectedly, in her home, her body found by a very close friend. No cause of death was given, and I suspect that will remain private to all but those closest to her.
I didn’t know Maggie personally. Ironically, though, while I had nothing but love for the Arizona desert the several times I lived there (some here knew of my ache to return), Maggie, who spent seven years there also (apparently I’d left and she arrived), hated the desert and was in the process, at the time of her passing, of packing to go back to Connecticut, her home state. It was to be an entire household move.
I didn’t always agree with her conclusions including some of those relating to her dissertation and her hoped for future book. But early in my reading of her material, I could clearly see that Maggie was a gifted, gifted woman. And her loss to the community of mythologists, those deeply interested in studying mythology, and to size acceptance, is a great one. From what I understand, at some point in the future, certain persons hope to complete the book based on her dissertation, on her behalf. And if that occurs, I think that will be a good thing, the result impacting persons beyond the academic world. I think it will be one more achievement in trying to educate an increasingly ignorant world about why prejudice against fatness runs as deep as it does, and what it will take to turn that around.
Maggie can be credited, I believe, for a genuine bravery in taking her own issues surrounding her being a fat woman and through extensive research making the mythology about fatness the theme of her dissertation. (Dissertations of any kind are overwhelming enough.) I also believe it will take more persons like Maggie to tell “and sell” their stories and histories, as well as the much larger group effort that has yet to manifest in the real world.
Despite the loss of her presence and accompanying gifts, I think Dimensions can be proud that Maggie took the time out of her own obviously harried schedule, to patiently answer those ill informed as well as those who understood her message, about one of the most important subjects to any size acceptance discussion. Namely where and when and why and how the first prejudicial myths about fatness began.
On a much lighter and separate note to Conrad, if he’s reading. I don’t think anyone can accuse you, at this point, of not being willing to let all and sundry have their say, including in Hyde Park! Wowza!! Joking aside, I’m glad the new system is working so well, and that you have a lively community. Oh, by the way, excellent perspective you gave on that ol’ Da Vinci Code controversy. For this old Goddess loving girl, the book and film couldn’t have come soon enough. Let the protesters have their fun, I say - preposterous as they think their right is. It’ll give ‘em all practice for the book and film that eventually reveals the real hoax. That unveiling will really be a mind bender, even if takes another ten years to be let out of the bag - and taken with more than a grain of salt.
Back to being nice…
hope you and everyone have a good holiday weekend.Marcelline
