Fat Shaming in the 2000's and in my comic
A lot of you younger readers often leave comments wondering why the world of kip-land is so fatphobic and I think this is a reasonable question if you did not experience the 2000's. Most of the worldbuilding is based on my personal experience of having grown up as a teen in the late 2000's and realizing I was into big bellies and fat bodies at a very young age.
The 2000's were a horrible time for even a normal sized person. Girls with regular weight and healthy bodies were ruthlessly mocked for being "fat cows" by guys at school. Magazine covers had borderline anorexic celebrities openly ridiculed as being out of shape flabby pigs with their fat hanging out in public. Women in media were ruthlessly scrutinized and their bodies picked apart and analyzed.
Probably the most famous of these is the Britney Spears 2007 vma Awards performance, where she was bombarded by the media for being a disgustingly fat trainwreck that had really let herself go.
Now as a fat appreciator, I probably don't have to tell you that this has absolutely nothing to do with being fat. I remember actually being disappointed having read an article headline calling a celebrity "fat and bursting out of their clothes!" and then finding out that it's just the same usual lean/athletic/sometimes even anorexic body. This is a pretty grim reminder of the time period and how society at large seemed to have a collective psychosis for calling anything beyond size zero 'fat'. The anorexic heroin chic look with ribcage popping out was the style at the times so anything bigger than that was considered to be chubby or disgustingly overweight.
Dieting ads were everywhere, the only fat people you saw in media were comedy relief characters or bad selfish stupid people to laugh at. Women were shamed for ever eating anything more than a salad but simultaneously shamed for "always dieting". Eating disorders were vilified while the bodies with eating disorders were glorified. And when the girls got 'too thin' they were also shamed for dieting too much and looking like skeletons, when that was the exact thing that media was telling them to be.
There were dozens of movies that played on one of the girls being 'the fat one' while the actor was the same size zero as the rest of them.
In Bring it on: All or nothing, this girl played the role of the fat cheerleader who cannot control herself and is always eating. The other girls comment stuff like "Look how massive her ass is!" or " You need to do something about that huge gut sticking out like that!"
Often in my comics I portray the society from this perspective, where if this is considered to be fat then my characters must feel like they are beings from an another planet. And mind you this isn't a wild fictional idea of a world either, I'd argue that the 2000's was probably even more openly hostile towards fat(and regular bodied) girls than society in my comics is.
Normal female bodies with a healthy bodyfat percentage were completely absent from media outside of diet ads where the 'disgusting fat belly' was used to signal to the audience that you need to buy this product so you don't end up like this fat cow. And often the belly in question was just... a normal stomach being portrayed as something you shouldn't have. I was looking back at pictures of celebrity women I found "cute and chubby" from the time and realize most of them are just... skinny. Fit even. Like they hardly have even a bump on their stomach. But the skeleton concaved stomach look was so prevalent that pictures of girls with a regular stomach was completely impossible to find on the internet.
Living in this kind of environment obviously affected my fetish for fatness a lot. Hence why I find so much enjoyment in teasing and shaming and playful bullying and so on. It is in a way taking back power from society that used to be so openly hostile towards normal and bigger bodies. Ohh you want to shame me for being fat? Too bad for you, I'm into that shit.
I definitely do not long for this kind of culture and I'm glad we've gotten rid of some of that, but I think it's a perfect setting for exploring the societal aspects of being fat and how people react to you when it's so overly exaggerated and even the social norm of being able to publicly comment on others' fatness. Also I think it's really hot how much even a moderately fat character stands out in a society where being fat is extremely taboo. And of course my own experience of living in this kind of environment where I draw a lot of the inspiration from.
As the recent ozempic drama clearly shows, I would say society as a whole is still very fatphobic, if not as openly so as it used to. It might even feel weird that mocking someone for their weight publicly was commonly accepted but nowdays it is just done behind somewhat closed doors. Thankfully the public perception has changed a lot and the bodies I posted as an example here would not be considered fat by most people today.
I hope eventually we will stop judging other people based on their bodies and that being whatever size you want to be is no one else's business. But I still enjoy the concept of fat shaming and teasing in a fictional setting where I can enjoy it without harming anyone. The 2000's lore and culture is also very fascinating to me and it's super interesting to study all the myriad of ways our culture was fucked up during that time and how much we've progressed from back then... in certain areas anyway.
So I dunno I just wanted to write this short article about my thoughts on the matter! Hope you enjoy reading, leave me your worst fatphobia stories from 2000's in the comments!
