[aishah]

i find the "what qualifies as bbw" conversation really interesting especially because of how it's classified with regards to porn and the fetish community...i had this discussion with some other sex workers recently. there's a line between curvy/bbw/ssbbw but no one's exactly sure where it falls.

my understanding is something along the lines of curvy is big hips/ass/tits but not a lot of stomach - the 'higher' end of 'normal' on the bmi scale (which i hate, but it's semi-useful for understanding how other people classify us as fat folks). bbw tends to be 'overweight' on bmi scale. ssbbw tends to fall farther into the 'obese' range. so when i weighed 240-250 i was bordering on ssbbw. now (at 215) i'm firmly in the bbw range. if i lost about 40-60 more lbs i'd probably be in the curvy range. the highest size i've worn was a 22/2x, now i usually wear an 18 (or a 20 in jeans) and xl-1x.

it's really confusing because i know a lot of sex workers who id as bbw for the sake of appealing to niche customers but aren't really considered bbw by fetishists as they aren't big enough. and breast/ass size plays into it a lot...having smaller breasts but a bigger stomach is more likely to get you classified as a bbw by others regardless of your actual weight.

personally i'm not a huge fan of bbw as a label for myself but it gets put on me a lot. i associate it with being fetishized and while i'm okay with that when i'm getting paid for it, it's not something i enjoy privately (although i know there are plenty of bbws who do, and that's cool). i tend to date people who prefer or at least like big women because i love my body and i have no desire to change it (so i am not getting involved w/someone who thinks i'm a fixer upper), but i won't date people who are into me primarily/solely because of my body size. i prefer terms like thick, curvy, voluptuous, fat, etc. when describing myself.