Can fat people be beautiful?

[Jetfire]

Everyone is beautiful and there's nothing more to that. That's what I believe at least.

 

[Lipstick Vogue]

Everyone is beautiful and there's nothing more to that. That's what I believe at least.

Who are more beautiful, the child molesters or those that bomb Belgian airports?

 

[Jetfire]

Who are more beautiful, the child molesters or those that bomb Belgian airports?

That's an unnecessary question.

 

[Lipstick Vogue]

That's an unnecessary question.

It was the logical response to a ridiculous statement.

 

[Jetfire]

It was the logical response to a ridiculous statement.

I came here to respond to the topic's question and you come at me with an irrelevant, illogical question. I don't know what's your problem or what point you're trying to prove but keep me out of it.

 

[Lipstick Vogue]

You responded and I questioned your response. People do that on forums.

Perhaps I should have asked in a less dramatic fashion. How can you think that everyone is beautiful in a world where millions of man made atrocities happen each year?

 

[Jetfire]

You responded and I questioned your response. People do that on forums.

Perhaps I should have asked in a less dramatic fashion. How can you think that everyone is beautiful in a world where millions of man made atrocities happen each year?

When I think of beautiful, I think of their appearance. The question is, "Can fat people be beautiful?". I understand your point of view but that's for another topic. However, to answer your question .. those people are cynical. We don't judge them by their looks but by their actions.

 

[Lipstick Vogue]

Fair enough. All people can be beautiful because some people have really weird tastes. I get yah.

 

[deathpool]

Depends on so many things. Physically, no. Our bodies our evolved to be attracted to certain elements for reproductive purposes, but 75% of the time emotions and stuff change our attitude. tl;dr, love overtakes and can even affect lust (usually). Then again there is the situation that the theoretically fat person might genuinely be good looking and have good genes, but is just overweight so these are hidden or overlooked.

 

[Midnight shadow]

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and while it is less common, there are people who are more attracted to fat people than thin people. So, the simple answer to your question is YES.

 

[Koraka]

Of course, just because something isn't healthy doesn't mean it can't be attractive. I think deep fried food looks really good, but it will probably be really unhealthy for me to eat. Does it really matter?

 

[Kura]

My honest opinion is that this is the most ridiculous question I've seen in a while.

I find it sad that modern definition of beauty only extends to the eyes.

Beauty is, in fact, defined by "properties pleasing the eye, the ear, the intellect, the aesthetic faculty, or the moral sense."
A fat person is not just a body. A fat person is not just a shape. A fat person is a person, and their beauty, along with anyone's beauty, should not be limited to their size.

 

[RegalSin]

For men they want to do certain things in the bedroom. You can't do that with a built woman. However I will admit in terms of the flesh. The fat can be beautiful as well but it depends on what they are doing. For sexual performance a man needs to not be so Personally fat even young can be beautiful. It really depends. I like a decent well rounded person. Fit or not fit it is beautiful.

 

[Kura]

I sympathise with the last one but you can't make my or other mens boners salute you just because you want it to happen.

Wait a second.. are you implying that a woman's aim to feel beauty rests on the fact that she should be able to give sexual rise to other people?
Beauty is so much more than just sexual attraction.
Any woman who has any sort of self respect aren't out there to try and make any man attracted to them- that's just vain. Likewise, just because someone is tolerant and non-judgemental doesn't mean they should throw themselves at the feet of anyone who crosses their paths.

People should be celebrated, regardless; scars, flab, missing limbs, bones sticking out, and all of that stuff. It all tells a story. Perhaps to some people it may not be sexually attractive, but it is all very much beautiful.
Your grandma's frail hands that she used to knit your new winter scarf? The 30 lbs that your mum's friend put on after she divorced her husband and now is able to go out and enjoy herself? Your grandfather's gout that comes back from when he fought in the war?

You obviously know in yourself what you find sexually attractive, and that's fine, but I feel you are missing out on the big picture when it comes to beauty in the world. For that reason, I am actually sorry that you feel and think this way.. and I hope one day you will be able to appreciate the beauty in everyone.