Comments (41)
I remember the outrage when Kim K first got pregnant. She wore a black and white fitted dress, obviously with her baby bump, and magazines/talk shows would compare and call her shamoo. I didn’t get it. I mean sure her surgically altered butt grew along with her during the pregnancy but that was expected yunno? I’m not a fan of the lady or her family but I vividly remember seeing all the fat shaming then. I want to say that “thickness” started to become slowly more accepted during the mid to late 2010s. As in conventionally attractive “fat” women. For example Olivia Jensen, she was in the youtube channel all good things TV and would give diy tips and tricks and fashion advice. She started to plump up as the videos came out. Everyone started loving it and barely heard negative feedback. Around the same time the article for Tess Holiday came out and I swear magazines and news outlets acted as if she was the devil herself. Society as a whole is cool with weight gain as long as you have a comically huge butt or huge breasts. Bellies and cellulite never get any love 😔
Fat shaming was huge in my family. Those who were not stick skinny would be criticized heavily. Our aunts and uncles would nickname them “Gordo” or “Gorda”. Even if they had an athletic build or any portion of their body was big. The ones who would say it the most were the family members built like Aika i swear. Anywhoo didnt realize this was an old post. Still felt like sharing my thoughts haha
I still remember J-Lo, whose hips were maybe 38" around, being called "fat". 🤦🏻♂️
Cool article 8v)
This was such a nice thing to read and it goes to show that fat people absolutely are beautiful and your art is a part of showing that
I did not expect Kip lore on a Monday but this was an awesome read!! Ok my little story then: So first of I have to confess to yall that I was a Fatphopic child and laughed at people like that but someday me and my friends would explore the worlds of Deviantart and then we discovered a little account named “Kipteitei” we looked at their art and made fun of it because hahaha fat people they looked funny as hell and “Oh look at that girl she popped a button lmao!!” Then the day came to an end and the next day I visited the page again and again and… yeah that was my villain origin story
Still laughing now😏? That’s actually a funny story! Went there to find cringe deviant art post. But instead you got infected lmao! Like “haha, yeah guys. This is so dumb. They are so fat. Who would ever like something like this…”
Back in the days a bigger woman was more beautiful than a skinny one.
Oooooh so thats why there is a TON of fat shaming in all your stories hahah. I always wondered the reason why. Fat shaming isn’t really my maim thing, but i love the subtle call outs of someone weight instead of full on hitting them with tons of kinky insults. Like “oof, your getting kinda cubby”, “your big belly huge! You must feel like a whale!” Subtle stuff. I actually love it WAY more when the person with the big belly talks about their body and NOT doing it on purpose to be hot. Something about not trying to be hot makes it hotter for me. Hope that makes sense XD. But yeah. nowadays, at least from my perspective, girls with a bit of tummy is not even second looked at. If anything, I see a problem glorifying obesity. EXTREMELY hot take for this community, but its not good to be obese. I love bellies alot but i would never put this kink of mine on a partner. I see too many deaths related health conditions linked to obesity and it should not be glorified as something that’s a good lifestyle to live. I know it not my place to tell someone to live a certain way, but im just here to promote healthy living in general. Exercise, meditation, good nutrition and touching grass and having fun. Please please PLEASE dont kill me im not a government plant i swear😭. I love big bellies but I’ll enjoy it through fiction and art. I understand the reality of being into this and what would happen and potential consequences of pursuing this kink in real life. NOW! Im gonna go eat some KFC chicken tenders as a cheat meal and then workout XD. Thank yall who will be cool about this. And sorry kip if you hate my take. Doesn’t make me love you or your art any less!
DAYUM! Get a load of this yapper☝️🥴
Fun fact: (and by fun, I mean fucking infuriating) A year ago, they came out with a generic for the ADHD medication I've been taking for about the past decade and a half. And I still have yet to ever fucking see it at any pharmacy, because doctors saw the "appetite suppressant" side effects and went "new diet drug!"
Damn that sounds infuriating
Honestly, the simple spin you put on your world building: feathers, social standards, taboos, teia teia, etc. has done a lot to heighten the story telling and might be why I continue to enjoy these comics so much. As a fan I would love to read more like this update about what informs your work.
I remember the Britney thing well. She was dismissed as a huge whale. To be fair a lot of it was because she wasn't dancing well.
You couldn't have put it better. I remember discovering it as my fetish back in the late 2000s after growing up in that culture. It's honestly been so impactful on me in a negative sense that I now cannot admit to a single person in my personal life that this is what I'm into. It's hard enough to open up about so many other things let alone something so outrageously shamed upon and considered taboo. I do enjoy the kink of fat shaming in your comics as well I think for the same or similar reasons. But I can't ever shake the feeling in the back of my mind that there's something wrong with me because of having grown up during that time.
Yeah I totally get this! I used to be the same except nowdays when I tell people the reaction is so tame that I've come to understand it's not such a big thing anymore as it used to be.
The early 2000s were an absolute wild time when it came to body image and amongst other things, kinda glad we moved on from that and accepted bigger body types a bit more. I have no personal experiences with it myself but I do recall seeing scenes from like movies and TV shows of women being mocked for being "the fat one" along with moments of them gaining weight and being terrified of the idea of how the public will see them. I will say that I'm incredibly into the idea of fat teasing all because of how you portray it in your comics as they're incredibly cute when you do it.
