Strange Horizons Discussion Forum: Some Girlfriends Can, by Stephanie Burgis

Nota bene/caveat: Blunt honesty and personal opinion follows.

Frankly, I found the story rather trite. Affirming the value of imperfection, saying that large women are beautiful and inwardly beautiful, etc. All that could be forgiven if the author had presented her moral in a more elegant, artistic way. Instead, her plainspoken style and simple plot served to knock us upside the head with her message. (Whether she's right or not isn't the point. It's the banality of it that chafes.)

Nor could I entirely sympathize with the ending. I mean, an unattractive, ungraceful woman who desperately wants to be both attractive and graceful turns down the gift of both, because -- why? Some may say, Well, because she'd rather be an imperfect but independent her than a goddess' beautiful pet. To which I say, hooey. First, the story doesn't state categorically that she would lose her independence. Second, if you have the chance to shed your old self and become a new, better you -- who honestly thinks you shouldn't take that chance? Maybe I view life differently than the author (I probably do), but to me, life involves a constant striving toward perfection. (Obviously an unattainable goal, but you know what they say about reaching for the stars -- you may touch the sky.) That obviously doesn't mean only physical perfection, but yes, it does include it. Artists haven't spent thousands of years immortalizing conceptions of physical beauty because it's entirely unimportant.

Ultimately, I felt that the story had much in common with its protagonist: it was inelegant, rather simplistic, and misguided. Most damning of all, it contains the seeds of a much better story, but it didn't strive to transcend the ultimately unimpressive form which appears here.