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The other problem is that, for many gay men, muscularity equals masculinity - which is often prized in the community. And they work: Several studies prove that gay men on average have lower body mass indexes than straight men. Images like these reinforce the importance of a thin, muscular physique. A 2011 study found that the models in gay-centric magazines were both thinner and more muscular than the men in magazines like GQ. In 2005, researchers found that being gay alone is a risk factor for men to develop eating disorders due to pressures to be thin. Here's proof: One 2012 study in the journal Body Image showed that, when it comes to short-term relationships, gay men prize lean, muscular builds the most. And while having preferences against fat or feminine men may seem innocuous enough, putting it on a shirt or even on an app profile speaks to a larger truth about the gay community: We're sexist, racist and discriminatory AF. Well-grounded in sociological theory, the book argues that through stigma, shame, mar- ginalization, carnival and play, big gay men reconfigure claims to sexuality, desirability, and humanness in a pervasively fatphobic society and mainstream gay community.There is no doubt the shirt is discriminatory - its intention is to separate those you want to sleep with (thin, masculine) with those you don't (fat, feminine). Indeed, Jason Whitesel’s Fat Gay Men: Girth, Mirth, and the Politics of Stigma (2014) is a critical contribution to this field, refocusing the lens of inquiry onto how fat embodiment, fatphobia, and sizism impact the lived experiences of some big gay men. From Revolting Bodies? The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity by Kathleen LeBesco (2004) to Rothblum and Solovay’s The Fat Studies Reader (2009), fat studies scholars have rightfully pointed to how people navi- gate cultural systems of fatphobia and sizism as concerns in broader social justice pro- jects. Watson, Indiana University, USA Fat studies is an emerging field of interdisciplinary scholarship that has produced a num- ber of important texts over the last decade. A product of three years of field research in a chapter of the international big gayĢ96 Cultural Sociology 10(2) Jason Whitesel Fat Gay Men: Girth, Mirth, and the Politics of Stigma New York University Press, New York, 2014, £14.99 pbk (ISBN: 978-0-8147-2412-5), 177 pp. Well-grounded in sociological theory, the book argues that through stigma, shame, mar- ginalization, carnival and play, big gay men reconfigure claims to sexuality, desirability, and humanness in a pervasively fatphobic society and mainstream gay community. Book Review: Fat Gay Men: Girth, Mirth, and the Politics of Stigma Book Review: Fat Gay Men: Girth, Mirth, and the Politics of StigmaĢ96 Cultural Sociology 10(2) Jason Whitesel Fat Gay Men: Girth, Mirth, and the Politics of Stigma New York University Press, New York, 2014, £14.99 pbk (ISBN: 978-0-8147-2412-5), 177 pp.