Is the prevalence among men for liking "thick girls" related to the fact that about 40% of American women are now obese?

Mr_Smoogs · 2019-11-17T15:46:26+00:00

I think people misuse the word too much. Thick is not synonymous with fat or obese.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/66/dc/55/66dc554d3d6fcf765e66d301dd0ffb15.jpg

I would say this is a thick girl.

Atlas_B_Shruggin · 2019-11-17T15:44:34+00:00

The media is now reflecting the black and Hispanic population rather than ignoring it

nevomintoarce · 2019-11-17T16:12:27+00:00

If anything the "thick" standard is worse than the old super skinny standard. They're both so unrealistic but at least anyone can lose weight overall. When people say "thicK" they're talking about fat in acceptable places like hips, ass, thighs, or an exagerrated hour glass. The average fat woman isn't like those celebrities you just mentioned where they only gain fat in desirable places.

reeko12c · 2019-11-17T15:46:26+00:00

Talk to your local strip club; almost zero obese women for good reason. And there's always a petite girl stacking all the cash and all strippers hate her. Men pick obese women as a last resort

WOLFofwallstrYEET · 2019-11-17T15:30:11+00:00

I think that your supposition that the media is somehow wagging the dog on this is perhaps misplaced. I think that men are now used to thick women and the media responded.

finch2200 · 2019-11-17T16:41:10+00:00

Probably, see it more often, grow more accustomed to it. Although historic art has portrayed the ideal female image as a bit on the thick side, and I’ve heard discussions about guys instinctually preferring girls with a bit of meat on their bones.

Honestly, I think the desire for thicker women has always been present for a lot of guys and the advent of social communication via the internet allows people to express their interests, regardless of what mass media tries to portray as the ideal figure.

MoodyBrizo · 2019-11-17T22:11:21+00:00

No it's African American/Black culture infecting main stream American culture.

diffdedbed · 2019-11-17T20:42:40+00:00

Skinny waif girls still get the most attention over all. Thicc is a much a meme and "ethnic" thing then what is really seen in mainstream dating.

AnActualPerson · 2019-11-17T17:12:33+00:00

I think the economy might be a factor. I remember reading that richer men preferred skinnier women while poor guys like them thicc. Now a lot more people are poor, so tastes changed accordingly.

Eastuss · 2019-11-18T10:01:47+00:00

For the last fucking time, "thick" "curvy" or any other of these adjectives for women ARE NOT ABOUT FAT LEVELS but rather fat disposition and skeleton structure. Nobody is attracted to big bellies and wide waists, NOBODY.

LiIaIc · 2019-11-17T16:33:06+00:00

I mean I'm sure there are a lot of factors to this, and not just one finite answer. I guess I'll offer up a few reasons? (I'm not saying these are facts):

Biological reasons. This is really more applicable to "thick" as in when fat distributes itself to the breasts and hips. A woman having big hips, thighs and breasts suggests that she'd be good for bearing children. So on a biological level, it is more natural to be attracted to this body type. Women with big hips have been depicted in ancient artifacts such as sculptures due to this.

Cultural influences. In the modern era there has been a push for body acceptance, and most of the body positive movement has been (admittedly) hijacked by overweight women such as Amy Schumer. I believe this is due to marketability, most of the consumers of beauty products are women, 40% being overweight. From a marketing perspective, you are going to market more to overweight women than any other body type demographic.

Personal preference. Contrary to what many people would like to believe, people do have preferences. People are diverse and unique, and aren't just attracted to conventional beauty. Some men genuinely are attracted to chubby, thick, overweight, obese, etc women. Even during eras where conventional beauty was hyper skinny women, you'd still get a demographic of men attracted to overweight women.

It's not factored in. In this case is probably where a man falls in love with a woman for reasons other than her body.

Etc.

Coder-Cat · 2019-11-17T17:22:17+00:00

You missed the part where 30% of men in America have a BMI that’s in the healthy* range vs the 40% of women.

