I’ve seen it spelled “thicc,” which seems to imply a more positive (or neutral) opinion about it. I’m not fond of the word, but I do like the idea. There are a lot of “thicc” folks out there, and it’s about time the fashion industry admitted it and started selling to them instead of hiding plus-size clothes in catalogs and back corners of stores.
Wow, I love Maria being somewhat larger than the standard petite performers usually cast in the role. (Though I’d hardly call her “zaftig.”)
Maria was always my dream role, and I had the perfect voice for it (and coloring), but was about 20lbs overweight and when I was finally able to audition for a production, I got stuck as Anita instead. (A great role but I was most emphatically a singer, not a dancer.)
I’m curious if they keep Maria’s lines as-is during the “One Hand, One Heart” scene. When she and Tony are pretending that the manikins are parts of the bridal party, Tony jokes that his mother is big, after which Maria says, with a little pride, something like “I take after my Mamma: she is small-boned.”
Not exactly a dealbreaker, and it’s easy enough to tweak if they wanted to (just change it to “My mamma is small-boned”). I’m just genuinely curious. (And now that I’ve seen her in the below video, I don’t think it’s an issue. She’s smaller than she appears in the trailer… the '60s outfits don’t show off her waistline, which is pretty small.)
Ooh, found this talk show appearance of Mikaela Bennett (Maria) singing “Somewhere.” (Yes, fellow theater geeks, they acknowledge that Maria doesn’t actually sing this in the show! :)) She seems exactly what I would call curvy, and more important, has a lovely voice and great musicianship.
(Amusingly she too was cast as Anita despite not being able to dance! I bet it was because she wasn’t stick-thin. As with my production above, for some reason, directors can buy an Anita with more of an hourglass figure, but I guess they feel Maria has to be more… what, fragile? Vulnerable? Which a smaller figure seems to shorthand. But geeze, for Anita, shouldn’t the dancing be paramount? I don’t regret having played Anita, it was a crazy, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; but I knew I was wrong for it, and most of all, I wanted Maria damn it! Oh theater life, how I miss you and your oft-frustrating vagaries!)
Another video of Bennett and Corey Cott, from WGN, performing some of “Tonight.” The song starts at 1:43 if you want to skip the interview and get right to the good stuff. 
They look adorable together, and sound gorgeous. What a sublime show this is!
In the UK at least “thick” doesn’t work as it is never used to mean “fat”, it means stupid.
Anyhow, I have to align myself with the vast majority of the male race and say that it really doesn’t matter. I go with “The Daily Mash” take on this.
Ok, NB, maybe *I’m *being thick, but seeing as that (hilarious)piece is a satire are you joking too? I’m choosing to believe that you *are *one of the enlightened men who find all shapes and sizes attractive but I’m not at all certain that is an opinion held by the majority.
No I’m absolutely serious. The point of the satirical article is that men are very often baffled by such things, under what circumstances could the women in these two musicals be considered unattractive?
Between unhealthily underweight and obesity is a massive space of female attractiveness that can be appealing to the vast majority of men based much more on attitude and self-confidence than any reading on a dial.
Those are kind and encouraging words, thank you
If you don’t mind me asking another question - you or anyone can address it - are men, even those such as yourself with a broader definition of female beauty, really confused by this?
Western society(in general) most definitely, obviously has a certain ideal for the female form. The women in question aren’t just your mate’s new girlfriend;they’re actress whose whole basis of their profession is to be *looked *at. Given the media’s scorn for less then perfect looks, it shouldn’t be surprising that someone that doesn’t fit the mold will get some attention.
Not sure of the brand (Old Navy, maybe?) has the last few years included many woman of larger than rail thin size dancing around in “too tight for their body size” jeans. I mean, they can wear what they want, but it’s very unflattering and it would be much more “positive” if they wore a size and cut that actually fit them well, even if they weren’t skin tight like the tiny models wear.
you are more than welcome but of course that confidence can be hard to find when a woman is being bombarded with negative messages so that is somewhat of a vicious circle.
I think media works in all sorts of pernicious ways. If a certain expectation of beauty is pushed it can colour what is expected of women and also what men are expected to express a preference for, at least in public. The conversations I’ve had in unguarded moments with other male friends suggest that we have a far wider tastes than merely those the media deem acceptable.
We’ve get told that only a certain “type” is sexy and attractive but you can’t fool nature. To borrow a crude phrase from “viz” magazine. “the head says no! but the nuts say go!”
Health, humour, intelligence, curves. All contribute to sex appeal and when taking a moment to consider the evolutionary drivers for choosing a partner it makes perfect sense.
Merriam-Webster defines “zaftig” as “having a full rounded figure : pleasingly plump.” She is indeed zaftig in a most pleasing manner.
All the time. A daughter once asked Wife if a former girlfriend of mine was fat. She didn’t hesitate to say yes.
I said, “Not fat; more like zaftig.” I didn’t add, “And she looked great with her clothes off.”
My friend calls herself thick. She’s not really. She’s full and fleshy. And very cute.
She also calls herself short. And she is.
Like a lot of US slang, “thick” started as African-American slang.
I first heard it about 15 years ago from two black male co-workers talking about an Anglo female co-worker, who was definitely not fat but strongly built…not an hourglass shape but sorta cylindrical, with a thick waist and not particularly prominent in the chest or hips, strong legs and arms. And a very pretty face. She was an attractive woman and the comment was appreciative, as in “She’s not a STICK.”
that doesn’t sound like you, as a man, were in any way confused about it though.
Ah, but who decides which looks are perfect?
Whenever I encounter yet another magazine article whose gist is “how to fix yourself /make yourself look more like a stick figure (depending on the exact time period, said stick figure must include either large boobs or no boobs)”, I remind myself that, while truck drivers and construction workers may not be terribly polite, they are sincere in their appreciation. Meanwhile, the immense majority of those articles are written by (probably heterosexual) women who apparently have zero interest in the body shape of any woman other than themselves (and this one, they find terribly unsatisfactory even if they look like Gal Gadot. Photoshopped).
Due to the vagaries of strict split by alphabetical order, my 9th grade class group (we took all lessons together, except for splitting up for gym) was formed by 6 girls and 36 guys. In one History lesson we got to talking about the evolution of aesthetic standards through time; the teacher gave the usual example of Rubens’ Three Graces vs current magazines. One of the guys said “thing is… often I look at those pictures and I think ‘meh’. It feels real nice when I run my hand down a girl’s side and it kind of comes to a stop on its own, you know? [the gesture clearly pointed to hip height]” Many of the other guys nodded, and us girls very-happily thanked them: as one of us put it “according to the magazines, none of us will ever be capable of attracting a guy unless we’re 6’ tall,” (class average would have been about 5’4") “with at least D cups” (the average size in Spain is a B) “and no visible hip. So, you know, no place where the hand stops by itself. It is nice, knowing that our hips are appreciated by you real, actual guys!”
What confuses me is the constant pounding that stick thin with fake boobs is the only attractive look. Not that I’m turned off by slender or even scrawny; one of my nurses is scrawny and she makes it work. I just try to keep an open mind.
In general I suspect women have a hard time wrapping their heads around the idea that any given guy finds radically different body types sexy. That’s why “Do you think she’s pretty?” is a trap question on par with “Do these jeans make me look fat?”
For example, two of my top “hall pass” picks would be Scarlett Johansson and Emily Browning, and they are nothing alike.
The old classic ‘The heart wants what the heart wants’ is what I go to. There’s no explaining it. It just is.
I see, and agree.
well it seems that plus-sized means really big boobs on an average sized woman to some people/places
Yes, everyone knows the polite term is “thicc.”