Have you noticed something lately? When talking about attractive shapes, larger, curvier bodies are coming up more and more. It’s almost like fat became the new fine. How did such an integral change happen?
Here’s how fat became the new fine:
- Kardashian kurves
- Bopo rises up
- Fat wouldn’t go away
- Wider clothing selection
- Loud fat icons
- More vocal mainstream
We’re living in a great time in history as bigger bodies are not only accepted but perhaps even preferred by some. Keep reading for more on how we’ve reached this point, as I have lots to talk about ahead.
How Fat Became the New Fine
Embed from Getty ImagesKardashian Kurves Are In
Whether you love or hate them, you cannot deny the impact that the Kardashians have had on pop culture and culture in general.
Before the Kardashians were on our TV screens on Keeping Up with the Kardashians, women still had curves, but they weren’t celebrated to such the wide degree that they are now.
In the 2010s, the beauty standards of the decade were the kind of curves that Kim Kardashian boasts. Although we know that most of her curves are surgically enhanced, that’s not exactly the point here.
What is the point is that Kim and the Krew put kurves at the forefront again. And although even their impact couldn’t last forever, and by the 2020s, skinny was in again, the Kardashians have a huge collective audience (or should I say kollective audience).
Kim alone has more than 282 million social media followers. That’s a huge number of people who continue to see her curves. Men wish they could have a lady with a body like that, and women wished they could look more like that, which now they can with Kim’s shapewear line.
Although I would never call the Kardashians fat, I must say that they deserve credit for being instrumental in helping change the collective perception of what an attractive woman could look like in the 2010s and beyond.
Massive Bopo Movement
The Internet is great for a lot of things. Buying groceries so you don’t have to change out of your pajamas? Check. Finding endless hours of viral entertainment to watch so you can be the hit at the office water cooler? Check. Connecting with friends and family? Check.
The Internet has also made it easier for unrealistic body standards to prevail across social media. Whether it’s surgically enhanced bodies ala the Kardashians or digitally enhanced bodies via free phone apps that can transform you in moments, it seems like no one is real anymore.
That goes double for bodies. Boobs have gotten bigger, while waists have gotten Jessica Rabbit tiny. Rears and thighs have gotten shapelier, but midsections don’t have an ounce of body fat.
As the panacea to the endless parade of perfect Instagram models has arisen the body positive movement.
The Internet has made it much easier for us to find our kindred spirits with bodies shaped like ours. These are bigger bodies, fat bodies, that don’t always have curves in all the right places, but sometimes the wrong places too.
These are women and men who are brazenly snapping and uploading photos of their fat rolls, their cellulite, their acne, and their other imperfections. They’re not apologizing for these things because they’re not flaws. They’re what make us human.
The bopo movement has spread the notion that everybody is beautiful. Sure, there are sadly still far too many people who don’t ascribe to this mindset, but it’s grown like wildfire thanks to the prevalence of the Internet, especially social media.
For too long, fat bodies felt like the odd ones out. You never saw yourself in magazines because the models were airbrushed and skinny. You never saw yourself in television shows or movies, and if you did, it was as a trope.
You just never saw yourself, period. Then, thanks to the Internet, that changed.
Now you can easily find countless social media accounts of bigger bodies who normalize wearing a bikini, boldly donning brights and colors, and feeling confident in your skin rather than hiding who you are.
The sheer size of the bopo movement has made it tremendously effective. As I said before, it hasn’t changed everyone’s minds, but enough are on the bopo bandwagon that opinions of fat bodies have at least softened, if not shifted.
Fat Enters the Mainstream Again and Again
Besides the bopo movement, we also can’t ignore all the many times that fat bodies have reached the mainstream, where it becomes much harder to ignore them.
I’ll use the classic example I’ve cited on the blog, when Nike introduced plus-size mannequins to one of its stores. People lost their minds about it because how dare anyone but perfect, skinny bodies exercise, right?
Forget that that flies in the face of what most people believe about fat people, which is that they should exercise more. Just don’t do it in a public way.
But I digress. Regardless of the unwarranted outcry that Nike’s mannequin decision garnered, this still pushed bigger bodies in the mainstream. There’s no undoing that.
There’s more. In 2022, Sports Illustrated, which has largely celebrated the aforementioned perfect, skinny bodies, cast a wider net when choosing its swimsuit model.
