Hey, Frisky book lovers, have you heard about “bigger chick lit”? Pissiness over a poochy tummy is a sub-plot in plenty of books, most notably Bridget Jones’s Diary, but the Guardian says “bigger chick lit” novels feature a “young woman who is seriously overweight—and doesn’t care.” And apparently, they’re all the rage.

I don’t know about you folks, but for me, a weekend with the rents is always fraught with tension. Is Mom going to pester me about brushing my hair? Is Dad going to ask me how much money I’m saving? Will they bristle if my boyfriend and I sleep in the same bed?

But I didn’t see Sunday morning’s battle royale coming at all.

Mom and I were hanging out in her bedroom; she was smoking a cigarette and I was scratching my cat behind the ears. Then Mom furrowed her brow, scrunched up her face and examined my pajamas-clad body. “You know, Jess,” she remarked, “you’ve put on some weight.”

My eyes bulged. Fire was breathed. Thunder boomed. Lightening crackled. The cat cowered in fear under the bed.

The Huffington Post recently introduced a new entertainment feature called The Big Picture, starring “unedited celebrity photos, blown up,” ostensibly so visitors can inspect the size of Lindsay Lohan, Elizabeth Hurley and Sting’s pores and comment on who could use a facial or plastic surgery. (Disclosure: I used to work at HuffPo.) “[The Big Picture is] a playful spin on our culture’s ongoing fascination with celebrity images,” a spokesperson told Portfolio.com. “Two days in, reader reaction has been largely positive.” Something tells me that reaction refers to a positive increase in website traffic for HuffPo, not positive commentary on body image. That’s a value Arianna Huffington appears to have hypocritically lauded in the very first chapter (“Fearless About The Body”) in her self-help book, On Becoming Fearless. Yes, airbrushing celebs and models is out of control, but zeroing in on “flaws” is no way to ease up on body-hating in our culture. But sadly, this isn’t new for HuffPo. [Portfolio]

In this Funny or Die video, former “Baywatch” babe Nicole Eggert tackles the subject of her weight gain, leading Salon’s Broadsheet to wonder: empowering or embarrassing? In the skit, Eggert bounds across the sand to save two young men pretending to drown to get some hot female lifeguard action. When they see Eggert has put on a few pounds, they pass on her life-saving techniques. “Is this because I’m fat?” Eggert asks. Suffice to say, the boys’ superficial response generates its own karmic punishment in the end. Salon’s Julia Furlan can’t figure out if this is a “you go, girl” moment or a sad mockery of plus-sized women. Since Eggert is slated to star in the next season of VH1’s “Celebrity Fit Club,” the former “Baywatch”-er has already put the subject of her size on the table for discussion. What do you think: a clever spin on anti-fat acceptance or a sad way for a woman to have to get publicity? [Broadsheet]

German models might soon find themselves out of work. Today, the country’s most popular women’s magazine announced that it’s banning professional models in favor of real people. Starting next year, the bi-monthly Brigitte will feature a mix of prominent women and regular readers in photos dealing with content from fashion to fitness in an attempt to fight unhealthy beauty standards and please readers who are sick of seeing models with “protruding bones,” said Andreas Lebert, the magazine’s editor-in-chief.

Kind of ironic, huh? A book called Hungry that I just ate right up as quickly as I could. But model Crystal Renn‘s autobiography is that good. Seriously, I could not put down Hungry: A Young Model’s Story of Appetite, Ambition, and the Ultimate Embrace of Curves for two days straight.

In her incredible memoir, written with former Sassy health editor Marjorie Ingall, Crystal shares how she was just a teen girl living with her grandmother in Clinton, Mississippi, when a modeling scout changed her life. The scout approached her at a charm school class and said Crystal could be just like Gisele Bundchen if she wanted to—meaning, she had to take off a lot of weight. Over the next several months, a 165-pound Crystal became anorexic, starving herself so she could drop 70 pounds and become a “straight-size” model.

