# What Are the Odds?



## davidburton (Dec 16, 2009)

My roommate is an FA! I was so surprised. He had brought back a few fat girls to the dorm every now and then when he was really drunk, but now he's actually dating one. 

This got me thinking...what are the odds that any given person is an FA? 1 in 10? 1 in 20? How many of us do you think there are in the world? Have any studies been conducted? They've done it for homosexuals(supposedly it's 1 in 10 people) and other types of sexuality, and I was wondering if anyone had ever come across some kind of study that found a rough percentage of how many people are FA's?


----------



## Tad (Dec 17, 2009)

davidburton said:


> My roommate is an FA! I was so surprised. He had brought back a few fat girls to the dorm every now and then when he was really drunk, but now he's actually dating one.
> 
> This got me thinking...what are the odds that any given person is an FA? 1 in 10? 1 in 20? How many of us do you think there are in the world? Have any studies been conducted? They've done it for homosexuals(supposedly it's 1 in 10 people) and other types of sexuality, and I was wondering if anyone had ever come across some kind of study that found a rough percentage of how many people are FA's?



First of all, cool about your room mate! Does he know you are an FA? Have you ever actually compared what you like?

Second, there have been various discussions on this in the past, and nobody has ever found any empirical data for how many people are FA. At that, it is a continuum I think.

My personal take on it, based on the small number of people I know well enough to understand their preferences:

- I think a large minority of guys have essentially status based preferences in women. That is, their wiring attracts them to the women who are considered most desirable in society. This group will obviously prefer different things in different times and places, which is why there are/have been cultures where a lot of guys lauded fuller figured females, and cultures where some other build is preferred. Not that they have no preferences of their own, but that the dominant factor is what they are attracted to is a more external thing. In current western culture this group are surely not FA, but in some other cultures they may be something at least close to being FA.

- I think another large minority (or maybe even a narrow majority) of guys have preferences that are more fixed, be they in some way genetic or (in my opinion) more likely mostly fixed when we are very young, although possibly based on some rough genetic predispositions. There will still be cultural influences even once that preference is set, but what they like will tend to be more individualistic and fixed. What this group likes will vary wildly. I suspect it has something to do with what these guys internalize as 'feminine' when they are young. For some this will be 'smallness' for others 'softness' for others 'long hair' for others 'large breasts' and on and on and on. Some of this group will probably be FA to varying extent. There is a big difference between "I like a big ass and big boobs, and I don't mind if the rest is chubby" and "I prefer fat women for all sorts of reasons." I suspect that there are actually quite a lot of the 'big T&A' preferring guys, and also quite a few who like women who by current medical charts would be considered overweight, what a lot of people might describe as chubby or curvy. I suspect the number of hard core FA is a pretty small portion of this group.

- I think that there is a smallish minority who really just like women, and don't have a specific type, or have so many types that it doesn't much matter. I have a friend whose dated a very tall willowy red head, a short, chubby, pear-shaped brunette, and finally married an apple shaped blonde BBW, and had interest in a wide number of other women when not in a relationship....I think he's illustrative of this category. This group may happily be with a BBW, but you wouldn't probably call them FA per se.

- I think there is one more smallish minority with more 'fetish' like preferences, where there is some very specific thing that totally dominates what they like. Some portion of these will have that preference be fat related, so would be some flavour of FA.


----------



## James (Dec 17, 2009)

I've often wondered how many FAs one would expect there to be per every 100 people. If one defines an FA as a person that has an aesthetic for a fat partner that ranges from somewhere between preference and orientation, then I would take a guess that it is no more than 5% or 1 in 20. I suspect its less than this although the proportion of FAs that are closeted throws things off a bit. 

I'm going to do an e-journal search to see if any papers have been written on the topic.


----------



## James (Dec 17, 2009)

I did a search and discovered that the topic has (supposedly) never been academically addressed. A researcher called Vikram Swami has stated in his most recently published paper (Aug 2009) that the question should be answered but that seems to be about as far as the subject has come in academia.


----------



## Blockierer (Dec 18, 2009)

If we would count lovers of big boobs as FAs then 80% of the hetero male population are FAs. 
I have the frightening suspicion some FAs do unknowingly take the bodies of (SS)BBWs for superlarge boobs.


----------



## Sugarkitten7 (Dec 19, 2009)

This may be different, but I myself am a FFA, and I also discovered that my close friend is an FFA as well. I've never met someone else who was attracted to bigger guys like me, or who admitted it. I think that there are a lot of people who like chubby/overweight/large people who just don't talk about it. 

Although this may be completely different since I'm a chick. And not a guy.


----------



## bbwsrule (Dec 20, 2009)

This isn't easy to answer since as Tad says there is a spectrum. I think many men find themselves with fat wives/girlfriends and accept it or love it (the situation normally being that girl was (perhaps a lot) thinner when they first got together).

