• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Towleroad Gay News

Gay Blog Towleroad: More than gay news | gay men

  • Travel
  • Sports
  • Law/Justice
  • Celebrities
  • Republicans
  • Madonna
  • Books
  • Men
  • Trans Rights
  • Royals
  • Monkeypox
  • Vaccine makers prep bird flu shot for humans ‘just in case’; rich nations lock in supplies
  • Toni Collette feels more ‘anxious’ with intimacy coordinators
  • Paris Hilton says Demi Lovato inspired her to write tell-all memoir

UC Santa Barbara Student Objects to LGBT Resource Center’s Talk on ‘Fat Gay Men’

John Wright January 12, 2016 Leave a Comment

A student at the University of California Santa Barbara claims the school’s LGBT resource center is using tuition and tax dollars “to talk about how to sodomize overweight men.”

UCSB student Carlos Flores is objecting to the center’s upcoming discussion of the book, “Fat Gay Men: Mirth, Girth, and the Politics of Stigma,” featuring author Jason Whitesel of Pace University in New York.

FGMFlores told Campus Reform that he learned of the Jan. 20 event through an email from the UCSB Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity, and decided to call attention to it with a Facebook post captioned, “Another day, another degenerate email from the UCSB LGBT Center.”

“As I understand it, they’re using taxpayer money and my tuition dollars to talk about how to sodomize overweight men, which doesn’t seem like the best use of that money,” Flores said. “I don’t think the university should be using my funds to hold a morally questionable event — they’re free to do it, but I’d rather they spent someone else’s money.”

Here’s the Resource Center’s description of the event from Facebook:

“To be fat in a thin-obsessed gay culture can be difficult. Despite affectionate in-group monikers for big gay men–chubs, bears, cubs–the anti-fat stigma that persists in American culture at large still haunts these individuals who often exist at the margins of gay communities. In Fat Gay Men, Jason Whitesel delves into the world of Girth & Mirth, a nationally known social club dedicated to big gay men, illuminating the ways in which these men form identities and community in the face of adversity. In existence for over forty years, the club has long been a refuge and ‘safe space’ for such men. Both a partial insider as a gay man and an outsider to Girth & Mirth, Whitesel offers an insider’s critique of the gay movement, questioning whether the social consequences of the failure to be height-weight proportionate should be so extreme in the gay community.”

Regardless of the controversy at UCSB, the book touches on a legitimate issue in the LGBT community. Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern wrote in a review of the book in 2014: 

Billed as an ethnographic study, Fat Gay Men is as much a semi-comic romp as it is an academic treatise. It’s also more than a little sad. The fat gay men described in Fat Gay Men are tired of being ostracized by their communities—so they decide to ostracize themselves instead. In an attempt to escape the stigma of corpulence, fat gay men wear it as a badge of honor. These efforts lead to some great parties and, apparently, some great sex. But reading about them also leaves you with a sharp sense of melancholy. …

Not all fat gay men are resentful of fit ones, and not all fit gay men are condescending toward fat ones. But Whitesel touches on a real problem: Many gay men put a shockingly high premium on looks. Most pride parades are populated by unbelievably sexy gym bunnies in skimpy attire; a typical gay bar will feature a mind-boggling number of bulging biceps and rippling abs. It’s a tough market out there for an average-looking guy, let alone a tubby one. And if you can’t slip through the bear escape hatch, you’re bound to wind up a bit aggrieved.

Topics: Politics, Space More Posts About: Bears, California, gay culture, Gay Rights, Jason Whitesel, LGBT Rights, Santa Barbara, University of California Santa Barbara

Related Posts
  • Disney Walkout: Employees, Allies Protest CEO’s Response To Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill; “Had They Said Something It Wouldn’t Have Passed.”
  • The 100,000 (est) Men Convicted for Same-Sex Contact Under UK’s Maze of Sodomy Laws Over The Last Few Hundred Years Can Get Pardons Now. Bit Late For Some.
  • Indian Artist/Model Takes Miss Trans Global Pageant; Delaware LGBTQ Bar Fire Relief; Palm Springs Gets First Trans Mayor State: GOOD VIBES
  • Toni Collette feels more ‘anxious’ with intimacy coordinators