Does this look like a runway model to you? Maybe! Sick of looking at runways overcrowded by blond, Caucasian, skinny models? Pipeline has a terrific post on the latest trends in fashion model looks. The new professional coat hangers are girls with way more curves, men and women in their sixth, seventh, and eighth decades of life, burly dudes with body hair, and boys who aren’t afraid to wear dresses. Pipeline says: “From scary, hairy, husky dudes (thanks Vivienne Westwood!) to buxom gals in super-short minis (à la Mark Fast), this new model trend is sure keeping the typical shows a lot more interesting!” We love all the diversity. Check out the rest! [Pipeline]

“I don’t want to be the fat one anymore.”

—Model Lara Stone to ELLEuk.com [Via Fashionologie]

“Ellen has such a beautiful body, and I personally battled with my own body image for years. I used to tell myself, You can’t wearing anything sleeveless or strapless. And all of a sudden I was like, What if I just didn’t send such negative messages to my brain and said, wear it and enjoy it? And now I’m more comfortable in clothes than ever .... [Ellen] was in her frickin’ bra with an open jacket and hot pink shorts, skating around the rink with red lips and ... she was sexy as a mother ... a feral creature. It was great.”

—Drew Barrymore discussing body image issues with “Whip It!” star Ellen Page and Marie Claire

You know those articles where a woman writes that something that’s generally considered to be shady is really friggin’ fantastic? Yeah, us Frisky ladies tend to be skeptical. Maybe being a mail-order bride really did turn out well for that woman featured in Marie Claire last month! But don’t kid yourself that you’re not an exception to the rule.

We’ve got similar “meh” feelings for the way Terri Graham, a member of More.com’s reader community, confronted her anorexia, bulimia and body dysmorphic disorder: competing in “countless” beauty pageants and strutting across the stage in a swimsuit and heels caused Graham to stop hating her body. [More.com]

Even though she’s a mom, Victoria Beckham‘s taut and toned body in the new Armani ad released today is utterly devoid of wrinkles and jiggly bits. Gisele’s pregnant belly was flattened in the London Fog ads. Beth Ditto got fattened up on the cover of Love. Kim Kardashian appeared slimmed and lightened in Complex. Jeez Louise, the Photoshop-wielding warlocks should win big fat trophies for all their Great Moments In Airbrushing humdingers this year.

Or maybe airbrushed ads should get warning labels, says one British politician. Jo Swinson, a Liberal Democrat in the U.K., said that airbrushing should be banned on advertising intended for viewing by children younger than 16 and all other airbrushed images should carry labels that say what’s been altered.

It’s an absolutely brilliant idea. But unfortunately, it will never happen.

In our weight-and-beauty-obsessed culture, there’s something almost fetishized and taboo about an image of a skinny girl eating a big, honking burger. That’s why I’m oddly obsessed with a new site aptly titled, Skinny Girls, Big Sandwiches. It’s a blog “dedicated to skinny girls chowing down and stuffing their gullets full of sandwiches ... or tacos, wraps, burritos, hoagies, subs, hamburgers, sloppy joes, paninis, tortas ... or just about any combination of meat and bread products.” After the jump, some of my favorite featured photographs.

Celebrity trainer Ramona Braganza has helped Jessica Alba, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, and Anne Hathaway get hot bodies, and now she wants to help you tone your, um, cankles. The LA-based trainer developed a new workout in collaboration with Gold’s Gym to help “turn cankles back into ankles.”

The Guardian’s Hadley Freeman wrote an article this week about a new phenomenon she calls “female confessional journalism.” In her opinion, this new genre of writing involves female authors who write first person narratives about their battles with eating disorders, body image, relationships, etc. But the articles go beyond sharing a story, they usually involve a fair amount of obsessing and often long rants about self-loathing. According to Freeman, the narratives usually end with the writer “still sufficiently unhappy to be commissionable for another very similar piece.”