If we include those with fat SO's who seem to at least accept them that way, I'd say at least 15 to 20% (maybe 25%) but that's just a rough guess. Exclusive FA's smaller, probably 5-10%. There do seem to be quite a few of them (again I'm judging from the enthusiasm they show for their fat SO's, not from flag-waving) so I'd say more than 5% for sure. I'd say among blacks and Latinos it seems to be higher (maybe 5-10% more).

Since there are so many more big young women than I used to see when I was that age I guess many see it as the "new normal" (which increases the FA % of course).

It would be nice to some real, reliable, research on this!


----------



## rabbitislove (Dec 20, 2009)

I found out one of my gay friends is into fat guys! I sent him the link to Dims as well  We've had some great convos IRL about it.

I think being FA/FFA goes on a continuum. While most of us here are dominantly into fat partners, Im sure there are several who dont consider themselves to have that preference but have had a crush on one or two bigger folks. (Who wouldn't? They are freakin adorable!).


----------



## nykspree8 (Dec 27, 2009)

My roommate never knew a person that was only into fat girls until he met me, the thought never even crossed his mind of a guy liking fat girls *shrug*. Now he'll see a bbw and be like, "that was a good looking fat girl, it makes me think twice about going out with a big girl" lol....I think I'm slowly converting him in to a FA >=) I think there are a lot of guys out there that are bisizual. There are just so many features on a girl that guys find attractive and why wouldn't you want those features to be bigger?? lol...wait I think that's me just thinking like a FA...o well  I think there are definitely more FAs out there then we like to think though


----------



## Ernest Nagel (Jan 15, 2010)

You've really got at least two separate question here, imo. FA Exclusively is probably a relatively small contingent. FA Optional, meaning open to bigger girls, is hard to calculate without societal oppression as a factor. SSA may or may not be a separate demographic from FA Exclusives?


----------



## James (Jan 15, 2010)

I have a good friend (and former room mate) who told me "I'm not an FA but I have to admit she's gorgeous" about a mutual friend of ours. I'm not going to be so presumptuous as to imagine that him hearing me talk about being an FA, in turn, made him into an FA but I think the fact we'd talked about my liking of large women... to some small extent... might have normalized what might have been a taboo consideration for him before. I wouldn't even go so far as to say he's FA optional (good term btw) but I do think that many more people would admit to seeing beauty in fat people if the social norms against doing so were eroded.


----------



## speakeasy (Jan 16, 2010)

James said:


> I have a good friend (and former room mate) who told me "I'm not an FA but I have to admit she's gorgeous" about a mutual friend of ours. I'm not going to be so presumptuous as to imagine that him hearing me talk about being an FA, in turn, made him into an FA but I think the fact we'd talked about my liking of large women... to some small extent... might have normalized what might have been a taboo consideration for him before. I wouldn't even go so far as to say he's FA optional (good term btw) but I do think that many more people would admit to seeing beauty in fat people if the social norms against doing so were eroded.



I had a similar experience with a good friend and former roommate. He knew I was an FA and didn't really seem to get it, but one day we both sat down and watched Dave Chappelle's Block Party for the first time, and when Jill Scott was singing he said, "she's beautiful." He might just as well have said that if he wasn't hanging out with an FA at the time...I don't know. But I agree that there is a stigma that prevents non-FAs from talking about the beauty of fat people.


----------



## RedVelvet (Jan 16, 2010)

James said:


> I have a good friend (and former room mate) who told me "I'm not an FA but I have to admit she's gorgeous" about a mutual friend of ours. I'm not going to be so presumptuous as to imagine that him hearing me talk about being an FA, in turn, made him into an FA but I think the fact we'd talked about my liking of large women... to some small extent... might have normalized what might have been a taboo consideration for him before. I wouldn't even go so far as to say he's FA optional (good term btw) but I do think that many more people would admit to seeing beauty in fat people if the social norms against doing so were eroded.



Ah, but James, you lovely man, haven't you hit on the very dead center of it?

Normalization ends stigmatization. 

Come out come out wherever you are!


----------



## Tad (Jan 18, 2010)

RedVelvet said:


> Normalization ends stigmatization.



Quoted for truth! 

(and for conciseness far, far, far above and beyond what I'd ever muster)


----------



## mergirl (Jan 19, 2010)

I know a couple of 'chubby chasing' gay males and one bi-sizual lesbian and i also know a few hetro people who are dating big women but have never said they had a preference for them. I think the queer comunity is a good indicator of % of different types of sexuality, cause lets face it, once you are out of the queer closet you would be as well expressing your likes. I think any research into % of fa's might want to look at the queer community, espcially gay males. There are club nights specifically for bears and chasers and in most gay bars there will be a group of bears. There is one bar in Glasgow that is almost exclusively bears and chasers. If i had to make a rough estimation as to the amount of chasers there were in the gay community i would say about 5%. Though..that is far from 'science'. I think it would be interesting to try to study that though.


----------

