Echoing flesh: The ‘voluminous body’ in heterosexual hard core

Abstract

This article examines the representation of fatness in heterosexual hard-core pornography whilst exploring both the usefulness and potential limitations of applying Jean François Lyotard’s ideas about the ‘voluminous body’ to this topic. The article reflects critically upon the supposedly transgressive potential of the fat cis female body in adult entertainment and, using examples from BBW (Big Beautiful Women) pornography, reflects upon the ways in which the fat female form can generate a distinctive aesthetic vocabulary for the screening of sexual sensation – a vocabulary that lends itself to the representation of (supposedly) allusive non-phallic affects. Ultimately, however, the article expresses scepticism about the subversive possibilities of much BBW pornography, and urges against any reading of this material that positions it as inherently radical, disruptive, or queer.