![]() ![]() As Lory Britt and David Heise put it so aptly, while “shame may lead to hiding. ![]() Girth & Mirthers are often left out of Gay Pride media coverage yet they persist despite their invisibility, seeking group recognition. I have witnessed these men being chastised for wanting to participate in annual Pride parades and being told they are embarrassments to the gay community. As a gay man who participated in Girth & Mirth-therefore as a partial insider, yet admittedly with thin privilege, white privilege, and a professor’s privilege, among others-I want to share my critique of the wider gay community’s sizism.Īs Marcia Millman observed almost 35 years ago, in Such a Pretty Face: Being Fat in America, “when a homosexual man is fat, he is often viewed in the gay community as not having sufficient ‘self-pride.’” Indeed, fat gay pride is a difficult subject position to sell and when the Girth & Mirthers I studied invited other big gay men to join their cause, they opened themselves up to public rejection, as if it weren’t already difficult to be personally rejected because of their size and sexual orientation. I recently finished my first book, Fat Gay Men: Girth, Mirth, and the Politics of Stigma, which offers an inside look at “Girth & Mirth,” a gay social club where members nurture each other’s joy in being fat and happy.
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