View source for Fat fetishism

{{Short description|Type of paraphilia}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
[[File:Fernando Botero - Naked lady.JPG|thumb|right|Sculpture by [[Fernando Botero]]]]
{{Human body weight}}
'''Fat fetishism''' or '''adipophilia''' (Latin {{lang|la|adeps}} - "fat" and Greek {{lang|grc|φιλία}} - "love") is a [[sexual attraction]] directed towards [[overweight]] or [[obesity|obese]] people due primarily to their weight and size.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/t-magazine/22face-merkin-t.html |title=The F Word |author=Merkin, Daphne |date=22 August 2010 |magazine=[[The New York Times]] |author-link=Daphne Merkin}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-excess/201506/the-fat-fetish-explained |title=The Fat Fetish, Explained |author=Griffiths, Mark D. |magazine=[[Psychology Today]] |date=30 June 2015}}</ref>

A variety of fat fetishism is 'feed(er)ism' or 'gaining', where sexual gratification is obtained from the process of gaining, or helping others gain, [[body fat]], not necessarily from the fat itself, though there is much overlap between these groups. Fat fetishism also incorporates '[[Gluttony|stuffing]]' and '[[padding]]', whereas the focus of [[sexual arousal|arousal]] is on the sensations and properties of a real or simulated gain.<ref name="Charles and Palkowski">{{cite book |last1=Charles |first1=Kathy |last2=Palkowski |first2=Michael |title=Feederism Eating, Weight Gain and Sexual Pleasure |date=2015}}</ref>

== As a subculture ==

The fat fetishism community has overlapped with [[body positivity]] and [[fat feminism]] movements. The [[National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance]] (NAAFA) has worked as an advocacy organization for fat people, but was partly formed to help male fat fetishists and other fat admirers (FAs) find fat women to date and have sex with.<ref name="pfeiffer">{{cite book |last1=Pfeffer |first1=Carla A. |editor1-last=Craig |editor1-first=Maxine Leeds |title=The Routledge companion to beauty politics |date=2021 |location=Abingdon, Oxon |isbn=9781032043319 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o_cyEAAAQBAJ&q=%22Fat+fetishism%22&pg=PT227 |access-date=19 August 2021 |chapter=17: Fat Activism and Beauty Politics}}</ref><ref name="Saguy 2002"/>

Fat fetishism as a community is predominantly heterosexual, focusing on fat women and thinner men. Fat fetishism includes both real-life and internet communities. Fat fetishism practices and subcultures include internet porn; "gaining" and "feeding", which involves eating to intentionally gain weight; "[[hogging (sexual practice)|hogging]]", which is when men seek out fat women to sexually exploit; and "squashing" which is sexual attraction to the idea of being crushed by a fat person or people.<ref name="pfeiffer"/>

According to ''The Routledge Companion to Beauty Politics'', "the gendered, raced, and classed power dynamics of many of these subcultures often mirror, reinforce, and even exaggerate existing racial, gender, class, and sexual inequalities."<ref name="pfeiffer"/> Sociologist Abigail C. Saguy has proposed that by [[Objectification|objectifying]] women's weight, they are reinforcing the cultural importance of women's weight to their physical appearance, therefore also reinforcing gender inequality.<ref name="Swami">{{cite journal |title=Big Beautiful Women: The Body Size Preferences of Male Fat Admirers |journal=[[Journal of Sex Research]] |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=89–96 |year=2009 |author1=Swami, V. |author2=Tovée, M. J. |citeseerx=10.1.1.614.550 |doi=10.1080/00224490802645302 |pmid=19116865 |s2cid=19149163}}</ref><ref name="Saguy 2002">{{cite journal |last1=Saguy |first1=Abigail C. |title=Sex, Inequality, and Ethnography: Response to Erich Goode |journal=Qualitative Sociology |date=1 December 2002 |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=549–556 |doi=10.1023/A:1021071101130 |s2cid=141282085}}</ref>

