The Hypersexualisation of Fat

Women, Weight and Transgression

We live in a society that values thin bodies in women. I’m not stating anything groundbreaking here; it hasn’t been missed by anyone. Thin (white) women are ever-present in the media, and in general representations of beauty. If we delve in the related area of what is considered ‘sexy’, we might shift towards a curvier image, bigger boobs, bigger butts. Still, our average sexy girl figures a flat stomach, a narrow waist, and an overall fit body.

Which is why I think for a long time, I missed one reality: fat is very much a factor of sexualisation. And I’m not just talking boobs and butts. I’m talking any part of your anatomy, arms, legs, that small area of bare skin between your jeans and your top. You’ll see size-2 girls wearing microscopic shorts, and it doesn’t strike anyone as problematic, but give a pair of average-size shorts to a bigger woman, and it will often look too sexual. As your thighs get thicker and your ass rounder, the length considered acceptable for shorts, skirts or dresses goes way down.

But you don’t necessarily notice this as quickly as you notice other people’s attitudes towards you and their opinions on your attire. Over about five years, I gained 18kgs by overdrinking and eating shitty food. I ended up overweight. (That’s not the case for every curvy or fat person, I’m not making a statement about weight here, so don’t go making assumptions on other people’s bodies based on this. It was just my experience.) I recently limited my alcohol consumption drastically and decided to overturn the weight gain, so I started slimming down. And it’s only now, as I’m just starting to pay attention to my weight, that I finally noticed.

Something I’d been wondering for years was: why does street harassment happen to me so often? I mean, street harassment occurs to any woman. A recent enough study in the Paris area (where I live) estimated that 100% of female users of the metro/underground had been harassed while using it. All of my friends are harassed frequently enough, but somehow these last few years it really dawned on me that it wasn’t quite as often as I was. I went through trying periods during which it was basically every time I went outside, even just…

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