HSG

We would like to wish all of our readers a very Merry Christmas, and all the best of the Yuletide season.

There will never again be another Christmas to match the magical events of 2009, when we were privileged to interview full-figured goddess Kelsey Olson in Disneyland, the most enchanted location in the Western Hemisphere, a storybook setting complete with a fairy-tale castle (which underscored Miss Olson's identity as a princess living in the present day). Not only was it a wonderful experience due to the thrill of meeting the most beautiful and popular current plus-size model, but it was a marvellous Yuletide story in and of itself. The topic of Christmas, and what it has meant to Kelsey throughout her life, from girlhood to adulthood, came up several times over the course of the discussion. We invite all of our readers to enjoy it once more.

This year, on the other hand, we take note of an interesting little story that serves as a follow-up to one of the themes of both the Kelsey interview and our recent Twelfth Anniversay post: the effort to rediscover and reassert Old World identity and values, and to liberate Western Culture from its decades-long colonization by alien, parasitic forces and hostile ideologies.

The article in question appeared in The Hamilton Spectator (a local newspaper) a few days ago. Here is a brief excerpt:

It may not seem like much, this gathering of Polish carolers protesting the erasure of Christmas, but it is a rare and telling example of Europeans defending their ethnic heritage. If such efforts were to spread to other Old World immigrant communities, and encompass other aspects of traditional values (such as the Classical ideal of full-figured femininity), then the "aesthetics of guilt" would soon vanish, and timeless beauty would be restored.

Here is one of the protest songs (a.k.a., traditional Christmas carols) that these Polish Canadians likely sang during their dissent: Dzisiaj w Betlejem ("Today in Bethlehem"), a joyous celebration of the Yuletide events. The performers are the folk-dance company "Mazowsze," dressed here in traditional ethnic garb.

It doesn't surprise us that it was specifically the Polish community that finally struck a blow for its traditions. The Poles benefit from a powerful religious legacy, an unreconstructed medieval Catholicism that has enabled them to resist countless hostile forces from without and from within over the centuries. It was a Polish king who, in 1683, led the fabled Winged Hussars in the largest cavalry charge in history, broke the Turkish lines, and saved Vienna (and Western civilization itself) from the Eastern invaders--an event that directly inspired the Battle of Pelennor Fields in Tolkien's The Return of the King. Poland was dismembered by its neighbours in the 18th century and wiped off the European map for 123 years, but it reemerged intact in the 20th century.

The timeless ideal of plus-size beauty could similarly be suppressed for 123 years, but it will come back. In taking on Poland and its sons, as well as whatever Prussians are still alive in this world, postmodern materialism may have finally met its match. The alien rootlessness of the media world will break like surf upon the ancient strata of the Old World and its inheritors.

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We have two images of plus-size beauty that we alternate to mark each annual Christmas. Last year we showcased Shannon Marie's unforgettable Addition-Elle ad, so this year we return to Barbara Brickner's gorgeous promotion for C.J. Banks, a warm, cozy evocation of hearth and home, with gifts of all sorts just waiting to be unwrapped; a celebration of tradition and family and heritage--which is what the Yule is all about.

Merry Christmas to all . . .