ABSTRACT
Fat Studies yields insight into gay men who possess or desire a body that does not conform to the gay-male-beauty myth. Lookism occurs among gay men who fat shame one another on gay dating apps as they ascribe feminine stigma to fat men through the tagline, “No Fats, No Femmes.” The fat-gay male body epitomizes both a site of shame and stigma resistance, posing a challenge for fat-gay men, femme and/or racialized, in their romantic and sexual lives. Groups like Girth & Mirth, Bears, and Gainers & Encouragers offer support and sexual citizenship through fat performative protest. Girth & Mirth, a haven for men doubly stigmatized, by their size and sexuality, opposes weight discrimination among gays and offers members a friendship circle. Bears promote sexualized acceptance of large bellies and body hair, yet emasculate young, slim “twinks,” prioritizing “regular-guy” masculinity. The “muscle bear” fosters anxieties around Bear-body emulation. Research on Bears outside the United States indexes changing global-gay masculinity. Gainers & Encouragers desire to inhabit a fatter body or revere one, defying the youthful, thin-and-fit gay-male ideal. They queerly disrupt norms of appearance, desire, and sexuality as they celebrate bigger, expanding bodies. Fat-gay men’s groups diversify queer desire. Their visual-and-virtual culture includes body-based and sexually transgressive art. Bear-and-chubby art appears in galleries, reality-TV representations of fat drag-queens, websites counteracting the lack of fashion for queer men of size, and porn and erotic magazines. Big-men’s groups’ event advertisements and erotic imagery overlook same-gender-loving big men of color. Research into fat-gay men should articulate the intersectionalities of sexuality/size with gender/race/class/age/disability/nationality.
