Accurate ? Portrayal of Aphrodite

The Goddess of Beauty is Plus Size!!

So, a full review of the book is coming but I am just past the 40% mark of “For Whom the Belle Tolls” by Jaysea Lynn and I HAVE to gush for a moment. There are many characters from myth and legend who make an appearance in this novel. Persephone, Thanatos, Brigid gets name dropped, along with Hades to name a few. In a chapter I read last night, Lily gets introduced to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. Makes sense that she’d be friends with Persephone. And I had to suppress my delighted squeals at her description.

She’d had kept a little plastic replica of the Venus de Milo in her apartment for years, had often stared at it in moments of insecurity, reminding herself that she and the statue had similar body types, and the statue of Aphrodite had once been considered the pinnacle of beauty. The real Aphrodite shared the statue’s basic body type, but her curves were lusher, her figure fuller in a way that Lily admired and slightly envied. ~~Chapter 27- Sex Appeal

Now, sadly, I could not find any images of Aphrodite statuary that I could share in this post and stay within TOS because of all the bare boobs in those statues… and in paintings. But, she has rolls and curves in those statues. And this is a direct contradiction to how Aphrodite has been portrayed in media that I’ve seen growing up. Maybe they came close in Xena and Hercules in the 90s? Depending on your view. That actress was fairly average? Whereas the Disney animated version had an itty bitty waist.

And, all this to say shoutout to Jaysea for recognizing this!

I have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to body shaming. I was bullied for my weight in school and it has left a lasting impression on me, I’m still struggling with my self image. No matter how many times my husband tells me “There’s just more to love” or how much he compliments my figure. Part of me thinks he’s talking out his ass. And, I really try to watch how I talk about myself in front of my daughter. Try to keep the negative self talk away from her so she doesn’t develop the same problem about being tall and slim.

So, when I see a fuller figure description of the goddess who was “the pinnacle of beauty” looking more like me than (insert super slim popular actress here), it helps. Doesn’t eliminate it. That’s probably going to be a lifelong battle to finally feel good in my skin regardless the size. But, it helps a little.

And, I’ve done my best to try and include assorted body sizes in my own work. Because we should all be represented in written and visual media.

So, maybe I’ll do what Lily did and find myself a statue of Aphrodite to put on my inspiration shelf in my office as a little reminder that you don’t have to be rail thin to be considered beautiful. Curvy, thin, tall, short, busty, or flat. We’re all beautiful and deserving of recognition of that.

Not sure if this made much sense. But, I had thoughts I wanted to share after reading last night and writing them out here sounded better than the babble fest I posted on TikTok this morning.

I’ll have a full review of this book soon. Trying to get through it as quickly as I can but also savoring it because I don’t know when book 2 will be out.

What good representations of body diversity have you seen/read lately? I’d love to check it out. I know Julie Murphy has a lot of YA books about plus size characters. I own “Dumplin’” which is an adorable book and was made into a super cute movie on Netflix. And I wish these books had existed when I was a teenager. There’s also a lot of LGBT rep in her books as well.

Thanks for reading!