# 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:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**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, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/61 "2008-11-03T21:20:02Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > 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 Eminently possible. I even said something to that effect in my last post, that I might be imagining things. > [@](#): > > Let’s try to narrow this down (heh) some: Ha! > [@](#): > > 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. I haven’t really done the requisite polling. But honestly, I’m surprised that no one else has come in and said, “Yeah, I know what you’re talking about.” To me, it’d be like if I posted, “Man, paper mills really stink,” and everyone else responded with, “Huh? I’ve never noticed.” (That’s not to say that the “fat girl odor” smells like a paper mill, but rather that, to me, it’s as undeniable as the odor of a paper mill.) > [@](#): > > 1. 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? Good questions. I haven’t noticed it coming from slightly overweight women. I’d hesitate to put a pound estimate to it, but whenever I’ve noticed it, the women have been significantly overweight. But I haven’t really noticed a correspondence between degree of obesity and degree of smell. Instead, it’s binary – either I smell it, or I don’t. > [@Sapo](#): > > When you say the smell of flesh, do you mean it like the smell of an orgy, or like the smell of a butchery? Neither. To me, it’s just the smell of flesh. Like if you were to put your nostrils right up against someone’s skin and take a deep whiff, and then amplify the negligible odor a hundredfold. > [@](#): > > 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? This, to me, is the most likely explanation. Well, not the fat-burning cream, but perhaps some brand of women’s deodorant that, when combined with BO, is somewhat discomfiting without being out and out nauseating, like BO is. > [@featherlou](#): > > You’re imagining things, **quixotic**. Thank you for clearing that up, doctor! And such a quick diagnosis, too. Straight out of the school of former Senator Bill Frist, you are. > [@](#): > > You’re not posting just to get a rise out of us, are you? As I once heard from someone (I forget who), you’re imagining things. > [@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. This sounds like it might be it, which leads further evidence for my hypothesis that perhaps the smell is “BO somewhat ameliorated by rapidly weakening deodorant.” ---
**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, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/62 "2008-11-03T21:22:41Z")
Dr. Featherlou - I like that. I think I might need a username change. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/63 "2008-11-03T21:23:00Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > And do fat _men_ have this odor, perchance? One of my best friends recently weighed in at a little over 360 pounds. He’s the nicest guy in the world. He is always willing to help out a friend, and my last few girlfriends just adored him. But damn, does he stink. Once and a while he’ll come to the gym to do some deadlifts or bench presses, maybe even a little cardio if he’s feeling adventurous, and the aura of stench will be so overpowering that I can’t stand to be within 5 feet of him for an extended period of time. ---
**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, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/64 "2008-11-03T23:21:56Z")
> [@quixotic78](#): > > …But honestly, I’m surprised that no one else has come in and said, “Yeah, I know what you’re talking about.” To me, it’d be like if I posted, “Man, paper mills really stink,” and everyone else responded with, “Huh? I’ve never noticed.” (That’s not to say that the “fat girl odor” smells like a paper mill, but rather that, to me, it’s as undeniable as the odor of a paper mill.)… I don’t know, man, we have had vagina smelling risottos and ass smelling papayas and they both got support. You really seem to be on uncharted waters. ---
**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, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/65 "2008-11-03T23:50:13Z")
> [@Sapo](#): > > I don’t know, man, we have had vagina smelling risottos and ass smelling papayas and they both got support. You really seem to be on uncharted waters. Maybe, but the sample size here is certainly self-selecting, and I could understand why someone wouldn’t want to come forward and post that they agree with me. If I were to post a racist rant, I wouldn’t get a whole lot of "Amen brother"s, but that doesn’t mean that I’m the world’s only racist. [sub]Heh, upon re-read, that sounds like I’m saying that I’m a racist, so let me add the (hopefully obvious) disclaimer that I am not.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/66 "2008-11-04T00:30:06Z")
> [@quixotic78](#): > > Maybe, but the sample size here is certainly self-selecting, and I could understand why someone wouldn’t want to come forward and post that they agree with me. If I were to post a racist rant, I wouldn’t get a whole lot of "Amen brother"s, but that doesn’t mean that I’m the world’s only racist. > > [sub]Heh, upon re-read, that sounds like I’m saying that I’m a racist, so let me add the (hopefully obvious) disclaimer that I am not.[/sub] Hm, I don’t think we are into “why are black people so …” territory. You shared your impression and haven’t been a jerk about it or presented it as irrefutable truth or anything. It is an anecdotal observation and it might have drawn similarly minded others out. I think you are not getting backup because it is an aside to a thread about something else. You might consider starting an IMHO thread about it (with a good title) and see what comes out. It might help if you had a better description of how you perceive the smell, but maybe leaving it open might leave it open for others who have perceived a smell that is not in line with your perception. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679/67 "2008-11-04T01:13:39Z")
I know this is a mistake, and yet, here I am…typing it anyways. There are two women that I work with. They both are very large, and they both smell bad. They are known as the ‘bad smelling’ ones in the area. Now, I am going to get more honest than I care to here: When I am bathing, or just cleaning after using the bathroom, I have to really, really stretch to make sure every thing is copecetic back there. I am a big mama. But I have to streeettttchhhh to make sure everything is reached to my satisfaction. These women at work are much larger, and one of them has a humongus ass and gut, and huge short arms. I confess that I have often wondered if her smell is related to the fact that maybe she can’t reach everything as well as smaller women can. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-fat-yeah-what-of-it/470679.md?page=3)