Being overweight is common and telling overweight people that they’re not desirable or sexy is detrimental to most of the population.

https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/adult-overweightobesity-rate-by-gender/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D

nemma88 · 2019-11-17T16:54:41+00:00

Idk much about celebrities but Amber Heard stats has her BMI in at around 22.6. I'd theorise that the most 'natural' attractive weight is around 22bmi which exentuates the hour glass, traits which were selected in human females and are quite unique to it. 22bmi is also thought to be a healthy weight (though when I just checked that it suggests the healthiest bmi has gone up.)when considering everything including immune function. We are animals, we are designed to store fat, to an extent.

Not sure that's 'thick' tho. Theres evidently a limit where it becomes unhealthy. Not sure it's any different evolutionary wise than a preference for skinny women. Most of our attraction ques seem learnt IMO.

rus9384 · 2019-11-17T17:05:58+00:00

Sexuality is adaptive. More "thick girls" around has effect on liking them.

Taipanshimshon · 2019-11-17T19:16:50+00:00

We may like thick girls but what people call thick these days is plain fat

eboy4hire · 2019-11-17T20:03:28+00:00

Men don't unironically like extra thicc women. They're just easy to get for sex. Thick women that men actually like unironically are simply not stick thin like a lot of the fashion models that are in women's advertising.

erman88 · 2019-11-17T21:18:03+00:00

Huge asses are just a fad, like being skinny with big boobs was a thing in the 90s.

Reality is though nice asses, nice boobs and narrow waists on attractive women are never out of Vogue, just different emphasis on different things in the media.

Celestial_Europe · 2019-11-17T22:57:59+00:00

U.S. has now been trying to change the biological reality of people liking fit people.

Am going to be blunt: I dont like fat people.

There you go.

Hit the gym and do a proper diet if you're fat.

The end.

YourFriendJesus · 2019-11-17T23:12:04+00:00

I liked thick girls before 'thick' meant being shaped like a beach ball.

geyejoe7 · 2019-11-18T06:50:30+00:00

Men have a "natural" preference for "thick" girls.

Let me explain... Being 250 pounds, and having a huge stomach, isn't "thick". That's obese.

Having a small waist, large breasts and buttocks, large "child bearing" hips... That's thick. Those are all natural signs of a fertile woman. That's why men like it.

But, some standards for women in america might be warped for men because of the large obesity rate. It's harder to find a normal weight partner where obesity is normalized. So some men lower their standards. Which sucks, because they really shouldn't have to.

iceicle999 · 2019-11-17T15:27:29+00:00

It's a reflection of the fact that men have atrociously low standards for women, despite what the internet says otherwise.

It wouldn't kill men to have some god damn standards in women, holy shit.

loke2dabrain · 2019-11-17T16:07:41+00:00

It has to do with thick girls having big asses. They still have to have the correct body type though.

RT-AC66U · 2019-11-17T17:48:12+00:00

There was a YT of what the female norm was by generation. Boyish Flapper in the 1920s. Etc.

Booty, thicc,. In 10 years itll be something else.

[deleted] · 2019-11-17T19:39:12+00:00

Dunno, but I don't get it. I like fit girls. Google "strong is the new skinny" and that's the body(ies) that I am attracted to.

-OpportunityCost · 2019-11-17T19:45:23+00:00

There is a big difference between thick and fat. Thick means bigger ass, legs, or boobs without extra fat around the stomach. It doesn't mean they want a girl with more fat in her face and stomach.

mistresswhat · 2019-11-17T19:48:17+00:00

Various cultures have considered actual obesity very attractive and some still do. It was more common when everyone was starving because it was an indicator of wealth. A lot of Medieval art depicts beautiful women with potbellies. Your ideal body type has never been nearly as evolutionarily determined as some people might suggest.

(And if it were, no one would be attracted to underweight women because they tend to have fertility issues.)

washington_breadstix · 2019-11-17T19:56:38+00:00

My understanding is that the strictest definition of the word "thick" or "thicc" is that it does not describe an absolute body fat percentage or BMI, but rather it refers to when a woman has just enough fat to where you can see that she stores it in the optimal places. Attractive "thicc" girls are not fat; they're absolutely in great shape most of the time and just have different genetics from the typical skinny girl and their hourglass figures are just more exaggerated.

