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Fat fetishism oradipophilia (Latinadeps - "fat" and Greekφιλία - "love") is asexual attraction directed towardsoverweight orobese people due primarily to their weight and size.[1][2]
A variety of fat fetishism is 'feed(er)ism' or 'gaining', where sexual gratification is obtained from the process of gaining, or helping others gain,body fat, not necessarily from the fat itself, though there is much overlap between these groups. Fat fetishism also incorporates 'stuffing' and 'padding', whereas the focus ofarousal is on the sensations and properties of a real or simulated gain.[3]
The fat fetishism community has overlapped withbody positivity andfat feminism movements. TheNational Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) has worked as an advocacy organization for fat people, but was partly formed to help male fat fetishists and other fat admirers (FAs) find fat women to date and have sex with.[4][5]
Fat fetishism as a community is predominantly heterosexual, focusing on fat women and thinner men. Fat fetishism includes both real-life and internet communities. Fat fetishism practices and subcultures include internet porn; "gaining" and "feeding", which involves eating to intentionally gain weight; "hogging", which is when men seek out fat women to sexually exploit; and "squashing" which is sexual attraction to the idea of being crushed by a fat person or people.[4]
According toThe Routledge Companion to Beauty Politics, "the gendered, raced, and classed power dynamics of many of these subcultures often mirror, reinforce, and even exaggerate existing racial, gender, class, and sexual inequalities."[4] Sociologist Abigail C. Saguy has proposed that byobjectifying women's weight, they are reinforcing the cultural importance of women's weight to their physical appearance, therefore also reinforcing gender inequality.[6][5]
Gainers and feedees are people who enjoy the fantasy or reality of being fed and/or gaining weight themselves. Encouragers and feeders typically enjoy the fantasy of helping someone else gain weight.[3] 'Gainer' and 'encourager' are common labels amonggay men, while both straight men and women as well as lesbian women often identify as feeders and feedees.[7] Some prefer the term "feedism" over feederism, as it suggests a more equal relationship between the feeder and feedee.[3]
While gaining and feeding are often considered fetishes, many within the gainer and feedism communities report viewing them more as a lifestyle, identity or sexual orientation.[7]
Feedism is portrayed by media as ataboo or a niche interest.[3] Negative media portrayals include the 2005 filmFeed, which is an example of non-consensual feedism. Research has shown that the overwhelming majority of feedism relationships are fully consensual andimmobility is mostly kept as afantasy for participants.[3]
The gay gainer community grew out of theGirth & Mirth movement in the '70s. By 1988 there were gainer-specific newsletters and in 1992, the first gainer event, called EncourageCon, was held inNew Hope, Pennsylvania. In 1996, GainRWeb launched, the first website dedicated to gay men into weight gain.[8]
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)pp 309–314 inThe Handbook of New Sexuality Studies. Edited by Steven Seidman. Oxford, UK: Routledge.