Meaning
The term is a subjective, visually determined concept that does not have an explicit lower or upper weight limitation, and may denote women who may be considered barely overweight to those who are morbidly obese. A 2009 study found that male fat admirers preferred females that were clinically overweight and rated both overweight and obese women more positively than slighter individuals. The study also found that participants reacted more positively to a much wider range of figures than a control group, even rating emaciated figures higher. It concludes "these findings suggest that an explanation for fat admiration may be that FAs are rejecting sociocultural norms of attractiveness".
The term has several near-synonyms with varying shades of meaning:
- Full-figured or Rubenesque - the latter term referring to the art of Peter Paul Rubens, best known for portraying full-bodied women.
- Voluptuous and zaftig usually connote ripeness, sensuality, and a body shape involving large breasts and wide hips, although in such women the waist-hip ratio is generally smaller indicating only slightly overweight or normal weight status
Read more about this topic: Big Beautiful Woman
Famous quotes containing the word meaning:
“The meaning of the Street in all ways and at all times is the need for sharing life with others and the search for community.”
—Virginia Hamilton (b. 1936)
“Everywhere one seeks to produce meaning, to make the world signify, to render it visible. We are not, however, in danger of lacking meaning; quite the contrary, we are gorged with meaning and it is killing us.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“Man is eminently a storyteller. His search for a purpose, a cause, an ideal, a mission and the like is largely a search for a plot and a pattern in the development of his life story—a story that is basically without meaning or pattern.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)