However, the term "thicc" now seems to be going the way of "curvy" in that people are misappropriating it to refer to the idea of embracing an overweight body or even fetishizing fat girls. Either that, or legitimately fat women are being called "thicc" as a form of sour grapes among men who can't attract actual "thicc" girls, so instead they call the (fat) women they can attract "thicc" as a coping mechanism.

Lastly, cultural factors aside, I think there is biologically a little more leeway for women than men in terms of being attractive despite an unhealthy BMI. As long as a woman essentially has curves in the right places, she doesn't exactly need washboard abs.

grand_tiremaster · 2019-11-17T22:49:58+00:00

I think the only reason thick women are more popular today is because of forced diversity and political correctness. “Body positivity” garbage. People are bigger and instead of improving their diets and turning to exercise/training, they want to stay bigger. I think ethnicity/race has to do with it also. My boyfriend is European (Dutch, Italian). My boyfriend finds bigger women absolutely repulsive, and he says in the Netherlands people aren’t as fat as they are in the USA. So over there most people his age prefer healthy weight mates. Yet hispanic ppl over here love fat ass and large boobs together on one body. Very rarely do such women have a flat tummy naturally.. White men definitely do like big boobs too, but they want it on a petite body type. In Asia fat people are shunned away like lepers. But the West doesn’t want to be as based as Asia.

But also can people get themselves a mate in a healthy weight range? Only if you are healthy too, or you have money. Rich dudes prefer skinny women usually. I always reference to Dan Bilzerian for these posts. Guy has money and isn’t particularly good looking (to me, his face isn’t great), but he has skinny/petite instagram models around him at all times. He doesn’t have girls that look like mumukun around him. Skinny/petite women aren’t second place for upper class men, rich men, and high value men.

DaphneDK42 · 2019-11-18T00:34:42+00:00

I think there is a miscommunication going on. When men say "thick" they mean girls a bit on the chubby side, with the extra fat on the hips and tits. And then fat landwhale women go out and put "thick" on their dating profile.

BlackPrideWorldWide · 2019-11-18T01:52:15+00:00

Could be. Men tend to "fetishize" whichever type they have their first sexual experience with, which is why men who've had decent dating experience are more open, but many incels' tastes pretty much match the media-dictated ideal to a "t".

HWGA_Gallifrey · 2019-11-18T03:47:37+00:00

A prevalence during the Renaissance for full figured women shows the cyclical nature of what's considered attractive.

Most minorities go for full figured women (mother bias). But there's no correlation between current obesity metrics and modern beauty standards.

iamprosciutto · 2019-11-17T15:50:05+00:00

Personally, I just love curves, boobs, and thighs. I have always had a predilection for more zaftig ladies. My friend, Greg, takes it to a whole other level. The big, round belly is a part of it for him while I don't really care for it. I prefer more of a horizontally-stretched hourglass-esque shape

trueorfalsedmitry · 2019-11-17T16:38:52+00:00

The Venus of Willendorf is about 30,000 years old.

The American media is... younger than that.

decoy88 · 2019-11-17T16:59:16+00:00

Naah it’s because whatever we have they wanna co-opt. Thiccness, rock, hip hop (sampling), dreads. Etc

We invent cool shit, then some media mogul comes and steals it, rebrands it as their idea.

reluctantly_red · 2019-11-17T15:38:31+00:00

Some of us didn't need any encouragement. My first crush, back in 1973 was a chubby brunette in my 4th grade class.

Still have a thing for chubby brunettes.

Shadow_Of_ · 2019-11-17T17:32:39+00:00

I like "thick" girls not fat girls. Fat girls can go and eat themselves to death.

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[deleted] · 2019-11-17T23:20:07+00:00

https://www.scienceofpeople.com/ideal-body-types-throughout-history/

It's always been a bit of a cycle, and while this timeline has more than just western culture, it's still a decent overview.

