"THICK IS DEFINITELY IN"

Fat Loving on the Rise
Author: Jerome Butterfield 1/11/2011

New evidenceshows obesityrates in the United States havehit a plateau and America’s once rapidly growing waistline has finally slowed – but not before nearly 70 percent of Americans were found to be overweight and more than 72 million obese. Now scientists are uncovering a changing perception among the population: people think fat is beautiful.

Results from the 2003-2004 National Health andNutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), using measured heights and weights, indicate that an estimated 66 percent of U.S. adults areeither overweight or obese. Obesity rates in U.S. women seem to be staying level, andthe rate in men may also be hitting a plateau. With numbers so high, people’s perception of what is beautiful is also changing.

Although thereis still a stigma reverberating through society, the echo is getting dimmer and dimmer as fat people now make up the bulk of the population. With this, statistics say a new attitude is being born. More and more fat actors are beingput on TV and in films. Magazine covers, commercials and billboards are not all composed of the same, sickly thin model-type images. There is a growing shift in society that’s bumping thin out and bringing “fat” in.

This is most evident on theInternet as rapidly growing lists of fat dating sites are hitting the market. Last year, Google reported a sharp increase in fat-related searches. People are looking for things like: BBW photos,BBWpersonals, big beautiful women, fat ladies and big beautiful men. Modeling agency have launched searches for full-figured models and there has been a strong movement to oust the “skin andbones” look from the industry. Certainly within the United States there has been a shift in attraction as thin people are slowly making there way out of the picture.