Why are men called "husky" and women are called "fat"?

[Lostmessage]

Why do we have two different terms for people being a certain size.

A man is referred to as a husky man or he has a little paunch if he is overweight but a women can be 10 pounds overweight and she is called fat.

Why is that?

[KG]

1. i thought overwieght women were 'plus sizes'?

:shrug:

[NJCher]

2. jeez, Lostmessage

You havin' a crisis over this or what?


Cher

[CatWoman]

4. beat me to it, Cher

Spam -- it's not just for breakfast :D

[Lostmessage]

8. Question?

Is spam on the Atkins diet? :evilgrin:

[Demonaut]

51. spam is soylent green

didnt ya know?

[Lostmessage]

57. That's my point

What is it?

[Lostmessage]

7. No

I was curious after I started thinking about weight issues.

I use to be a size 5 and my rib cage was showing so I gained some weight and tossed my scales out.

10's are fine with me but then again I have too much junk in my trunk.

[Lostmessage]

36. I like a good size butt

It helps you fill out your pants. I was down to a 5 and my ribs were showing so I gained a little bit of weight on purpose.
I'm not sure if a 10 is a big size because I have never been a size 10.

[SoCalDem]

3. Probably because they can get away with it

Very "fat" guys are idolized as sumo wrestlers or football players. It's just more socially acceptable for men to be overweight (up to a point) than for women.. It's kind of always been that way, and probably always will be..

[rumguy]

5. does that bother you at all?

Is that you in the pic with the shark?

[SoCalDem]

26. Even if it bothered me, it's a societal thing

and I doubt that I could change it even if I tried really hard..

I am not a "skinny minnie", but I had my time in my 20's with the killer body, so I guess I just have to accept the body I have now.. "better to have.... and lost...than to have never had..."

shark pic is a photoshop that someone did.. definitely not me..

I have had up-close encounters with a few sharks, but it was in the water,, I am not overly fond of them :)

[rumguy]

28. well I like all women, a sexy women is more than a young, tight body

So what kind of sharks did you encounter in the water?

[SoCalDem]

29. leopard shark while diving

I was 11 yrs old, and that thing looked as big as a bus...

Then again when I was 16, I was "bumped" by one.. I got in the boat very fast :)

and once more when I was diving .. a big hammerhead.. U G L Y ..

None of them was "aggressive".. just scary :)

[rumguy]

30. I grew up loving sharks

Leapard sharks are mostly harmless...

Hammerheads have been known to attack people...

But I've never seen a shark in the wild...damn it...

[SoCalDem]

31. I lived in Panama for 8 yrs and saw MANY of them

Beaches had shark flags.. Anyone who saw one would just raise the flag..

It was a relatively uninhabited place then.. (the places we went to)_

[SoCalDem]

33. This was one of my old stomping grounds as a kid

We had to leave the car in the jungle when the road quit, and then hike to the water.. There was NOTHING there.. Makes me sad to see it developed :(

http://www.worldwidefishing.com/panama/b1619/

and

http://www.aventuraspanama.com/WFOTOS/Chiriqui/pictchir.htm


wow.. this guy has pictures of ALL the places I loved as a kid

http://www.chagres.com/

[rumguy]

34. Pinas Bay looks like it's a great place

How did you end up living there?

[SoCalDem]

42. My father was in the Air Force

I have always wanted to go back, but I know it would break my heart..

I lived there from 1953 to 1962.. We had a year in Wyoming somewhere in the middle of that ..:)

[SoCalDem]

44. When we fished at pinas bay we went in an aluminum boat

or clunky wooden boat that some natives left there.. We could only go oout in the water to about knee high.. too many sharks there and barracuda too..

[camero]

6. For the same reason it's not acceptable for men to be underweight

The media. I'm trying ladies, I'm trying. :cry:

[Darth_Kitten]

9. Why are men with grey hair 'distinguished' and women with grey.....

"old"? How come men with jobs are good providers and women with jobs bad mothers? How come men who sleep around are considered virile, and women who do are considered something else? How come aggressive men are "go-getters" and women "something else"?

