Hogging (sexual practice)

Hogging or sweat hogging refers to the practice of groups of men who target overweight or obese women, typically for sexual encounters. Unlike fat fetishists, men who participate in hogging are not necessarily sexually attracted to obese women's bodies; they aim to take advantage of a female's stereotypical low self-esteem or to derive amusement for themselves and their friends by engaging in sexual activities with women who are overweight.

Practice

The social practice can be undertaken as an individual or group activity, and often includes excessive alcohol consumption, emotional detachment, and degradation of the woman. Hogging does not always include sexual intercourse, and often other sexual activities are the end goal. Participation sometimes includes making bets among male peers, as well as humiliating the woman involved.[1]

Criticism

Hogging is a form of misogyny and can be read as evidence of the culturally-sanctioned abuse of women in the United States,[2] although the activity has also been documented in Australia, too.[3] Donna Jarrell, lecturer at Ohio State University and author of What Are You Looking At?: the First Fat Fiction Anthology, described hogging as a "sad" practice, saying that it reveals how "our attraction or our revulsion to fat has a lot to do with our culture". She commented that the fat stigma is so extreme that even men who are genuinely attracted to overweight women cannot admit or discuss their feelings.[1]

The practice has also been suggested as a manifestation of hypermasculinity, in which men who do not fit into normative expectations of manhood exhibit insecurity, defensiveness, and sexual aggression to make up for their incapacity to meet masculine standards. In this manner, hogging is described as a form of sexual predation in which sex is an act of conquest, not intimacy.[3]

See also

• Fat fetishism

References

1. Fenske, Sarah (2003-10-01). "Big Game Hunters". Cleveland Scene. Village Voice Media. Retrieved 2007-09-23.
2. Gailey, Jeannine; Prohaska, Ariane (2006), ""Knocking off a Fat Girl:" An Exploration of Hogging, Male Sexuality, and Neutralizations", Deviant Behavior, 27 (1): 31–49
3. Marilyn D. McShane; Franklin P. Williams (1 January 2007). Youth Violence and Delinquency [Three Volumes]. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-08204-7.

Further reading

• Prohaska, Ariane; Gailey, Jeannine (2009). "Fat Women as "Easy Targets: Achieving Masculinity Through Hogging"". In Rothblum, Esther; Solovay, Sondra (eds.). The Fat Studies Reader. NYU Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-7631-5.