Big bodies are considered the promise of pleasure; at least we hope it will bring pleasure. You have to ask yourself why is having a big whatever so desirable within the black community? I have researched, as I always do and the information I uncovered may explain the psyche behind this phenomenon. It is quite intriguing to say the least- the attraction to bodies of substance is an intrinsic desire that dates as far back as
Historically, the African woman with meat on their bones is thought to be healthier and more fertile than those who are thin. It’s determined that if an African woman is fleshy, she is a good provider or that she comes from an affluent family. Her body size is an inclination that she will be an excellent mother, capable of bearing healthy children carried to term without incident. Should food ever become scarce, a large African woman will also have enough adipose tissue to hold her over.
However, when our black ancestors were transported to the United States
Once again, obesity equals virtuosity, security, and respect in the black community. Mammy was of high status- she served a social purpose and she still lives deeply nestled within the soul of black people. We have subscribed to the transmitted behaviors and perceptions of our ancestors that a curvy female and powerfully built male is desirable. It may explain why black people see beautiful, healthy men and women with weight in all the right places as the person to marry. Black culture dictates that a woman who is considered to be “thick” is a dime piece. It’s the thick girl we find in music videos provocatively dressed and jiggling her behind for the camera. Women like Buffie the Body and Houston's own Rita G. are making an earnest living displaying their fleshy behinds for the demanding black audience of modernized Africans.
The big, strapping field nigga with muscles and a sizable penis is the insurance women need to ensure their healthy, strapping children will carry the seeds of now well into tomorrow. We like to watch what we call a fine black man gracing our theater screens. He is pleasing to the eye and marketable to the available and even unavailable straight black woman. A strong, muscular black man is the real man. He is what a real black man should be and his size will bring him money. He can provide for his family and protect them from harm… especially by way of physicality. He can lift heavy objects and do yard work. He can perform well in the bedroom and accomplish all of the laborious effects that the female body isn’t designed to carry out.
Our rich past has subconsciously inspired the credence that voluptuous bodi
es are not only acceptable but in some cases, one to be envied. It’s even worthy of aspiration. Black people should aspire to gain weight. Get thick. In the deep south, a black person who lacks curves or muscles is labeled po’. Something must be wrong with them. They must have a disease, living on drugs, or broke. Their life must be in shambles because it’s the only excuse available to explain why they don’t have weight on them. A black person who has their life together demonstrates so by gaining weight. It's not that way with white people. When white people have money, they get on what I like to call The Hollywood Diet. White people go to great lengths to get skinny, but the more money black people have, the shinier our status and the more we eat. We have the money to consume steaks and shrimps… together. We can now afford the good alcohol and all the other edible luxuries that escaped us when living an underprivileged life. It’s at our hungry fingertips now and how dare you suggest we deny ourselves the sumptuousness of what we previously could not have. We will have all the things we couldn’t have before and good food is at the very top of the list.
Buffie the Body, as mentioned before, has made an earnest living by showing off her enormous ass. Her behind has essentially become an asset that pays the bills and allots her the chance to live a posh life. Most importantly, it keeps a continuance of food on her table. Ten years ago, contravening ailing health and an early trip to the cemetery was worth the sacrifice when a significantly smaller Buffie decided to fend off her slim 120 lbs by chugging down supplemental shakes. She readily admits that she has a dangerously unhealthy diet of junk food and sugary drinks. To top it off, she proudly refuses to exercise as this may deduct from her attributes- right along with the paycheck. In reality gone askew, veritable black men don’t want to see or touch hard, boney, or muscular bodies on their women. They want the soft cushion of fat to hold onto. The woman with hips and plenty of ass is the kind of girl black men fantasize about and Buffie demonstrates this by getting paid (very well, may I add) to live a fundamentally unhealthy lifestyle.
The powerful body secures not only the effect of sexually illicit pleasures but money as well. The vision of a large woman or man is supposed to indicate their status in life just as it did our ancestors. It is a subconscious whisper in the back of our minds. It's self-evident in our mannerisms; the way we conduct our lives and even speech patterns. Though it is hidden, it stands like a statue as this sort of psychological link to ancestral eating patterns. For example, po’ is a word we use to describe a thin person, but the psychology behind the slang term is astonishing. When the “o-r” in the word “poor” isn’t pronounce, it comes out sounding like po and the person who is skinny because they don’t get enough to eat is considered po.
“If it weren’t for the fact that they were poor, food would be more readily available to them and they wouldn’t be po’.”
Many black women don't feel the need to lose weight even after their doctor advises them to. They would rather blimp themselves into a diabetic coma rather than lose the big ass they love so much. The doctors tell us that statistically, black women are facing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and premature death at a higher rate than other races but we don’t care. Self-image is more important than health. What will attract a suitable lover is more important than health. How the partner in our life view us is more important than health. We just don’t think about it until the inevitable occurs.
In an unpublished interview, black men between ages 45-65 in 2002 all agreed that real black men love their women between sizes 14-20. Being voluptuous in all the right places is an asset that all of the men interviewed found desirable. When magazines depict skinny little models but our culture says being thick is beautiful, for the black woman this concept holds a serious dilemma. Should we strive to be thin or accept our body as it is? The media sends a message that thin is in but
being a thick black woman is viewed as an asset by those whose opinion matters the most: not the physicians or the media, but the person we have a love affair with.
I’m afraid I am a victim as well. As my happiness increases and the more money I have, the more I eat. I reward myself for living a great life with a table full of greasy, unhealthy food. I make no apologies for it and I do not plan to lose any weight. I’ve got it all in the right places and I love it. What’s equally important is the fact that my fiancé loves it. I’m not marrying the doctor who told me to watch my weight- I’m marrying my man and I know plenty of other black women who feel the same way.
A woman with hips and ass is hungrily sought after by the male in that she not only brings pleasure-promises but healthy children who secure immortality for the family bloodline. A man with a powerful body and a large penis assures the female that she will experience sexual pleasure and his genes will introduce strong, healthy children well into the future. Through the strength of his massive body, he ensures protection and the ability to care for her and their children.
Whatever changes that may take place within the mindset of Black-America pertaining to body image, the graveyard is the future for everyone- including the healthy. I am in no way advising any woman to reach maximum density with their weight. Diabetes and heart attacks are real issues that can not be ignored. Morbid obesity is a hard reality that I promise you never want to face. But not everyone should be bone-thin, either. Our bodies are designed differently from the next person and trying to subscribe to the same psychosocial image can land you on the sofa of a therapist. Speaking for myself however, since I have to die anyway, I’d rather die knowing I lived a happy life: that I ate good food, appealed emotionally, sexually and physically to my fiancé ... and had plenty of fun along the way.
So… you go Rita G. and Buffie the Body! I love my big ass, too.
A big ass it is!
