It’s a tough market out there for an average-looking guy, let alone a tubby one. In his lively (and fabulously titled) Fat Gay Men: Girth, Mirth, and the Politics of Stigma, Jason Whitesel, a gender studies professor at Pace University, attempts to rescue these guys from the. Most pride parades are populated by unbelievably sexy gym bunnies in skimpy attire a typical gay bar will feature a mind-boggling number of bulging biceps and rippling abs. But Whitesel touches on a real problem: Many gay men put a shockingly high premium on looks. Not all fat gay men are resentful of fit ones, and not all fit gay men are condescending toward fat ones. But reading about them also leaves you with a sharp sense of melancholy. These efforts lead to some great parties and, apparently, some great sex. In an attempt to escape the stigma of corpulence, fat gay men wear it as a badge of honor. The fat gay men described in Fat Gay Men are tired of being ostracized by their communities-so they decide to ostracize themselves instead. Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern wrote i n a review of the book in 2014:īilled as an ethnographic study, Fat Gay Men is as much a semi-comic romp as it is an academic treatise. Regardless of the controversy at UCSB, the book touches on a legitimate issue in the LGBT community. Both a partial insider as a gay man and an outsider to Girth & Mirth, Whitesel offers an insider’s critique of the gay movement, questioning whether the social consequences of the failure to be height-weight proportionate should be so extreme in the gay community.” In existence for over forty years, the club has long been a refuge and ‘safe space’ for such men. In Fat Gay Men, Jason Whitesel delves into the world of Girth & Mirth, a nationally known social club dedicated to big gay men, illuminating the ways in which these men form identities and community in the face of adversity. Despite affectionate in-group monikers for big gay men–chubs, bears, cubs–the anti-fat stigma that persists in American culture at large still haunts these individuals who often exist at the margins of gay communities. “To be fat in a thin-obsessed gay culture can be difficult. Both a partial insider as a gay man and an outsider to Girth & Mirth. In existence for over forty years, the club has long been a refuge and ‘safe space for such men. InFat Gay Men, Jason Whitesel delves into the world of Girth & Mirth, a nationally known social club dedicated to big gay men. Here’s the Resource Center’s description of the event from Facebook: In Fat Gay Men, Jason Whitesel delves into the world of Girth & Mirth, a nationally known social club dedicated to big gay men, illuminating the ways in which these men form identities and community in the face of adversity. Despite affectionate in-group monikers for big gay men-chubs, bears, cubs-the anti-fat stigma that persists in American culture at large still haunts these individuals who often exist at the margins of gay communities.