For example, they had Elon Musk’s mother on the cover. Additionally, model Yumi Nu was on the cover.
Nu is not fat by any means, but her body is much larger and curvier than what you’re used to seeing in an SI issue.
Her being on the cover of the magazine was huge. Here was Sports Illustrated, which had long conformed to only one standard of beauty for its swimsuit issues, proving that bigger bodies had a rightful place on the cover of their magazine just as much as any smaller body did.
This wasn’t just any issue of the magazine either, but the swimsuit edition, the biggest and most popular publication of Sports Illustrated every year by far.
Of course, as I’m sure you could have imagined, Yu’s cover also garnered outrage.
Many more people celebrated inclusivity, just as it should be.
When fat enters the mainstream like this, especially as often as it has been anymore, it becomes harder and harder to deny the beauty of bigger bodies.
Fat Bodies Get More Representation in Stores
It’s not only Nike that has expanded its line of clothing sizes to include bigger numbers. More and more retailers are beginning to do the same.
Now, I’ve written many blog posts about the prevalence of straight-size clothes compared to plus-size offerings. That’s still largely the case, but I’m happy to report that it’s becoming less so.
Stores don’t want to be called out for not being inclusive, so they’re beginning to expand their offerings.
No longer do bigger women have to wear maternity clothes or shop among the scant plus-size offerings (or go home empty-handed, which happens far, far more).
Now a bigger woman or man can walk into most stores and feel confident they can find something that fits them. The selection still leaves something to be desired, but the initiative to change is there.
At the very least, there’s always online shopping, including specialty plus-size boutiques that might better suit your fashion needs.
So what does all this have to do with fat becoming the new fine, you ask? I’ve got you covered there, don’t worry.
It all has to do with acceptance. When larger clothing sizes are the norm–which, I’ll admit, we’re not there yet and still have a long way to go–just as much as straight-size clothing, normalizing larger bodies as well.
Fat Icons Are Shameless
Full-figured celebrities have always been around, but unfortunately, many face the pressures of Hollywood and society and often downsize after a few years in the spotlight. Then they simply assimilate like all the other skinny celebs out there.
Yet some celebrity icons have no qualms about their bigger size and even celebrate their bodies (as they should!). Oprah Winfrey is one great example.
Oprah has been in the spotlight for decades, from hosting her own show to having her own television network and magazine. With so much attention, you’d think she would have succumbed to the pressure of shrinking her curves, but nope, she never has.
Oprah proves that you don’t necessarily have to be teeny-tiny to have a superstar career and become a household name.
Lizzo is another example of a bigger celebrity who knows she’s sexy and flaunts it every chance she gets. She’s always posting photos showing off her curves on social media, and people eat it up like candy.
Even though celebrities have fame, recognition, and millions more dollars than we do, we can’t help but look up to them, right? And seeing larger icons who don’t eschew their size but are loud and proud about it makes us feel louder and prouder about our own bodies.
The celebs also normalize bigger bodies, something which is becoming more commonplace all the time and will hopefully soften the opinion on fat bodies.
As Fat Has Become Accepted, the Ones Who Prefer It Are Louder
Doesn’t it seem like a lot more fringe groups have come out of the woodwork nowadays? This doesn’t all have to be a bad thing, though.
When fat bodies aren’t celebrated, those who might prefer to date a bigger man or a bigger woman feel like they need to keep their opinions to themselves. They worry about being judged by their peers for their preferences.
A person in this position might even refrain from dating a bigger person because eventually, their date will have to meet their friends and family, and they’re afraid of how that will go down. They don’t want to be judged for liking bigger bodies.
As fat has become the new fine, this kind of attitude can, fortunately, get a much-needed adjustment. It’s more acceptable than ever to prefer bigger bodies, although ideally not for fetish reasons.
Some people don’t care so much about the size of the person they date so much as they do about whether they perceive them as attractive or whether their personality is attractive. That’s great too!
All this is to say that fat is fine, and more people than ever agree with that statement.
Conclusion
It’s taken many years and a lot of strides, but fat has finally become the new fine. It’s an exciting time to occupy a bigger body, as bodies like yours are becoming an undeniably larger part of the mainstream.
I hope that this article helps you celebrate yourself, as your body is wonderful just the way it is!