    Toni Collette feels more ‘anxious’ with intimacy coordinators

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Toni Collette has sent away intimacy coordinators because she doesn’t find them helpful. The 50-year-old actress insisted the experts – who are brought in to help choreograph sex scenes and to …Read More »
  • Paris Hilton says Demi Lovato inspired her to write tell-all memoir

    Paris Hilton says Demi Lovato inspired her to write tell-all memoir

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Paris Hilton has credited Demi Lovato with inspiring her to write her tell-all book. The hotel heiress has lifted the lid on her life in ‘Paris: The Memoir’ which gives a …Read More »
  • Italy’s language watchdog says ‘no’ to gender-neutral symbols

    Italy’s language watchdog says ‘no’ to gender-neutral symbols

    Published by Reuters By Alvise Armellini ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s courts should stick to tradition and avoid the novelty of gender-neutral symbols in official documents, according to the institution that acts as the guardian of the …Read More »
  • U.S. Supreme Court rejects Christian preacher’s challenge to university

    U.S. Supreme Court rejects Christian preacher’s challenge to university

    Published by Reuters By John Kruzel WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a traveling Christian evangelist’s free-speech challenge to a University of Alabama requirement that he obtain a permit before handing …Read More »
Previous Post: « Morocco Jails Two Men for Gay Kiss in Viral Video
Next Post: New CBS Chief Glenn Geller: ‘I’m Just a Gay Guy From Indiana’ »

Primary Sidebar

Adjacent News

  • Study provides insight into how culture war issues contributed to Trump’s rise to power

    Study provides insight into how culture war issues contributed to Trump’s rise to power

  • Lukas Gage Says He Feels Pressed To Identify His Sexuality As Chris Appleton Claims He’s Dating Actor

    Lukas Gage Says He Feels Pressed To Identify His Sexuality As Chris Appleton Claims He’s Dating Actor

  • Protesters clash outside NYC drag story hour hosted by Attorney General Letitia James, one arrested

    Protesters clash outside NYC drag story hour hosted by Attorney General Letitia James, one arrested

Good Trash: Going to Read It Somewhere, Y'know

  • Gwyneth Paltrow says rectal ozone therapy has been ‘very helpful’

    Gwyneth Paltrow says rectal ozone therapy has been ‘very helpful’

  • Sarah Ferguson and Princess Diana were arrested for impersonating police officers

    Sarah Ferguson and Princess Diana were arrested for impersonating police officers

  • Samantha Ronson reacts to the news that her ex Lindsay Lohan is pregnant

    Samantha Ronson reacts to the news that her ex Lindsay Lohan is pregnant

RSS Partner Links

  • An error has occurred, which probably means the feed is down. Try again later.

Most Recent

  • Vaccine makers prep bird flu shot for humans ‘just in case’; rich nations lock in supplies

    Vaccine makers prep bird flu shot for humans ‘just in case’; rich nations lock in supplies

  • Toni Collette feels more ‘anxious’ with intimacy coordinators

    Toni Collette feels more ‘anxious’ with intimacy coordinators

  • Paris Hilton says Demi Lovato inspired her to write tell-all memoir

    Paris Hilton says Demi Lovato inspired her to write tell-all memoir

  • Italy’s language watchdog says ‘no’ to gender-neutral symbols

    Italy’s language watchdog says ‘no’ to gender-neutral symbols

  • U.S. Supreme Court rejects Christian preacher’s challenge to university

    U.S. Supreme Court rejects Christian preacher’s challenge to university

  • Former German top diver Hempel seeks compensation over abuse by coach

    Former German top diver Hempel seeks compensation over abuse by coach

  • Finland’s President Niinistö defends joining NATO without Sweden

    Finland’s President Niinistö defends joining NATO without Sweden

  • Censorship or evolution? ‘Sensitivity readers’ divide publishing world

    Censorship or evolution? ‘Sensitivity readers’ divide publishing world

Most Commented

Social

Twitter @tlrd | Facebook | Instagram @tlrd

Footer

Copyright © 2023 · Log in

×