Atm, we're bouncing back towards the 'hourglass/pin-up' type frame after decades of the 'waif' and 'heroin-chic' types.

reluctantly_red · 2019-11-18T03:16:24+00:00

At a truck stop in Salinas -- pretty fat brown women all over the place -- love this country!

Gerealtor · 2019-11-18T07:58:40+00:00

I think it's what people grow accostumed to because it's what around mostly. I don't believe it's the ideal, though, because if you look at the men who could have literally any woman of their pick (famous musicians, actors, big male models) they still overwhelmingly date the skinny VS model body type. I think people just tend to grow a preference for what's more attainable to them personally (which is a good thing).

CosmicBioHazard · 2019-11-18T17:37:56+00:00

In the simplest of terms, body fat is unattractive, a large bust is attractive, and there exists a sweet spot BMI where the extra mass in the bust more than compensates for the chubbiness that comes with it.

PapaPinyun · 2019-11-18T20:17:34+00:00

How are you going to argue like there is a genetic compulsion for thin women, and then also credit one half of one human generation's media depictions with altering this compulsion in men en masse?

Joey_Lopez · 2019-11-18T21:49:09+00:00

You must be white or something. Because in the Spanish community thick girls rule and it's the skinny girls that are considered undesirable. We don't like thick girls because someone told us we have to, it's just what we like.

Also thick doesn't mean obese. It means curvy or voluptuous.

LocalReligionMajor · 2019-11-20T05:08:19+00:00

First of all, thick doesn't mean obese. Also, if you look at artwork throughout the ages, you will find some skinny women, but also some heavier women. The preference for thick women is definitely not new. I think the trick is to follow the class dynamics. Before, having some weight was a sign of wealth (and therefore health) because you didn't have to do manual labor and access to food. Then, in the modern economy and processed food, the underclass became obese, and having time to exercise and eat healthily became a sign of wealth. Hence the obsession with being skinny.

I think the shift in preference may be a sign of a shift in wealth. More black artists are successful. And, big butt/boobs may indicate the time to get that kind of figure or the access to plastic surgery.

SamiraMifsud · 2019-11-20T11:06:19+00:00

Fat positivity activists have distorted what 'thick' means. Thick means curvy, a woman who is maybe a little bit overweight which is almost impossible not to be in this obesogenic society. Fat activists think this and even above is 'thick ' or 'curvy' whereas this is what curvy really means.

Hotblack_Desiato_ · 2019-11-20T15:11:43+00:00

Ofourkind · 2019-11-17T17:16:43+00:00

There's no shortage of men who prefer bigger girls independent of outside influence, never has been. Let's also not ignore the fact that 70% of men are also fat.

That said, the increase in representation of fat models isn't for the purpose of enticing men. It's to sell fat women clothes.

Thin/fit will always be the gold standard for beauty.

Kos_-_Omak · 2019-11-18T05:37:00+00:00

No, this alleged preference is completely artificial. The people who control mass media are trying to force "urban" culture onto mainstream society and this is part of that effort.

Only low value/ poor men truly prefer the ridiculously large "thicc" asses on women. There are scientific studies linking this preference to evolutionary pressures on famine-prone regions of Africa.

High value men absolutely do not prefer "thicc" women. Huge baboon asses are disgusting.

KillerLlamar · 2019-11-17T17:30:29+00:00

Nicki Minaj is a plus sized model now? She has definitely put on weight since her early days, but Minaj was in ridiculously good shape for some of her music videos.

When people say 'thick' I think of women like this: Link

Not like this: Link

There's a really big difference with those two. The first one isn't remotely obese, in fact her BMI is probably lower than a significant amount of skinny-ft women who think they look like Twiggy.

Men have always preferred large breasts, asses, and hips due to the appearance of symmetry. Women realized in the mid 2000's working out with heavy weight like men did could exaggerate their proportions and combined with the social media boom where men could access these photos at any time the preferences evolved accordingly.

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