Society is more accepting of extra fat weight on men or women?

[GoldPenny]

I'm thinking it's a toss up here from my perspective b/c 1.) women have naturally a much higher fat-muscle ratio than men and people think of women as circles and ovals while guys are the squares and rectangles; on the other hand 2.) women's looks are much more stressed media-wise and in the real world, but that has changed drastically since women are climbing up the ladder in finance and security, but emotional security may be a bigger issue.

 

What is your take?

[sb129]

I agree with you Goldpenny.

 

Men can carry more weight before they start to look overweight.

Womens fashion tends to reveal/ emphasise the figure more than mens clothing does, and the medias constant yo yoing between slagging off size 0 women to giving lots of weight loss tips doesn't help.

I think women worry more about it but this couldbe because it is more socially acceptable for women to talk about their weight/ figures etc.

[IfWishesWereHorses]

Well, personally I like a larger man but not so enormous that they are blubbery. It is sooo much easier for a man to build muscle that many "large" men are toned and appear fit. "Large" women however are usually very soft and supple so the extra fat is quite evident. Something else that I think is interesting are cultural or racial differences. I have a white friend who was married to a black man and she swears that he never wanted her to lose the bit of extra weight she carried. I have also noticed that "larger" black women seem not to have the body image issues of large white women.

 

Personally I would like to be a size 0 so I guess I succumb to media's dictation of beauty!

[quankanne]

I say a lot of that attitude has to do with where you live. I highly doubt if anyone in small-town America is going to give a damn about your weight unless it's an honest-to-goodness problem like anorexia or extreme obesity, then those folks start getting talks about the need to take care of their health. Otherwise, a size 12-14-16 or even 18 woman isn't a lot to be concerned about, because for the most part *real* people look a lot like women of these sizes.

 

on the flip side, if you're living someplace that is entirely focused on "health" and looks (Los Angeles with it's high proportion of men and women trying to become stars), then yeah, people are going to be very conscientious about that same size 12-14-16 woman trotting about town and her average weight is going to be deemed out of proportion because the standard for women is to be so thin that they look like little ETs with their skeletons and potbellies sticking out. Yes, I'm being facetious here, but it goes to show that everyone has got their own standard of beauty, but unfortunately, so many buy into that which is perpetuated by Hollywood and Madison Avenue ...

 

I do like your description of angles and curves to describe the sexes, though!

[polywog]

I agree with you Goldpenny.

 

Men can carry more weight before they start to look overweight

 

I don't know about that, I feel like men carry extra weight poorly compared to women, it seems to sit on their belly and chins while women's is distributed throughout the body.

 

Maybe I notice this because I'm a woman. I'm always annoyed that men will critique a woman's looks while they are sporting a big muffin top and more chins than the Hong Kong phonebook.

[Mr. Lucky]

Maybe I notice this because I'm a woman. I'm always annoyed that men will critique a woman's looks while they are sporting a big muffin top and more chins than the Hong Kong phonebook.

I think guys are just better at being oblivious to their looks. I've got a couple of friends with full "Dunlop" beer guts that continue to hit on 18-year old model types, blithely ignoring the withering looks they receive in return. With some guys, it's like water off a duck...

 

Mr. Lucky

[taiko]

Society is definitly more forgiven to men. We have never been primarily judged on looks as women are. We are judged first by the bulge in our wallets.

 

When I ask my lady to tel me about her father the first discription was that he was a good provider. Never mind the fact that he kept, provided for a second family as many of his social class do back in the PI.

 

25 years ago in Eddie Murphy's stand up routine he joked about how women screamed over a KFC eating Luther Vandross. While the original Broadway and maybe the new movie "fat" Dreamgirl's career was limited to that one performance.

 

Charles Barkley can be the round mound of rebound but he is still a hall of famer. And probably could have gotten any woman if he didn't marry his college girlfriend.

[stillafool]

It seems society is much harder on women. A woman will date an overweight guy if he is rich and not care. An overweight woman who is rich will not get the same type of action. Men are such visual creatures.