What’s in a name?
Recently, someone asked me what bbw meant. I explained that it meant big, beautiful woman, but the conversation got me thinking– what’s the difference between all of the names we use to identify plus size women? Some women call themselves queen size, extra sized, and super-size, while others prefer full figured. Some women like overweight, obese, or fat.
According to Wikipedia, "bbw" can have negative connotations, whereas "plus size" seems to have positive connotations. It also seems that "bbw" refers to sizes above typical plus sizes, although I never would have known that outside of this definition.
So I’m curious– which term(s) do you prefer and why? What connotations do you associate with any of the names I’ve listed above? What other terms do we use to refer to plus sizes?
Comment by Glen
I prefer the term plus size to bbw. When I was doing my research to get into blogging two years ago the term bbw was to closly linked with porn. Though my preference is for a larger woman I wasn’t running a porn blog so as a business venture I elected the use of plus size. In my conversations with ladies plus size relates to clothing while bbw relates to size. I guess it depends on your motivation as to what terms are used.
Comment by Sharon
I always thought BBW was more a dating site term. Plus sized kinda refers more to a clothing size in my mind.
I guess I hate labels in general as I can’t honestly com up with one I would prefer.