I tried on a hot, red pencil skirt in Zara the other evening. As I did the obligatory 180-degree turn to look at myself from every angle, the question I was asking in my head was ‘does my ass look big in this?’ And as I turned to inspect my side profile I confirmed that, yes, indeed, my ass looked nice and big in it.

 And I liked it.

Had this scene taken place ten years ago when I was 20-years-old and completely hung up on my womanly curves and aspiring to be lithe like Kate Moss, I would have been mortified at the sight of my shapely derriere in the mirror. However, thanks to years of self therapy in the form of a reality check (Andrea, you have a Cypriot ass and you love food. You’ll never be a size 8. Get over it), I’ve finally learnt to accept and, indeed, love my curvy body.

And I’d now like to thank Christina Hendricks for illustrating to me how to show it off.

Christina Hendricks is best known for her performance as the sassy Joan Harris in the TV series Mad Men. Joan sashays around with pride in ultra tight pencil skirts that cling to her every curve. Her boobs and ass look positively big, and she has no qualms in showing these off at any given opportunity.

She’s made looking curvy ‘hot’ again.

Not that it was ever not hot to be curvy. It’s always good to be curvy. But the media likes to let us believe otherwise. It persistently propagates the ideal of women being ultra thin. Magazines airbrush everyone to perfection, while Hollywood movies rarely ever feature an actress who’s bigger than a Twiglet.

Fuck the media.

Christina Hendricks is so brilliantly curvy that she makes you want to wear clingy clothes that show off your big butt. Had I tried on this pencil skirt pre-Mad Men, I would have thought ‘no bloody way, ass looks big’ and rushed off to find a more forgiving A-line skirt. Instead, I took one look and thought “yeah, I can bloody pull this off,” and I now walk around proudly, pretending I’m on the set of Mad Men.

I’m not here to celebrate one type of female figure. The truth is, we’re all different, and we should be happy to be different instead of aspiring to achieve something unattainable. Skinny, pear, apple, hourglass. What the fuck ever. Love your body, enjoy good food and exercise, and live your life.

And, if you’ve got a big butt, go out and buy that damn skin tight pencil skirt. You’ll thank Christina and I for it.

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