:(

[Lostmessage]

12. Thank You!

:loveya:

[Parrcrow]

10. women are sometimes called matronly

or Rubenesque.

Why is a paunch, which comes with age, called a beer belly? It implies a lifestyle flaw.

[Fight_n_back]

11. ?

I see everyone called fat but women are the only ones I see to try and pretend that its sexy to be fat.

[BigDaddyLove]

54. Good observation.

.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

56. Sexy is in the eye of the beholder...

If you don't find large women to be sexy, that's fine.

But, please tell me... Why are you suggesting that if a woman is comfortable enough about her size to feel sexy, that she has some sort of problem?

Is it so important to you that large women feel badly about themselves?

[Fight_n_back]

60. I have loved many a large woman

but there aren't women's magazines devoted to fat guys, are there?

While we are talking about shallow...I have never known a guy to be dissapointed by the type of car a woman drives or where she lives. Those are reserved for sensitive women.

One of my top five all time women is Queen Latifah. Do you dig Rueben Studdard?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

61. You loved many large women...

Were they pretending to be sexy?

[rumguy]

13. there's no male equivalent of "spinster"

[Parrcrow]

16. confirmed bachelor

implies gay
or child molester with the intollerant assholes we're talking about anyway.

[Lostmessage]

17. Your right

I am a spinster according to some people because I am 39. There is no male equivalent at all.

[rumguy]

19. My friends and I growing up hi-jacked the word spinster

and applied it to guys who were comically skinny...

[Selwynn]

14. Ummm around here fat men are refered to as fat men... or just "Men."

[Interrobang]

15. There's a two word answer to your question.

Sexist culture!

We live in a sexist culture with fairly prescribed sex-role stereotyping, and you've just been caught in it. BTW, if you're a size 10, you'e still on the low end of the normal distribution for female clothing sizes. I'm not even overweight by the BMI, and I wear a size 13...

[tridim]

18. No idea, but what I want to know is

why is it okay to make fun of skinny people? I'm asking as a skinny guy who is at the low end of the "ideal weight" scale. I'm completely healthy by definition yet total strangers still think it's just fine to come up to me and say, "Wow, you're skinny!". It happens more than you'd think. I wonder if these same people would feel comfortable coming up to a fat person and saying, "Wow, you're fat!". Somehow I doubt it.

The only thing I can figure is that it's similarly taboo for a guy to be skinny as it is for a girl to be fat. Guys with beer guts are apparently the norm.

[camero]

20. I doubt we'll get an answer

It seems almost taboo to even talk about it.

[Lostmessage]

21. I use to be called bony

You could see my rib cage and I was made fun of until I gained a few pounds.

I have dated a few skinny men and it don't bother me.

[Robb]

22. Husky females are called "bitches"

Husky males are called "sons of bitches", especially in long races. To wit:

My little Bitch lead dog... :)

[Ellen Forradalom]

23. Why are men assertive

and women aggressive?
Why are men dominant, and women bitches?
Why are men mature, and women old?
Why are men visionary, and women conniving?
Why are men good fathers if they do some childrearing, but women are bad mothers if they go back to work?

It's a mystery.

[greatauntoftriplets]

24. Physicians recommend equally to overweight men and women to lose weight.

I know more men on Atkins, modified Atkins and Weight Watchers than I do women.

[lazarus]

25. she's only called fat

By people who think heroin addicts are attractive.

Me, I think Reuben had the right idea. I prefer a woman who looks like a woman. You know, curves and stuff. A real body that's been through a real life. Too many women that the media portray as "sexy" look like dolls or 12 year olds. Ick.

[Lostmessage]

39. I purposely gained some weight

People kept coming up to me and telling me that I looked sick and I was too skinny when I was a size 5.