So you can go ahead and think I am brainwashed.. but to that I say I am just a mature 26 year old who has been both quite overweight at a BMI of 27, and also underweight at a BMI of 15 at different points in my life. But through all of that, I was and still am the same person. (FYI, for any of those who are worried, I'm currently at a healthy weight now.)

Thanks for reading.

 

[Crizzle]

Beauty is so subjective. Not really sure why people try to impose their standards of beauty on others.
For me, chubby can be beautiful if the face still looks good but fat... nah.
But it's different for different people.

 

[Kura]

Yup I believe all of what I wrote. Beauty is purely sexual attractiveness. You are mincing words with what could be called quirks or uniqueness. You're not wrong that scars, wrinkles, amputations, tattoos etc. can tell a story of what a person has been through and that this can be interesting. Quirks can detract, add to or not affect sexual attractiveness depending on your preferences and what emotional attachment you place to the story behind these features. Everyone can have quirks if you look for them, this does not mean everyone is beautiful.

I guess I just disagree with you, then. I don't personally believe that beauty and sexual attractiveness are the same thing. Yes they may correlate to some extent, but I think someone can definitely be beautiful without me being sexually attracted to them; case in point is that I can think other women are beautiful, but I wouldn't want to have sex with them because my sexual orientation is straight.

Maybe my thoughts could be influenced with my personal weight history.
It may be because I have lived my childhood as an overweight kid. Not massively big or anything but I was chubby, and I developed into womanhood quite early (age of 10) so I was mocked a lot in school for being the "fat nerd." About 3 years ago I fell quite underweight for about a year when I found weightlifting a few years ago, and even lost my periods. I have, over the past year and a half or so, recovered and gained weight to a healthy average weight now (bmi is 20), but I have been struggling with my digestion for a while and low energy. I recently (2 weeks ago) now found out I have an underactive thyroid problem because of the stress that I had put myself under during that short while that I was underweight/ anorexic. I've started medication for it this week, I still go to the gym in a healthy amount, I work full time and keep my mind active, I cook my own healthy meals and I am quite knowledgeable in terms of health and nutrition, too, but I still am seeing a nutritionist to support me with healing my body. It's been a difficult journey.

Through this time, and still now, I find it difficult to tell myself that I'm beautiful even though I'm gaining weight. And when these types of beauty standards (you have to be skinny to be beautiful/ worthy) are perpetuated through people and the media, it upsets me. I know how much damage it's done to me in the past, and I just think people need to be a little bit more open to beauty in general. Why am I suddenly "less beautiful" to someone just because I've put on weight? I'm the same person. Just because my weight's changed from what it was a year ago does that mean my boyfriend shouldn't consider me beautiful- I find that incredibly superficial and quite juvenile.

I am not willing to believe that, and I am not willing to believe that I should need some sort of health excuse either. I'm done with weight controlling my sense of self worth and I hope other women in my shoes can follow this path and look at themselves in the mirror at ANY weight and be proud and confident. From experience, it hurts when someone turns around and tells you "you're not beautiful" but it doesn't hurt if someone turns around and says "I don't want to sleep with you." They're different things.. because I don't believe that I was just put on this earth solely to be an object of man's desire. But I can be beautiful without being a sex object.
I don't see how I can go from being beautiful last year, to "ugly" this year, just because the scale shifted. And why then would it only be ok if I have a medical reason for my weight gain. Why do I need to announce it to strangers just so I can avoid verbal abuse? It makes no sense to me. It angers me quite a lot.

For these reasons, I urge you to have a think and perhaps reconsider your point of view when it comes to beauty and sexual attraction not being the same thing. But at the end of the day, I'm not here to change your mind on the definition of this. I definitely know that no one will be able to change what you're sexually attracted to haha, but that's not what I'm trying to say at all. I just thought to offer my own story, and why I think the way that I do.

