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“BBW" was once copyrighted and used only in the context of BBW Magazine but now, with the growing swath of web-based dating sites available to the public, the term's usage has spread over the years, to the point that women are now identifying as BBW, BBBW, DBBW and more.
As the acronym slowly infiltrates the daily English vocabulary, many women have been adopting the term to describe themselves – favoring it as a self-descriptive term over words like chubby, obese, overweight or full-figured. Some have even argued that the other terms just don’t offer up any sense of self-acceptance or comfort. These other terms, some say, leave them feeling marginalized and judged.
Like in many controversial cases of political correctness, there are two sides to every coin. Where some strongly identify as BBW, others feel that simply describing themselves as “fat” works just fine for them. A similar case occurred back in the early 1990s when the term African American was first introduced. Many within the African American community detested the new term and wanted, instead, to be called “black.” Since then however, the terminology has become interchangeable and some linguists believe that soon BBW and fat will become interchangeable as well.
Now the term BBW is even used to announce or label events specifically targeted to such women and persons interested in them. BBW, as a description, can now be seen headlining dance clubs, restaurants, fashion stores, modeling shows and more. As is the case with dating sites, using the term brings in BBW customers and the people that think fat is beautiful.
The change in terminology greatly ties to the Fat Acceptance Movement which is sometimes called the “Size Acceptance Movement,” “Fat Liberation Movement” or even “Fat Power.” The movement is a grassroots effort to change societal attitudes towards fat individuals. The movement is comprised of a diverse group of people fighting the prejudices and discriminations against people whose size is considered to be grotesque in contemporary Western societies – societies where more than 60 percent of the population is overweight.
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