Bigger Girls: Are They More Popular than We Think?

The thread is mental.

leewarden wrote: »

It is a very emotive issue with women though. Lots of women posting "well I have...." or "My body is...." I do think having lived with a sister with an eating disorder that women do feel under pressure to fit some ideal, whether it be one perpetrated by the media, their own friends or even themselves. My male friends never seem to worry about how a top or jeans make them look.

Men too though have their own various foibles and insecurities, they just tend to internalise them a lot more than women IME. Certainly men are becoming more conscious of their appearance (and not just their penis size any more), and cosmetics and clothing companies / health and fitness companies / magazine and internet media companies are tripping over themselves to accommodate and even encourage a growing market.

I'd give it another twenty years before men are as openly insecure as women, because I can't see women becoming more secure in themselves with the pressure and influence exerted on them from numerous sources.

My experience of online dating I find that too many large ladies are in denial of there size. Because of this its clear that there sensitive on the issue which makes it harder to tell them "I'm not interested because your too heavy".
As has been said its all about attraction and personal preference so we all have to take the rejections for whatever reasons.

Black Leather wrote: »

My ideal woman has to have big bouncing breasts, broad swaying hips and a good bottom - in other words - a Big Girl - I just luv em! No fried eggs please!

We get it, you like bigger women. How many times do you need to say it before you realise people have already read your previous posts?!

Wibbs wrote: »

I dunno C. While mass media has certainly increased this pressure, oft to the point of madness, the pressure for women to be beautiful(whatever that is depending on culture) has a very long history, long before mass media was even dreamt of. Even behind closed doors in closed societies such pressure remains. The pressures on men have traditionally been different, with male beauty coming way down the list after things like social power, virility, strength etc. We certainly see men being insecure in those areas and of course we see issues in some like baldness and height(or lack of it) which are about the physical, but overall as a gender being as insecure about our physical selves? I don't see it happening to nearly the same degree as it has with women.

...and I believe pressure on women is getting worse as time goes on. On many street corners here I have clinics targeted at me (woman) telling me I need to undergo plastic/cosmetic surgery. These types of places are solely targeted at women along with adverts for perfume, posters for holidays of women in bikinis (rarely men), ads for clothes shops, make up, magazines for both women and men with "perfect" women plastered on the front etc. I think it's disingenuous to say men experience similar pressure. I do agree that pressure is growing for men but as the pressure on women is increasing at a depressing rate also, I think we'll always be "ahead" on this one unfortunately.

It takes a strong person not to succumb to it all. I think it all comes down to looking for internal approval from yourself and to stop searching externally for it. Easier said than done.

Wibbs wrote: »

Certainly is and that pressure is even more twisted because of technology. The societal ideal has morphed into impossibility. An ancient Roman woman might look at statues of ideal women and mope she didn't match up, but there would be many in a population who would match up as the ideal was within normal human constraints. Today with digital manipulation impossible ideals are all around us that even the models for the ideal themselves don't match up to.

Just when you mention Ancient Rome there Wibbs I was reminded of this chap - Michaelangelo's Statue Of David. I mean, they don't come much more "ideal of physical perfection" than that, and that was over 400 years ago. Nowadays we have Gerard Butler advertising male grooming products, Bradley Cooper advertising ice cream ffs (the Haagen Das advert!), I mean, you wouldn't see Zak Galifianakis advertising anything aimed at the ideal of male perfection!

I'd agree and IMHO it's because there is or at least may be an innate gender difference when it comes to which insecurities are at play and which traits are rated higher and men as a gender and of course as an average pay far less attention to their(and other mens) looks and rate it's importance lower. Might be down to something as obvious as mate selection and competition for same within the genders. There are any number of examples of men well hit by the ugly stick, but with social power* with women who are significantly higher than them in the looks ranking. The reverse is far less common**.

Ouch! :pac:

No yeah I get too what Legs.Eleven is saying- there was always a pressure on women to physically look their best, but I pass by a cosmetic surgery clinic on my way to work every morning, and their adverts are aimed not just at women any more, but also at men. I could tip in on my lunch break and have a face freeze (botox injections) done and be back at work that afternoon, so that's why I was saying earlier that men are becoming more openly insecure- because they are being targeted more openly - you can't even turn on the television any more without seeing a pack of oiled up muscle bound spartans, or the "I have such a busy day" male model that splashes his face with moisturiser. These cosmetics companies are relaying the message to men that women will no longer put up with a man who isn't trimmed, toned and buffed in all the right places (hell even the Lynx deodorant adverts play on the idea!), and so while the female target market has increased at a steady rate, the male target market in the last few years has grown almost exponentially.

A splash of old spice just doesn't cut the mustard any more :pac:

bodice ripper wrote: »

You know, women don't have to bend to societal pressure. You can always decide "**** that".



*awaits accusations of victim blaming

Very few people don't bend to social pressure in some way - even you. They're usually considered renegades or outcasts or even mad.