I actually do remember in the early 2000's despite being a kid at that point all this stuff you mentioned. I remember all the diet/healthy eating magazines when I was out grocery shopping with my parents cuz they were usually on full display at checkout. Thanks for the blast from the past kip and a look into how your brain ticks.
The 2000s were such a miserable time for any kind of body positivity. I had so much guilt wrapped up in my attraction to fat people and desire to be bigger, to the point where I had a brief stint with anorexia in middle school. I remember being shamed for having a large appetite despite having a fast metabolism. I was subjected to watching Supersize Me twice, once by my parents and once in health class. While we still have a ways to go, I'm so glad that we as a society have moved past the relentless public body shaming of that era. I'm out here living my best feedee life rn
Happy to hear!
I assume the proportion of people who like and dislike chubby/fat bodies remains the same as ever. The culture has (temporarily at least) changed for the better.
A surprisingly philosophical post, and one I appreciate seeing. Fat shaming is a subculture of a humiliation kink, but it's a fine line - if someone's into it, more power to them, but like many kinks of this type, some caution is needed.
Even if they don't mean anything that we'd call big, I much prefer seeing normies use "thicc" as a compliment these days compared to the dark days of anorexia fashion.
I remember when 'thicc' caught on as a meme and people were losing their minds screaming noooo this is glorifying obesity and today calling someone thicc is just a compliment so definitely some progress there
for a little while now I've been wanting to write a video essay on Wall-E, but the conundrum there is I'd have to talk about its kind of vapid portrayal of obesity on the Axiom, and in order to do that I might need to bring up, or maybe even watch, films like Supersize Me or Idiocracy. truly a hellish degree of research
Hahah I feel you!
Well i was only Born in 2004 but ive had quite a few Situations where ive experienced fat shaming but not as bad as you said it. But since im also very much into feederism i also know a lot of Feedes like fat shaming in terms of the fetish etc
I think the worst thing was that I felt forced to participate, at school my friends would always mock fat people and stuff and I hated being associated. Often I'd go apologise later on, it's honestly heartbreaking how much of an effect words have on people.
I don’t remember the name of it, but I remember watching a documentary about a British model trying to ruin her diet and put on as much weight as possible when I was like 11 or 12, and being seemingly excited to see how much she would gain, only for her to get the smallest pot belly imaginable, with the documentary spinning it as being this career ruining moment.
I know exactly what you're talking about! Not the name, but I remember finding clips of that documentary all the time on YouTube after I first realized I like fat girls
So similar experience and vibe but on a more acute scale during later years of the 2000's. The media villinaizing overweight people constantly and i through middle and highschool watched so many people get called out for it, myself included. My own parents really hitting the final nail in the coffin of 'you're getting too big," when I myself legit couldn't do anything about it since genetics wouldn't allow me to be belowna certain weight range, not so much fat but just built like a fucking battle barge. So in 'retaliation' against anyone picking on myself or close friends, I'd legit throw my weight around to see what they'd do about it. Purposely get into relationships with heavier set partners (which I came to realize I preferred anyways) which would absolutely piss off my parents and no one during school could really pick on me or us since it came with weighted consequences. Either way, rather than letting it really get to me and my friends, stood against the grain of household standards or what others thought. Jokes on them, I'm into that shit.
Want ur guts
That more or less aligns with my experience growing up in the 2000s—a different, brutal time. We didn’t even realize it back then; looking back now, it feels surreal. I don’t have too many stories myself, but in high school, I was jokingly bragging about weightlifting for gains. A chubby classmate with a big boobs chimed in, saying, “Oh, please, even I’m heavier than you! You’ve got a lot to catch up on.” Everyone laughed, but honestly, it was the hottest thing ever.
Really well said and I know just what you mean! Also I love the way you use the words "Cow" and "pig" in the comic, as a furry it warms my heart ♡
That's a really well thought out and detailed deconstruction of the early 2000s fatphobic culture Kip. It's kinda interesting in a way that we're starting to get old enough to have a generational divide that wouldn't know how pervasive this kinda thing was back then at least openly, and why that would've influenced your characters are depicted the way they are in the heat of passion. It still is in a lot of ways, of course, but society has changed A LOT since then. We are getting old 😩
I was born in '84 and used to be fatphobic, before I realized in my late teens that I was into curvy girls. I guess I was just deluding myself.
Do people bother you with this in normies parties or social events? I hide all my pages and art from my parents and other people here.
Wasn’t expecting a well written reading on fatphobia in the 2000s, however I’m glad I read it lol
I like how “gimme more” has gone onto being one of Britney’s best selling singles
Man I had forgotten just how little body mass was needed for the media to go after someone. Those were dark times. These are dark times but for entirely different reasons.
Yeah people often forget that even being skinny wasn't enough, you had to literally be starving to not be considered fat