Round Body into a Square Hole

Non-Heterosexual Women's Fatphobic Language in Dating App Profiles

Abstract

Societal ideologies teach us that fatness is not a desirable quality in dating. We learn the rules to be sexually successful through our social environment and interactions. In exam-ining dating app profiles of non-heterosexual women, we illustrate the fatphobic language that is being used by daters. We categorized three types of daters: the Lifestyle Dater; the I’m Fat, but…Dater; and the Body Positive Dater. Our dating world is guided too much by image and not enough by the person themselves.