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<p>To be fat in a thin-obsessed gay culture<br>can be difficult. Despite affectionate in-group monikers for big gay men–chubs,<br>bears, cubs–the anti-fat stigma that persists in American culture at large<br>still haunts these individuals who often exist at the margins of gay<br>communities. In Fat Gay Men, Jason<br>Whitesel delves into the world of Girth &amp; Mirth, a nationally known social<br>club dedicated to big gay men, illuminating the ways in which these men form<br>identities and community in the face of adversity. In existence for over forty<br>years, the club has long been a refuge and ‘safe space’ for such men. Both a partial insider as a gay man and an<br>outsider to Girth &amp; Mirth, Whitesel offers an insider’s critique of the gay<br>movement, questioning whether the social consequences of the failure to be<br>height-weight proportionate should be so extreme in the gay community.<br><br> This book documents performances at club events and examines how<br>participants use allusion and campy-queer behavior to reconfigure and reclaim<br>their sullied body images, focusing on the numerous tensions of marginalization<br>and dignity that big gay men experience and how they negotiate these tensions<br>via their membership to a size-positive group. Based on ethnographic interviews<br>and in-depth field notes from more than 100 events at bar nights, café<br>klatches, restaurants, potlucks, holiday bashes, pool parties, movie nights,<br>and weekend retreats, the book explores the woundedness that comes from being<br>relegated to an inferior position in gay hierarchies, and yet celebrates how<br>some gay men can reposition the shame of fat stigma through carnival, camp, and<br>play. A compelling and rich narrative, Fat<br>Gay Men provides a rare glimpse into an unexplored dimension of weight and<br>body image in American culture.</p>