I have no idea how much my own weight has fluctuated in the past couple of years, but I can tell you all about Kirstie Alley’s rides on the bathroom scale. And Melissa Joan Hart’s. And Britney’s and Kelly Clarkson’s and…well, you get the idea. A girl can’t grocery shop without 42-point font headlines screaming about another celeb’s double digit weight loss.

The problem isn’t just opportunistic tabloid editors making a quick buck. As Times’ Sunday Styles section pointed out, the “Ass Size Ad Nauseum” problem is not so simple. No, some celebs are more than happy to tell us all about their jiggly parts.

Jessica Simpson made headlines with her MTV reality show “Newlyweds,” especially after her famous Chicken of the Sea line. The show ended, as did Nick and Jess’ marriage. That’s why I was surprised to hear that Simpson is giving reality TV a second try with a new show, “The Price of Beauty.” This time around, the focus will be on “society’s scrutiny of women’s bodies.” Simpson, who has received a lot of flack in the press for a spike in weight exaggerated by a very unforgiving pair of high-waisted jeans, pitched the idea to several networks, according to Us Weekly. “The idea behind the show is that she and a friend set off on a road trip around the world in search of what people find beautiful and why,” a source from the magazine said.

A few days ago, Miley Cyrus tweeted: “i jiggled my thighs and they shook on their own for 3 mississipis [sic] no more late night lucky charms.” Not only can’t the 16-year-old star spell, but she’s insecure about her body.

Afterwards, there was a bit of a backlash, and people started calling her fat. Outraged by these “cyber bullies,” Miley continued tweeting quips about how everyone’s thighs should jiggle, and that even Nicole Richie, who has one of the tiniest bodies of all, has jiggly thighs. Miley’s still growing into her body, so it’s expected that she feels a little uncomfortable in her skin. However, she and other celebrities should stop broadcasting their insecurities to the world. It’s only making us regular girls feel worse about ourselves.

Oh, no! We forgot to celebrate our new favorite holiday, International No Diet Day, on May 6th!

But it’s cool. We can still score some body-image karma by grabbing a copy of Lessons From the Fat-O-Sphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce With Your Body by bloggers Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby.

Both women call themselves bloggers of the “fat acceptance movement,” Harding at Shapely Prose and Kirby at The Rotund. These cool ladies critique our society’s obsession with skinny bitches and cover topics like how most diets don’t work and how women can be healthy at lots of sizes, not just when they’re Olsen-twin thin.

Maybe you want to buy it to empower a bigger woman in your life—or maybe you’re the bigger woman who wants empowerment. In any case, we’re really excited when anyone acknowledges what real women look like. [$13.95, Lessons From The Fat-O-Sphere]

Kate Winslet is suing the Daily Mail over comments the paper printed about her exercise regime. This isn’t the first time she’s sued a publication about statements regarding her body image, and we bet it won’t be the last. Kate’s “curvy girl” shape and healthy attitude about eating and exercise are as important a part of her image as puffy lips are to Angelina Jolie.

In a suit she filed for nearly $300,000 in libel damages, Kate claims an article in the Daily Mail “injured her personal and professional reputation.” The suit stems from the paper’s retort to a quote Kate had given to Elle about how she stays in shape. In the magazine, she said, “I don’t go to the gym because I don’t have time, but I do Pilates workout DVDs for 20 minutes or more every day at home.” In “Should Kate Winslet Win an Oscar for the World’s Most Irritating Actress?”, writer Liz Jones doubted this was actually Kate’s exercise routine, and speculated that the star probably had to work out a lot more to maintain her figure.

Women’s History Month should feel different this 2009. We’re living in an epicenter of change and progression. We have powerhouses Nancy Pelosi and Hilary Clinton sitting high in the White House. Tina Fey represents our new wave of venerated cultural icons. And before our new president married our first lady, he was reporting to her in the workplace. Yes, smart is sexy again. Or is it?