“Men Are Not Dogs. They Don’t Throw Themselves on the Bones”: Fat as Desirable

In Western countries, thinness remains the most privileged type of body and the one most people aspire towards (Grogan). Conversely, fatness is considered ugly, unappealing, and unhealthy (LeBesco). However, in other geographic locations, this culture is different; for example, in Mauritania (Guerrero), rural Jamaica (Sobo), and Ukraine (Bilukha and Utermohlen), women with fuller bodies are considered beautiful. In this work, I share my experiences of being slim and fat, my perception of ugliness and beauty, my feelings of being not in the right body and in the right one, and my initial dissatisfaction and later satisfaction with my body image. My autoethnographic exploration of thinness relates to the period of my adolescence and young adulthood and is limited to the country of my birth, Ukraine. I explore fatness as my midlife experience in Australia. I further examine the interrelations between body image, gender, age and culture in historical and geo-graphical contexts.