Ample Sex

Abstract

Fat women are frequently considered deviant because they violate one of the most fundamental gender norms of Western culture: Women should be beautiful, or at least try, and fat is not typically considered beautiful. Depictions in the media of fat women as sexual are hardly common. In fact, the words “fat” and “sexy” are seldom used in the same sentence. Large women are often considered either nonsexual or sexually insatiable and desperate (Boero 2012; LeBesco 2004; Millman 1980; Prohaska and Gailey 2009). Of course, these are stereotypes. Nevertheless, there is a lack of scholarly literature¹ that focuses specifically on fat women’s sexual experiences (for exceptions, see Gailey forthcoming, 2012; Murray 2004).