=== Feedism{{anchor|Feederism}} ===

Gainers and feedees are people who enjoy the fantasy or reality of being fed and/or gaining weight themselves. Encouragers and feeders typically enjoy the fantasy of helping someone else gain weight.<ref name="Charles and Palkowski"/> 'Gainer' and 'encourager' are common labels among [[gay men]], while both straight men and women as well as lesbian women often identify as feeders and feedees.<ref name="Bestard">{{cite thesis |author=Bestard, Alyshia |title=Feederism: an exploratory study into the stigma of erotic weight gain. |journal=University of Waterloo Thesis Paper |date=September 2008 |url=https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/3985 |pages=27–28 |oclc=650872028|type=Master Thesis }}</ref> Some prefer the term "feedism" over feederism, as it suggests a more equal relationship between the feeder and feedee.<ref name="Charles and Palkowski"/>

While gaining and feeding are often considered fetishes, many within the gainer and feedism communities report viewing them more as a lifestyle, identity or sexual orientation.<ref name="Bestard"/>

Feedism is portrayed by media as a [[taboo]] or a niche interest.<ref name="Charles and Palkowski"/> Negative media portrayals include the 2005 film [[Feed (2005 film)|''Feed'']], which is an example of non-consensual feedism. Research has shown that the overwhelming majority of feedism relationships are fully consensual and [[Bedridden|immobility]] is mostly kept as a [[fantasy]] for participants.<ref name="Charles and Palkowski"/>

The gay gainer community grew out of the [[Girth & Mirth]] movement in the '70s. By 1988 there were gainer-specific newsletters and in 1992, the first gainer event, called EncourageCon, was held in [[New Hope, Pennsylvania]]. In 1996, GainRWeb launched, the first website dedicated to gay men into weight gain.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Textor, Alex Robertson |title=Organization, Specialization, and Desires in the Big Men's Movement: Preliminary Research in the Study of Subculture-Formation. |journal=International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies |date=July 1999 |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=218–220 |doi=10.1023/A:1023223013536 |hdl=2027.42/44662 |s2cid=55158491 |url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44662/1/10848_2004_Article_419199.pdf |hdl-access=free}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Bear (gay culture)]]
* [[Big Beautiful Woman]]
* [[Big Handsome Man]]
* [[Chub (gay culture)]]
* [[Fat acceptance movement]]
* [[Leblouh]]
* [[Fattening room]]
* [[Obesity and sexuality]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===

* Giovanelli, Dina and Natalie Peluso. 2006. "Feederism: a new sexual pleasure and subculture" 
pp 309–314 in ''The Handbook of New Sexuality Studies''. Edited by Steven Seidman. Oxford, UK: Routledge.
* Kathleen LeBesco. 2004. Revolting Bodies?: The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity. Univ of Massachusetts Press. {{ISBN|1-55849-429-4}}
*Don Kulick and Anne Meneley. 2005. Fat: The Anthropology of an Obsession, {{ISBN|1-58542-386-6}}.
* Charles, K and Palkowski, M. 2015. Feederism: Eating, Weight Gain and Sexual Pleasure, Palgrave, {{ISBN|978-1-137-47045-4}}.

==Further reading==
* {{cite web |last1=Pardes |first1=Arielle |title=The Women Who Get Off by Watching Men Gain Weight – VICE |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-women-who-get-off-from-feeding-317/ |website=Vice |date=19 March 2015}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Textor |first1=Alex Robertson |title=Organization, Specialization, and Desires in the Big Men's Movement: Preliminary Research in the Study of Subculture-Formation |journal=International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies |year=1999 |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=217–239 |doi=10.1023/A:1023223013536 |hdl=2027.42/44662 |s2cid=55158491 |hdl-access=free}}

{{Sex fetish}}

[[Category:Fat fetishism| ]]
[[Category:Obesity]]
[[Category:Paraphilias]]
[[Category:Sexual fetishism]]
[[Category:Sexology]]