Big Beautiful Woman

"Big Beautiful Woman" (commonly abbreviated as BBW) is a euphemism for an overweight woman.[1]

"bbws" redirects here. For the singular form, see BBW (disambiguation).
Sculpture by Fernando Botero

Meaning and usage

The terms "Big Beautiful Women" and "BBW" were coined by Carole Shaw in 1979, when she launched BBW Magazine, a fashion and lifestyle magazine for "plus-size" women.[2] BBW Magazine trademarked the term Big Beautiful Woman, which was later transferred to Dimensions Magazine.[3]

Although "BBW" may have been first used in the context of BBW Magazine, the term's usage spread over the years. It has reached the point that even women who have never heard of the magazine have begun to refer to themselves as "BBWs".

The abbreviation BBW can often be found used in personal ads, online dating services, and pornography denoting an identification with (or preference for) such women, and is also used to denote events specifically targeted to such women, and persons interested in them, such as specific gathering nights in dance clubs, restaurants, and fashion stores and shows.

The term is also commonly used as a positive euphemism by those involved with the fat acceptance movement.[4]

Rubens's "Venus at the Mirror"

The term has several near-synonyms with varying shades of meaning, such as "full-figured", "voluptuous", "zaftig", and "Rubenesque", the latter term referring to the art of Peter Paul Rubens, best known for portraying full-bodied women.[5]

Variants

The acronym BBBW stands for Big Beautiful Black Woman.[6] Another variant is SSBBW: Supersized Big Beautiful Woman. There is no formal definition which explains the exact difference between BBW and SSBBW. Some BBWs or SSBBWs consider themselves to be feedees.[7] Dimensions Magazine considers a woman over 350 pounds (160 kg) to be an SSBBW.[3]

Big Handsome Man

Big Handsome Man (BHM), or Big Hulking Men, or sometimes Big Beautiful Man (BBM), refers to a physically or sexually attractive fat man. Women who are attracted to BHMs are called Female Fat Admirers (FFA). In the gay community, BHMs are sometimes called "chubs", and men who are attracted to BHMs are known as chubby chasers.

See also

References
  1. Schwimmer, Jeffrey (2005). "Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance". Environmental Health Perspectives. 113 (10): A706. doi:10.1289/ehp.113-a706a. PMC 1281327.
  2. "BBW Past & Present". 2014-08-15. Retrieved 2015-08-05.
  3. "What is Dimensions Online?". 2007-12-31. Archived from the original on 2007-12-31. Retrieved 2020-06-07.
  4. Marcus, Sarah-Rose (2016). "Thinspiration vs. thicksperation: Comparing pro-anorexic and fat acceptance image posts on a photo-sharing site". Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace. 10 (2): 6. doi:10.5817/cp2016-2-5. ISSN 1802-7962.
  5. Swami, Viren; Gray, Maggie; Furnham, Adrian (September 2006). "The Female Nude in Rubens: Disconfirmatory Evidence of the Waist-to-Hip Ratio Hypothesis of Female Physical Attractiveness". Imagination, Cognition and Personality. 26 (1): 139–147. doi:10.2190/r11x-5752-v164-4240. ISSN 0276-2366. S2CID 143925958.
  6. Walkington, Lori. From NSA to FWB : big beautiful women and sexual agency online. OCLC 726764353.
  7. Jones, Angela (2018-12-10). "The pleasures of fetishization: BBW erotic webcam performers, empowerment, and pleasure". Fat Studies. 8 (3): 279–298. doi:10.1080/21604851.2019.1551697. ISSN 2160-4851. S2CID 150004077.
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