I wrote the song Lovin' Ourselves Into Love in 1986, and this recording was released on my 1993 album Somethin's Been Missing. I'm playing piano and singing, and my dear friend Ariana Lightningstorm is singing it beautifully with me.
When a friend asked about the song recently, I realized I hadn't ever posted it on this blog, although I feel it is still quite relevant these days. In fact, listening to it this week, I found that the song has a broader meaning to me now than it did back when I wrote it.
Since it has come to mean so many things to me, and since I'd like you to have your own experience of it, I'm going to say no more, and let the song speak for itself.
And I'd love to hear what it means for you, so please comment below if you'd like to let me know. Thank you! Love, Kathleen
Loving Ourselves Into Love / The Fat Song
© Kathleen Hannan 1986
This is a song for the two fat women
Standing in the grocery store aisle
"You know I dropped three pounds this week", one says with a smile
How many pounds would she have to lose
for her beauty to be seen through the eyes of her world?
Tell me
Oh, when will we stop tryin' to starve our way into love?
This is a song, for a friend of yours
With beautiful sparklin' eyes
Born with a body that was never made to fit a fashionable size
She's tried every diet, but still never seems
To look like those women in the fashion magazines
Tell me
Oh, when will we stop tryin' to starve our way into love?
This is a song for the slender daughter
She's taken the message to heart
Learned to control her young body
She's mastered the art
But lately she seems so much thinner
And now she refuses to come down to dinner
And oh
When will she stop tryin' to starve her way into love?
This is a song for an ancient Goddess
At home everywhere on this Earth
She promises comfort and love
She's a giver of birth
Big, round, beautiful and strong
But she's gone out of style
Don't you feel somethin's wrong?
Tell me oh, when will we stop, tryin' to starve our way into love?
This is a song for American women
Caught in the grip of self hate
Wasting our talent and energy
Forever losing weight
Teaching and speaking so much hatred
Of our own bodies, so wondrous
So beautiful, so powerful
And oh, when will we stop trying to starve our way into love?
Now I will sing to the Goddess inside me
The Goddess inside everyone
She who is calling us on, calling us to Love
She shines in our mirrors, she teaches us this tune
We are soft, we are strong, we are round as the moon
And now oh
Now we will start
Lovin' ourselves into Love
Now we will start
Lovin' ourselves into Love
Now we will start
Lovin' ourselves, into Love
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