What's the Difference?

Cy Perry

Professor Shaw

WGSS 275

11/3/2016

Sexy/Beautiful/Fat Response 

    As I was watching television the other day, I noticed something odd occurring. I am a 20 year old, male, college athlete and I consider myself in okay shape. Not in tremendous shape, but nor do I consider myself out of shape. I was watching a show with my girlfriend, this show is called “Girl Code.” Basically what this show does is speak out to the public about things girls do and why they do it. It is basically a show to provide males with a real idea of why women do things, or at least that is how I perceived it. There was a segment in this episode we were watching that talks about fat males. Every single woman on this show is beautiful and would be considered that by any male or female who watches it. This segment basically talked about how attractive a male who is a overweight it. It threw me off a little that these women, (who all are mostly models or stars of other TV shows), are talking about men who were overweight this way. But why was I thrown off? These beautiful women were sitting here praising males who were chubby, but it is not because of their looks. It was the way that these males have always acted towards them. From their personalities, which they all could agree on that fat guys are way funnier than any other type of guy, to the simple task of talking to them. They all agreed that yeah, a man with huge muscles and washboard abs were considered “sexy”, but that chubby guys were the way to their heart. But is it true to say the other way around? Would there be a group of famous, extremely handsome males, talking about the opposing sex the same way? Do these males prefer a woman who is considered overweight? It is hard to say because there has never been a segment on that. This got me thinking and thinking pretty hard. Is this okay? Why can’t I, myself, answer this question? This isn’t fair. Here is a link to the show http://www.mtv.com/shows/girl-code/episode-guide 

     In LeBesco’s piece titled, “Sexy/Beautiful/Fat”, she speaks on this issue. She goes into detail on the “fat woman” body and tries to challenge it by presenting articles that also challenge the way we see women’s bodies. She explains that this process was not a simple one, in fact, was an extremely difficult one to say the least. She says, “I had tremendous difficulty finding much work in mainstream media…” The only articles she was actually able to find helpful were alternative media results that were also not easy to find. These were the ones who challenged mainstream media and the way that these bodies are seen. One piece she talked about stood out to me. Rosemary Bray’s article. The piece she spoke on about a black woman in a white world, who also was fat in a thin world, and a woman in a mans world. Simply reading that, and only that, did I realize that there is no way in any shape or form that my previous question can be answered politely. There is no way a group of males would be publicly speaking about their love for bigger women. This is wrong on so many levels, except for accuracy. LeBesco’s piece goes on to say that even though Bray has made this article about her experience with the pleasure of her body, she still resorts back to the issues of her eating habits and doesn’t embrace her body. She embraces the experiences, but not her body. The body is still scrutinized for being over weight. 

     Why is it that women are able to look past the body size of a male and into his heart to see that bodies are not what makes a human being, it is the person who really makes an impact, but there is in no way shape or form that a male could do the same thing? Does it have to do with the fact that we live in a patriarchal society? Perhaps, but why is it that women can still be the ones who are making these steps towards getting rid of body shaming, while most men stand still on this type of issue. As a male myself, I never would have thought of anything this way. I never would even be having this conversation. But as I have began to dig into the world that is Women’s Gender Studies, I am seeing the horrid other side of things. I am seeing and hearing these awful instances of male ignorance and it has dramatically changed the way I think.