Thanks for listening.

On a side note, I never actually really understood thyroid problems until recently. I thought it just affected metabolism, but it really messes with so much. I get headaches often. I have very low energy and sluggish thoughts. Infertility still. Constipation. Dry skin.. so many things it affects!
And I was eating a mere 800 calories a day when I was underweight; stressing over the fact that I would have to choose between grabbing a latte with a friend or having my lunch, and now I've been eating around 1400 for the past year- clean foods (salmon with spinach, quinoa, and goji berries and no salt for lunch for example) no soda in my diet. No alcohol. Exercising 3 times a week. I've been at a steady 42kg for the past year doing that. In the last month I suddenly put on 2kg (5lbs) from this weight and the only change I've made was taking digestive enzymes to help my body absorb nutrients that I desperately wasn't getting.

Now if this trend continues, you can deem me as being "beautiful" one season, and "ugly" the next?
Should I really put my self worth in the hands of people like you?

Do you have the right to label what I am?

Should I stop trying to heal my body in fear of not being beautiful to anyone anymore?

I say.. screw that. I am done letting others dictate the fact that I am beautiful no matter what.

And I want to perpetuate this thought of beauty towards everyone else.

And I'll say it again:
"I find it sad that modern definition of beauty only extends to the eyes.
Beauty is, in fact, defined by "properties pleasing the eye, the ear, the intellect, the aesthetic faculty, or the moral sense."
A fat person is not just a body. A fat person is not just a shape. A fat person is a person, and their beauty, along with anyone's beauty, should not be limited to their size."

 

[Kanzler]

I don't see why the average person would think that gaining weight means becoming less attractive. That's an generalization, and that doesn't reflect what people who don't find fat people attractive actually think. Most people don't look chubby until they hit around a BMI of 25, and if you find chubby people (let alone fat) unattractive, that's where the unattractiveness starts? But that's a really extreme opinion. Most of these discussions revolve around "can fat people be attractive" - "can chubby people be attractive" is just not a debatable position because the mainstream opinion is yes they can no question.

Normal BMI range is 18.5 to 25, and attractiveness generally lies on a greater range than that, maybe 17 to 28 or something like that, but at this point I'm talking out of my ass. You can have a healthy BMI and have an unattractive body (and too bad for you, losing weight won't get you anywhere), or you can have a BMI of 30+ (which is clinically obese by the way) but have curves in all the right places and be revered as a fertility goddess. The point is that beauty is subjective, but it's not 100% relative and it's not a one-to-one relationship between weight and attractiveness. Some people are just born with really good proportions and that transcends weight to a very significant extent.

 

[PkmnTrainerElio]

Yes, I guess they can, it all boils down to personality... Just because someone is large, doesn't mean they're ugly. I'd go for a large girl than a bitchy one.

 

[RegalSin]

Only if they have money or if there skin is too dark or too light to notice the fat.

 

[Exodrake]

Regarding the health aspect, how unhealthy it is to be "overweight" is subjective; some people are perfectly healthy with 300 lbs of fat while others develop health problems if they put on 50 lbs of chub. My healthy weight is ~235 pounds, and I feel very ill if I drop below 200 (because, due to how my metabolism is genetically programmed, the only way that can happen is through starvation). My mom is the same way, but heavier than me.

Having body fat is not the offender. The problem is that certain health problems and gaining extra pounds share a common cause: a poor ratio of nutrition and exercise. having good nutrition and getting a healthy amount of exercise will equal healthy organs no matter how much body fat you have. It's only a sign of bad health in people with fast metabolisms.

Regarding the attractiveness factor, well that is also subjective. Some people find chub very attractive, while others like toned or lean body types. This is affected by their own genetics, so as others have said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Also I'm ugly as all hell, and I wouldn't be any better looking if I was thin, so really, a person's amount of body fat is irrelevant to how good they look in my opinion (I think there are people who wear their fat so well they'd look much less appealing without it). *glares at JonTron's inhuman cuteness*