I’ve quoted Agouderia’s post from this thread because I felt like her mention of acronyms in the fat community was worth more discussion but I didn’t want to insert what could be a more serious discussion, possibly contentious, within a thread that is intended for laughs. I say possibly contentious with the hope that it does not devolve into something problematic.
I make no secret of the fact that I’ve been around the fat acceptance community for quite a while. My old(er) age has created in me a very unintended myopia when it comes to the subject. I take it for granted that everyone is familiar with the same concepts and acronyms I am and I will make an effort to correct that behavior in myself.
I thought perhaps it might be interesting to talk about the more commonly used acronyms of the fat acceptance and/or body positive communities. But not to just define them but discuss some of the ones that have historically been less than positively received. In order to discuss, I think it’s best to first define. Here are some of the more common acronyms I’m familiar with:
| BBW | Big Beautiful Women. Agouderia is more familiar with it being used to represent beautiful black women, but when I googled it, the first definition after Bath & Body Works is big, beautiful women. Usually defined as a clothing size XL-3X. |
| BHM | Big Handsome Men |
| EAES | This is relatively new, but being pushed hard by NMAAFA--Equality At Every Size; is a fat rights advocacy program that provides education and support for creating laws across the United States to end size discrimination |
| FA | Fat Acceptance, Also Fat Admirer (a person-male or female-who is attracted to another person or persons who are fat) |
| FFA | Female Fat Admirer, a woman who is attracted to another person or persons (male or female) who are fat |
| HAES | Health At Every Size; the principles used to promote health equity, end the false narrative that fat = unhealthy, support ending weight discrimination and bias, especially in the healthcare industry. |
| NAAFA | National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance; formed as a fat-rights organization to end discrimination based on body size. |
| SA | Size Acceptance (Side note, as a writer and a sensitivity editor, I am often asked to create a list of possible trigger warnings. In that context, SA is always an acronym for sexual assault.) |
| SIG | Special Interest Group; used in larger communities. Dimensions resulted from NAAFA's FASIG) |
| SS- | Super-Size, usually in front of BBW or BHM; the easiest definition for me to use with regard to BBW/SSBBW/USSBBW is clothing size. Usually a SS person is a 4X-6X. |
| USS- | Ultra-Super-Size; the highest weight category, usually a size 7X or above. |
| WG | Weight gain, most often intentional through feederism |
| WL/WLS | Weight-Loss/Weight Loss Surgery |
These are the acronyms I am most familiar with and use frequently. Are there others that I might have missed?
And what about idioms, like apple, pear, hourglass, feeder, feedee? Are there others that we find repeated throughout the community that I haven’t mentioned?
What are your thoughts on these? Are there common definitions which you particularly like or dislike? If so, what are they and why do you like/dislike?
(DISCLAIMER/REQUEST: Not every definition is written in stone, and like most language are open to interpretation and context. Please acknowledge that opinions vary and exercise respect for all opinions, especially those you might not agree with.)
ETA: See post below, I edited the above definitions of FA and FFA, and added EAES definition. All other content is the same.
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