On the internet, are black women “fat” and white women “pleasantly plump?” A recent article in Gastronomica shed some light on the way we use different words to mean overweight or obese depending on the gender or the race.
Using Google as his research tool, he dug around to see how particular adjectives and euphemisms for “overweight” attached themselves to various genders and classes. Men, for example, are “portly” (39,200 results versus 746 for women) while women are “plump” (91,000 hits versus 15,500 for men).
The big finding, however, comes with black women. Disproportionate to everyone else (vastly, in some cases) they are labeled “fat,” “obese” and “overweight.” His take: As the ultimate outsiders (in race, gender, and usually class) they’re attractive targets for adjectives that carry negative connotations.
Interesting, since I just called Biggie wannabes and Kenan Thompson portly earlier today. Disregard the fact that I obviously need a thesaurus. To me, it’s not a word associated with women.
As for black women getting the words with the negative connotation (I actually think plump has a negative connotation, too, it’s just a more gentle way of saying someone is overweight), there is that “fat black woman” stereotype that we just can’t shake. famously refers to herself as such. And, of course, Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy don’t help.
[Chow]
Thanks to P-Lo for the tip.
Hmmm, I just tend to call people ‘fat fucks’ (never to anyone’s face) only if they do something to piss me off.
I can’t talk too much b/c I’m overweight myself
“pleasantly plump” but if I had to pick a somewhat derogatory nickname, I’d prefer “skinny bitch”
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