Fat Gay Men

Fat Gay Men

To be fat in a thin-obsessed gay culturecan be challenging. Despite affectionate in-group tags for huge gay men-- chubs, bears, cubs-- the anti-fat stigma that persists in American culture at largestill haunts these individuals who frequently exist at the margins of gaycommunities. In Fat Gay Men, JasonWhitesel delves into the world of Girth as well as Mirth, a country wide known socialclub devoted to big gay males, lighting up the ways in which these males formidentities as well as neighborhood when faced with hardship. Out there for over fortyyears, the club has actually long been a haven and 'risk-free area' for such guys. Both a partial insider as a gay guy and also anoutsider to Girth and Mirth, Whitesel offers an expert's critique of the gaymovement, wondering about whether the social consequences of the failure to beheight-weight proportionate need to be so extreme in the gay area. This publication papers efficiencies at club events and also analyzes howparticipants utilize intimation and also campy-queer habits to reconfigure and reclaimtheir sullied body photos, concentrating on the numerous tensions of marginalizationand self-respect that big gay males experience as well as just how they bargain these tensionsvia their membership to a size-positive team. Based upon ethnographic interviewsand extensive field notes from more than 100 occasions at bar nights, caf\u00e9klatches, restaurants, meals, vacation celebrations, pool parties, flick nights, and weekend hideaways, the book checks out the woundedness that comes from beingrelegated to an inferior position in gay pecking orders, and also yet commemorates howsome gay guys can rearrange the shame of fat stigma via circus, camp, andplay. A compelling and also rich narrative, FatGay Men gives a rare peek right into an unexplored measurement of weight andbody image in American culture.

Jason Whitesel is Associate Professor of Sociology as well as Women's Sex as well as Sexuality Researches at Illinois State University as well as the writer Fat Gay Guy: Girth, Mirth, and also the Politics of Preconception.