I tossed my scales out and I have been a size 10 for a long time now.

I don't have problems buying clothes at all and I feel secure with my size since I posted the messages on DU.

I wasn't sure if a 10 was big or not. Size 0's are beyond ridiculous and that is too skinny.

[JVS]

27. Women are called "Full figured"

[Alenne]

32. Overweight women are constantly referred to as real women

Makes it seem like if you are a size 2 you are not a real woman and you don't have curves.

[Pithlet]

35. It is silly to refer to any size as "real women"

but, I really don't think it's meant to put down skinny women, who don't have it nearly as bad as their overweight sisters when it comes to comments about weight. Take it from someone whos normally skinny, but is currently a few lbs overweight due to just having had a baby, it's much easier to be skinny.

[Nikia]

37. It is unfair

Women on the heavier side or healthy are encouraged to lose weight. Men on the lower side of healthy are encouraged to gain weight. Men, at least healthy young men, aren't usually given a hard time about their heavy weight until they've hit the obese category.

[camero]

38. We're given a hard time

Even if we're healthy and underweight. After I did some research on my illness I found out that the struggle to gain weight was precisely what helped in making me sick in the first place. It works both ways.

[Lostmessage]

40. Skinny people are ridiculed also

When I was real skinny guys use to tell me that my bones were sticking out and ask If I was sick so I gained some weight and I was secure at a size 10 for years.

[camero]

41. I'm sorry you had to go through that

I think it's just despicable to comment on a person's body size. We just can't seem to let people be who they are.

[Lostmessage]

43. I am happy with my size

A 10 is perfect to me and a man or woman at any size if fine with me. I don't care about weight I have large and small people in my family.

My old boyfriend asked me to gain some weight because when he hugged me it felt like he was hugged a skeleton.

[camero]

45. I am too....after 30 years

of trying to be something I'm not. Never let anyone pressure you to be something that you're not. Half the time they don't know what they're talking about anyway.

I just tell them it's not their job to criticize my body, it's my doctor's. Even they don't get it right alot.

[Lostmessage]

46. I don't weigh myself

If I fit into my clothes then I am fine. If they feel a bit snug then it's time to drop a few pounds.

I stopped watching Howard Stern a few years back because he was starting to make me feel inferior.

[camero]

47. You'll be fine then

Just accept yourself for who you are and what's in your heart. It sounds corny but it's true. I wish I had done it sooner because it was really fun to be able to run the 40 in around 4 seconds.

[Lostmessage]

48. Thanks

Your right!

[BiggJawn]

49. "Husky"???

Haven't heard that term used to describe anyone over the age of 9 since the late 60's.

[TopesJunkie]

50. Husky? I think that went out about twenty years ago.

Men are called fat now, too. Equality rules!

[if it comes from the whitehouse it must be true]

52. BBW, learned it on the net

I have been a fan of full figured women all my life, once I got the internet I learned of the term BBW (big beautiful women)

I like that term most of all :)

[PVnRT]

53. Media perception (misperception?)

They perpetuate this myth that women have to be 15% underweight to be "acceptable." Ergo, women are fat when really, they're not.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

55. I like the term "portly"

It's much more dignified than fat...and I wouldn't want to be referred to as if I was a sled dog.

[OhioStateProgressive]

58. hmm

I am sad to say I am a guy, and get called fat plenty...and im about 10 lbs overweight

I can say one thing, I hate it when peopel use the "fat" word...to anybody

[IronLionZion]

59. i prefer bootylicious

but that's just me! Not all guys are shallow you know.:toast:

[Beaker]

62. because men can hit you harder than women.

that's why.

[annonymous]

63. I thought husky was a dog.

I have heard men referred to as stocky or portly, as well as fat. Women get referred to as voluptous, rubenesque (?), and plump as well as fat.

[ScreamingMeemie]

64. My father prefers to call himself stout.

:hi: