# You're Fat! Yeah? What of it? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 2, 2008, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679 "2008-11-02T04:45:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/41 "2008-11-03T13:53:10Z")
> [@Hot Buttered Toast](#): > > There’s a difference between curvy and thick. And there’s a difference between “thick” and “daaaaammmn!!” Look, I don’t care what weight you choose to carry yourself. But I personally tend to prefer thinner women. I don’t mind a little badonkadonk butt and don’t expect perfection, but I just don’t find chubby rolly-polly girls or girls with guts attractive. Look, I feel bad for you heavy girls. The world (outside of places like Minnesota or Pennsylvania) is clearly biased against you. It’s like being a short or bald man. And to make things worse, a lot of fat women have terrible attitudes. I have a fat woman working for me (I didn’t hire her) and she sucks. She can’t get her way by being cute or flirty or even polished so her personality had developed into that of a shrill browbeater. I can almost imagine her waving a rolling pin at her husband at home. > [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](#): > > I never knew Sir Mix-A-Lot was such a polarizing figure. What we need is another uniter like Humpty Hump: “I’ll eat up all your crackers and your licorice hey yo fat girl, c’mere–are ya ticklish? Yeah, I called ya fat. Look at me, I’m skinny It never stopped me from gettin’ busy” ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/42 "2008-11-03T13:55:19Z")
> [@quixotic78](#): > > I guess I would be more tolerant of fat girls if there wasn’t that odor. > > You know what I’m talking about. Deodorant does fuckall against it, and soap is similarly powerless. It’s just omnipresent and invincible (well, I suppose a couple of months on the treadmill might do something against it). I’ve never smelled it from a fat guy. I don’t know why that is. > > Zaftig ladies, if you could get rid of that smell, I’d not have the slightest problem with your weight. But that smell is just nauseating… feh. I can’t get over it. Hu? I’ve been around my share of fat girls, and I’m not heavy myself, but I’ve never noticed an odor. ---
**Author:** ![Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/43 "2008-11-03T14:32:34Z")
> [@quixotic78](#): > > I guess I would be more tolerant of fat girls if there wasn’t that odor. > > You know what I’m talking about. Deodorant does fuckall against it, and soap is similarly powerless. It’s just omnipresent and invincible (well, I suppose a couple of months on the treadmill might do something against it). I’ve never smelled it from a fat guy. I don’t know why that is. > > Zaftig ladies, if you could get rid of that smell, I’d not have the slightest problem with your weight. But that smell is just nauseating… feh. I can’t get over it. WTF? I’ve been _very_ close to a number of fat women, and I have no idea what you are talking about. People that don’t bathe come in all sizes… ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/44 "2008-11-03T14:45:54Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > Man Hands are a Seinfeld reference. Otherwise feminine women who have manly hands. They’re out there. I got the reference. I’m wondering what, precisely, ‘manly hands’ are. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/45 "2008-11-03T15:37:28Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > I got the reference. I’m wondering what, precisely, ‘manly hands’ are. Big, unfeminine hands. In the Seinfield episode the girl looked like an ordinary petite woman eating dinner with Jerry. Every so often, the camera would zoom in on her hands. The closeups were obviously of a larger male actor’s hands and would do things like crush a shelled lobster or gently brush some food from Jerry’s face. I can’t speak for the smell thing. Unless maybe you encountered one coming off an all you can eat buffet, in which case you might have smelled bacon and sausage? ---
**Author:** ![quixotic78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/3ab097/32.png) [@quixotic78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quixotic78)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/46 "2008-11-03T18:13:04Z")
I’m not really sure how to describe it (smells seem rather difficult to explain anyways – how do you explain what “rotten eggs” smell like? Invoking sulfur merely means that you have to explain what sulfur smells like.) The “fat girl smell” is not body odor, but it might be a distant cousin. It doesn’t have the borderline note of vomit that pure BO has. It seems more cloying. I imagine it having the scent of “flesh,” but that might very well be an obvious association. I don’t know. If you’ve smelled it, you’ve smelled it. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with hygiene, because I’ve known clean fat girls who have the odor. Given that no one else seems to know what I’m talking about, I’d be tempted to chalk it up to my imagination… but then I say to myself, “There’s no way I imagined THAT!” ---
**Author:** ![Dripping](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d2c977/32.png) [@Dripping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dripping)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/47 "2008-11-03T18:51:56Z")
> [@quixotic78](#): > > The “fat girl smell” is not body odor, but it might be a distant cousin. It doesn’t have the borderline note of vomit that pure BO has. It seems more cloying. I imagine it having the scent of “flesh,” but that might very well be an obvious association. It’s the smell of rotting french fries trapped in their fat folds… ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/48 "2008-11-03T19:13:46Z")
And do fat _men_ have this odor, perchance? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/49 "2008-11-03T19:15:36Z")
> [@quixotic78](#): > > I don’t know. If you’ve smelled it, you’ve smelled it. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with hygiene, because I’ve known clean fat girls who have the odor. Given that no one else seems to know what I’m talking about, I’d be tempted to chalk it up to my imagination… but then I say to myself, “There’s no way I imagined THAT!” Hey, I’m not ruling out the theoretical possibility that there’s a genuine osmic phenomenon here that has something to do with the chemistry of the overweight female body, and you just happen to have an extremely rare genetic variant that allows your nasal receptors to detect it. Stranger things have happened. However, you’ve got to admit that that’s not the most likely explanation _prima facie_. Maybe you might just have some strange psychomatic thing going on that makes you **think** you’re smelling something funny around fat girls; stranger things than that have happened, too. Let’s try to narrow this down (heh) some: 1. Do you know of anyone else at all who detects a “fat girl odor” similar to what you’re talking about? Because I personally have never experienced or heard of it, and it seems that nobody else here has either. 2. What’s the boundary effect of this phenomenon? That is, in your experience, where does the line fall between “thin girl–no odor” and “fat girl–odor”? At 50 lbs overweight? 20 lbs? 5? Is the odor effect that you experienced more pronounced with women who are more overweight? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/50 "2008-11-03T19:17:26Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > And do fat men have this odor, perchance? Nope, **quixotic78** said back in post#37 that he’d never smelled it on a guy. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/51 "2008-11-03T19:22:49Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > I got the reference. I’m wondering what, precisely, ‘manly hands’ are. Imagine the powerful thick fingered, broad palmed hands hands of a working man on a women. Imagine them grabbing you as you let your hands roam across her body, suddenly you are caught in a vise like grip and there is no escape. Some women have exceptionally strong hands without being “mannish” looking, they are the most dangerous of all. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/52 "2008-11-03T19:23:41Z")
> [@quixotic78](#): > > I’m not really sure how to describe it (smells seem rather difficult to explain anyways – how do you explain what “rotten eggs” smell like? Invoking sulfur merely means that you have to explain what sulfur smells like.) > > The “fat girl smell” is not body odor, but it might be a distant cousin. It doesn’t have the borderline note of vomit that pure BO has. It seems more cloying. I imagine it having the scent of “flesh,” but that might very well be an obvious association. > > I don’t know. If you’ve smelled it, you’ve smelled it. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with hygiene, because I’ve known clean fat girls who have the odor. Given that no one else seems to know what I’m talking about, I’d be tempted to chalk it up to my imagination… but then I say to myself, “There’s no way I imagined THAT!” I am trying to work with you here. When you say the smell of flesh, do you mean it like the smell of an orgy, or like the smell of a butchery? Could it possibly be the smell of a fat-burning cream or some other product more likely to be used by clean, healthy fat women? I am all for the idea that different groups have particular smells. Walk into a kindergarten, a board room and a nursing home and tell me they don’t smell differently. I have just never associated a particular smell with fat women in a way that is not also tied to social class, ethnicity, hygiene habits, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/53 "2008-11-03T19:33:34Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Some women have exceptionally strong hands without being “mannish” looking, they are the most dangerous of all. For dangerous, read fun! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/54 "2008-11-03T19:38:10Z")
Yes, but what does Sir Mix-a-lot think about manhands? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/55 "2008-11-03T19:48:54Z")
There are some women – I’ve noticed two in my lifetime, so by no means all – who have, at the end of a hot day before they’ve showered off the day’s grit, an aroma reminiscent of rising bread dough. I knew one quite overweight fellow that had an intensely cloying aroma I really could not bear. I think he used an off brand of baby powder. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/56 "2008-11-03T19:55:55Z")
You’re imagining things, **quixotic**. I’ve been around plenty of fat women in my life, I have an excellent sense of smell, and I have never smelled anything from fat women except sometimes perfume and/or cigarettes. You’re not posting just to get a rise out of us, are you? ---
**Author:** ![Dripping](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d2c977/32.png) [@Dripping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dripping)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/57 "2008-11-03T20:01:45Z")
> [@janis\_and\_c0](#): > > Y’know what really truly fucking pisses me off?? > Women that think it’s the worst thing possble to be a little heavy. Like, that Being too heavy is the most terrible misfortune that could happen to them. Oh it’s SUCH an insult, like fat women can’t be beautiful, or loved, or talented or worthwhile, or ambitious, or sexy. What the fuck. The worst thing you can say to a woman is to imply that she’s fat? The WORST thing? Why? Why is being heavy so bad anyhow? So why do you avoid the term “fat” for most of your post, substituting the term “heavy” instead? ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/58 "2008-11-03T20:23:50Z")
> [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](#): > > There are some women – I’ve noticed two in my lifetime, so by no means all – who have, at the end of a hot day before they’ve showered off the day’s grit, an aroma reminiscent of rising bread dough. Sounds like they had active yeast infections, then. ---
**Author:** ![sidle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@sidle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidle)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/59 "2008-11-03T20:48:26Z")
> [@EpicNonsense](#): > > I don’t think the calling a real woman is the worst insult. > > Try calling a woman a bitch. (One who is not a bitch, but does something that pisses you off, and so persuades to think she is a bitch) This is 1000 times worse. I’ve only used the word on a woman once, and that is the last time I plan to use it. > > Calling a woman fat only has to do with their pride. A fat person whom is lazy, careless, and simply gains weight may consider this much less offensive, and maybe even a joke. But for someone who was simply born with the fat gene, it’s a little more offensive. Oh wow. I wholly disagree, and I am a fat bitch! 😉 Bitch quite often carries a grudging respect. Not so, fat. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/60 "2008-11-03T21:11:10Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > You’re not posting just to get a rise out of us, are you? I’d be surprised if he was, I haven’t known him to troll previously. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679.md?page=4)