Fat Girls the Theory II

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Fat girls
On my observation of peoples physiology and how some people differ from others in terms of weight, I have a theory that man accept women who are over weight more then they realize.

Before this theory, I could not understand why most women would dream of being slim, when men are willing to accept them that way. If you look at comparisons of what is and isn’t acceptable in the dating game, most woman are not willing to date a shorter men then themselves and by the laws of natural selection result, men have evolved taller then women.

However, if men hold same intolerance for not dating fatter women then themselves then the same laws of natural selection would apply, leading to women in general being slimmer then man, as the fatter women do not get a chance to pass on the gene that make women fat.

I think that that all the issue with weight is to do with status. In hunter/gatherer time people needed to be able store fat to protect them in time of famine. This however, would not be a problem for very high status individuals, who have access to enough resources to survive famine without resorting to fattening up. This as a result would lead them to de-evolve the gene that puts on weight easily. As a result, slimness represents high status and being fat equals low.

A low status man would be happy to date a low status woman; here genes that put on fat easily would be come in handy in times of famine. However, most low status woman have eyes for high status man and would not be like to be seen as being low status by being fat.

I absolutely agree that fat is currently low status. But that's pretty recent. I mean it's REALLY recent, far too recent for sexual selection to have favored thinness. Go to an art museum for evidence of that.

What signifies wealth is what is considered high status and therefore desirable. Ever since modern farming made food (especially processed food) cheap and plentiful, fat has been low status. But that's recent. And I do mean REALLY recent. Now poor people fatten up on inexpensive high fructose corn syrup and of course fat- which is probably the cheapest food calorie/cost that there is right now. And poor people run themselves ragged working long hours at low paying jobs trying to make ends meet and not getting enough exercise. Standing at a cash register for 8 hours is exhausting, but it isn't exercise. Meanwhile, wealthy people are eating tiny portions of expensive food in expensive restaurants and going to the gym whenever they want. Middle class people have the resources to at least try to fake a simulation of the wealthy look with dieting and some exercise.

Until fairly recently, poverty led to thinness. It still does in many parts of the world. But in countries where cheap, fattening, unhealthy food is available for those with little money and grueling-yet-exercise-free jobs, fat will be low status and undesirable.

So I agree with you that sexual selection could drive body types. But disagree about the timing. Because I think that it is only quite recently that fat got linked to poverty/low status, far too recently for evolution by sexual selection to have any effect. Today's man in an industrialized country is pretty turned off by fat. But his great great great etc. grandfather thought a hefty wife made him look rich because he could afford to feed her. And men have often wanted to look rich. This got immortalized in the song "If I Was A rich Man" in the musical Fiddler on the Roof. It has Tevya singing that if he was a rich man he'd have "a wife who looked like a rich man's wife, with a proper double chin". Times sure have changed.

I think you're giving genes too much credit. humans got taller over the centuries mainly because of higher protein intake in childhood- that's why countries whit the highest protein intake per capita are the "tallest" (I had a link to some study about this, can try to dig it out if you want). obesity is mainly a problem of western countries, and not so long ago most of them were far from what we would now call rich so there's obviously more to it than just genes too. (allegedly, Samoans and Polynesians were not this fat to start with, just the food and customs that the Europeans brought made them so, and look at them now )

You're right about the status thing... However, it's generally not particularly genetic in nature, nor is it about what men find attractive.
Just TRY reasoning with a woman that men would rather have a woman with an hourglass figure and body parts, like a butt and boobs, than a skinny one. Most women don't care. It's not so much about what men are looking for, it's male standards of beauty that are based on reproductive fitness (and, therefore, healthy weight.)

Older standards of beauty generally feature more voluptuous women, but that, too was probably largely a status thing as well-- women who could afford to eat well. Now, typically, high-calorie food is very cheap, so someone can be poor, and, for that matter, even malnourished, but still overweight. In the status sense, a slim woman symbolizes ability to buy "health food" and low calorie food, not to mention things like gym membership, personal trainers, etc.

I think women compare ourselves to other women more than we really think about what men are looking for so far as physical beauty, and a lot of it even gets distorted from there, when you start to consider the fashion/modeling industry. I've heard it suggested, and I think it's a pretty logical conclusion, that models (particularly if you're talking about "high" fashion) aren't actually supposed to be attractive, because the attention is supposed to be on the clothing, and not on the woman. In the "art" of clothing design (as opposed to the practical side of actually making clothing that looks good on PEOPLE) they really just want a walking hanger to model it.

Main point being, that while male standards of feminine beauty may have to do with genetics and reproduction, female standards of feminine beauty tend to be separate.. more about self control.

I don't think genetics have evolved that much in such a short time. Being fat is definately of lower status, but not based on genetics. In modern times, keeping thin takes effort, & only high-status people have the resources to do so.

- health foods are expensive
- gym memberships are expensive
- low-paying job = more hours at work needed = less time & energy for excercise

Men like women who have curves. Skinny girls appear to lack the necessary fat reserves. But OBESE women tend to have curves in the wrong places(as in their waists are MUCH larger in circumference than their hips and busts). Wide hips and a waist that noticeably smaller than the hips are what men find attractive so extremes of body weight preclude having such features.

I'd like to point out that Most women I know are STRONGLY repulsed by men who are Obese and even men with a "beer belly".
Ive seen more couples where the woman is hefty and the man is slender than bloated men wtih skinny gfs .

Obesity isnt just an image problem, its also a health problem. Which lends credence to the theory that obesity is a indicator of bad genes and thus is unattractive. I do like women who are a little chubby, or at least have fat deposits in all the *right* places(as in thighs, butt, and hips ). I dont like skinny chicks w/ "bird legs" any more than blimps with legs that look like tree trunks.

You also need to look at the weight of women for reproduction. If she is too skinny she may not be able to sustain her pregnency, so men that choose skinny women will be less in the poplation.

Also overweight women I think can have problems with pregnacy.

Look at places like Thailand where 1 in 20 is borderline fat and compare that to say the U.K where 1 in 3 women are obese now. Compare the diets: Thai food is healthy fresh vegetable-based and they have several small portions throughout the day. These women from typical lower classes in UK have far more refined sugary foods, complex carbs (white bread, potatoes, - they turn to fat if not burnt off) ready meals, fizzy pop, sweets and crisps. All plays havoc with their metabolism, starting in childhood where it's most destructive. They usually have 1 big portion in the evening which sits in the stomach, then sit on the sofa, then go to bed - it's not burnt off because we store fat during our sleep. These mothers from the lower caste often times can't be bothered to cook so typically slap 'summit rubbish' in microwave or "going daaoown chippy".