An ad campaign in Brasil features fat women in famous pop-culture sexual iconography. The tagline “Men’s preferences will never change” says it all.
Eat the light yogurt because fat women aren’t sexy, and men will never think they are.
So I’m not a man, but frankly I think some of the photos are still sexy. I also think that using prejudice to sell a product is EVIL.
Oh well.
(Via BFB)
Just Another Pretty Farce 
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Whoa – the one you’ve posted here is quite sexy.
But, if other men want women with bodies like 14 year old boys, more power to them.
Some men don’t know what they’re missing if skinny is all they want.
And that photo is hot.
Mike
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again–most of the skinny women I know: single. Most of the married/taken women I know: not skinny. What I think is that people in advertising/the media don’t really know what men like.
Most of the ‘not skinny’ married women I know were skinny when they dated/married their husbands. Sometimes it occurs to me that many women tend to let themselves go after they’re married. Could be it’s just the natural progression of gaining weight with age. Also, maybe they don’t care as much or think they don’t have to work at it as hard since they’ve already landed their man.
Many of the married men that I know and have such a relationship with that I can really talk candidly with them admit that although they love their wives, and are committed to them, they don’t love the weight their wives have gained.
Love can overcome a lot, and I think men will stay married to a woman that they love through weight gain (or whatever) , but I think if they met her at that point they might choose not to date her.
The slogan doesn’t even make good sense anyhow. Men’s preferences (everyone’s preferences) DO change. Society’s concept of beauty is changing all the time. At one point in history the woman shown in the ad you displayed would have been considered the very picture of ideal beauty by just about anyone’s standards. Times change, so do preferences and ideas of what is beautiful.
I think the image you posted is still sexy (in 2007). Then again, what do I know?
Most of the ‘not skinny’ married women I know were skinny when they dated/married their husbands.
I weighed about 30lbs less than I do now. But I was no means “Skinny”.
Sometimes it occurs to me that many women tend to let themselves go after they’re married.
WTH?!? This makes it sound as though women are a pile of compost, rapidly degenerating while the men stay young and firm and beautiful–Adonises all. I know plenty of men who’ve also “let themselves go” (ie. gotten busy with life and the enjoyment thereof.)
Yes, women do gain more weight than men generally. BUT…women were made to be fatter to sustain their children through the cold, foodless winters. And women have the babies–a condition which contributes to fatterness.
I can really talk candidly with them admit that although they love their wives, and are committed to them, they don’t love the weight their wives have gained.
Well bully for them. I’m sure these husbands don’t love the weight their wives have gained. But maybe their wives don’t love the way they’ve become progressively disinterested in the marriage, the way they don’t make as much money as they said they would; the way they don’t help out with housework–whatever.
I’ve got a great relationship with my husband. My weight doesn’t enter into it.
But the whole inequity of the thing–the idea that women must always strive to please men, without men striving in reciprocation, is kind of crazy-making.
I think the image you posted is still sexy (in 2007). Then again, what do I know?
I guess you and I both are in an awkward position when it comes to evaluating the sexiness of women. ;-p
I think you took me wrong. I did not mean to imply that men are allowed to become disinterested and unwilling to do the work required to maintain a relationship.
In this particular discussion, as it is, society puts much more pressure on women to maintain ‘attractive’ and on men to maintain financial security. I think there are equally unreasonable DIFFERENT standards set for each.
Are the men who confide in you at the same weight they themselves were when they married? Because if not, I don’t see that we need to take them too seriously.
Probably not, but in particular, three I can think of right off the top of my head, could all be considered successful, are an attorney, an engineer and a mechanic who owns his own shop, and they have all dramatically increased their income during the course of their marriages. One of the three is probably in better shape at this time, now that I think about it.
But as I was attempting to point out, it seems to me that society does not seem to distribute the pressure equally for women vs men to be responsible for establishing financial security for their families. That burden is generally expected to be borne by men.
If a man, after he’s married, decides he’s tired/bored (whatever) or it’s just a lot of trouble and doesn’t pull down the same jack he did when he first got married, doesn’t maintain the same level of financial security/stability, even though he could with some effort ….is that okay? Should the woman just be okay with that?
To be honest, my husband’s weight does not matter to me (much) BUT, on the other hand, his ability to provide financial security matters greatly. Is that not an equal parallel to the woman’s weight issue?
” if other men want women with bodies like 14 year old boys, more power to them.”
that was funny..
agreed, this marketing manipulation is just wrong
No, I’d say that a man’s attention to earnings is parallel to a woman’s attention to earnings. Whereas a man’s weight is parallel to a woman’s weight. I haven’t traded my body for money and my husband hasn’t either, thanks very much.
Thanks, nm. I was thinking of a good way to say it. You did so, succinctly.
Okay, well, maybe I’m a misguided prostitute. But IMO all relationships are give and take/exchange and equate to prostitution on some level.
I still believe that society generally puts more pressure on women to tend to appearance and men to tend to finances.
This is just silly. Call me a chubby chaser if you will. I’ve ALWAYS loved real women with real curves. Hip bones make certain positions painful (did I say that?)
nm, you are my hero.
LMD, I could tell you stories. My life is one big case study on how strangers treat an unattractive man as opposed to a not-so-unattractive man. Women especially. I don’t know where we got off thinking this is just a male behavior.
And men can, and do, marry sugar mommas.
LMD said:
Commodification in relationships may be realistic, but it is dangerously slippery territory. Who determines what the equivalences are?
Besides, if we accept that finances = men’s responsibility & beauty = women’s responsibility, we enter the realm of soap operas. I don’t know about you, but no one I know has recently died and come back to life, nor have any of my acquaintances discovered long-lost twin siblings, so clearly I don’t live in a soap opera. I just think life is more complex than that, and so is love, and so are attractions, and so are beauty standards. As others have pointed out, our tastes DO change. And we ALL change through the course of our lives, so a long-term love affair is going to have to survive a few extra pounds, wrinkles, and gray hair. Luckily, love is a powerful lens and it can see through all that.
Not saying that’s true for everyone, but I am saying I think there’s a piece of the “women letting themselves go” motif that’s nothing more than a red herring.
Of course all relationships involve give and take. I can’t even begin to express the level of emotional support my husband gives me, and in turn I try to do the same for him. He says I’m pretty successful. I’m providing the higher income in the household right now, but he also saw me through a year of unemployment, so again, that seems like a fairly parallel exchange. But we’re not either of us swapping emotional goodies for money; we’re swapping a readiness to be there for each other in ways that are sometimes similar, sometimes complimentary. And that, not how many pounds we do or don’t put on over time, is what makes for mutual hotness.
Kate, the line “love is a powerful lens and it can see through all that” is the best I’ve read all day.
How wonderful you are.
And I think the picture is sexy as hell.
Sorry, I just couldn’t let this cliche’ go.
In marriage, women expect men to change and men expect women to stay the same. Both are dissapointed.
This photo is HOOOOTTTT. She’s a beatiful woman…and I think any man would be lucky to get a hot babe like her. When the hell did we turn into a society that thinks women look best with bodies of pre pubescent boys? yuck.
Reading these comments gives me hope. I am a fat girl and while I used to have confidence in myself, I find that I no longer do as I watch friends who are thinner and seem to have less to offer than me get all the mates and perks and such.
Also, yeah that altered model might be “fat” but she’s the right kind of fat. Notice there are no rolls, her stomach is flat and her boobs aren’t saggy. Whatever, this picture makes me feel worse than a skinny one. It still says that the key to having a hot body means not having a stomach or flabby thighs or droopy breasts. So I’m not exactly sure what people are getting so excited about.
Great blogpost, thanks a lot!