Fat vs.

Ripped: Female’s Choice

of Companionship

K. M. Shaerul Abedin Shaer

161 0061 0 47

ENG105.5

Submitted to,
Md. Mehedi Hasan (HMe)
Lecturer,
Department of English & Modern Languages,
North South University

29th April, 2020.

Abstract

Television & electronic media’s over exposure of strong physique male body had created a
problem that should not have been existed in the first place. Though many do not recognize the
concerns, a long time coverage of such standards created an image which is putting pressure
among the male population of the society. Females are also deceived into such standards. I
examined such issues among female population of Dhaka city who have different living settings,
apart from western standards, to understand the choices of companionship. 63 participants
contributed to this research and showed that personality and personal taste are the basis to choose
a male companion. Social and economic factors do not matter to most of the contributors. They
were not biased on body images. Short term partnership also dictates no biasedness towards
ripped male companion.

1
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION: ......................................................................................................................... 3
BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................ 4
RESEARCH QUESTIONS: ........................................................................................................... 6
HYPOTHESIS: ............................................................................................................................... 6
METHODOLOGY: ........................................................................................................................ 6
RESULT & DISCUSSION: ............................................................................................................ 7
SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS: .............................................................................................. 14
CONCLUSION: ............................................................................................................................ 15
REFERENCES: ............................................................................................................................ 16

2
Introduction:
The term ripped first came up as a marketing strategy of different supplement companies
(“Ripped muscle origin”, 2017). But this marketing campaign turned out to be a change in the
culture of companionship and love in the society. Women started to see men differently, putting
pressure on men to change themselves accordingly. Most of the time, the desired changes are not
in effect, leading to a widespread emotional conflicts among men. Women were also confused on
how to cope with it, falling under the trap of corporate propaganda. A social destabilization of
this type putting a lot of pressure on the upcoming generation of societies. In general terms, fat
means bulky, and according to Williams (2018), the term ripped states mostly lean muscle with
biceps of any male individual, which “probably eclipsing abs as the main focus of his physique”
(Ripped, para. 8). Getting ripped means gaining body muscles in the most simplistic way.
Although there are other terms for different types of body after gaining muscles, such as cut,
jacked, swole etc. But the term ‘ripped’ is misinterpreted and now is considered to be the focal
point of male attractiveness.

To shed a light into the issue, Biron (n.d.) reported that the fitness industry is now a global
empire of 100 billion dollars. Unusual fitness trends, such as going to “urban sweat lodge”, or
attending prison style workout trained by former convicts are very popular now-a-days and gym
industries are manipulating this ideas into mainstream lifestyle to earn credits. Agliata and
Tantliff-Dunn (2004) reported that influence of television advertisement creating a massive
amount of muscle dissatisfaction among males which can also lead to depression (p.16). They
also found out that male audiences who do not watch this type of advertisement frequently are in
less danger of emotional distress. But in the time of social media and availability of advanced
technology led to the production of fitness trackers or “personalized biometric health statistics”
hardware & software, fueling the emotional burden (Midgley, 2018). Because of this
advancements, it has been reported that, “body image dissatisfaction for Western men is
estimated to have tripled in the last 25 years” (Muller, n.d.). This may happen because people are
now more active then ever in social medias, influencing many to join the industry (Shead, 2018).

This media activity also influencing women to percieve a man’s body differently, driving the
pressure high to be like that model who is standing tall and mascular in a fitness magazine,
creating a sociocultural pressure to achieve the ultimate ideal body (Brown, 1997, p. 48).

3
Building stronger body architecture first traced back to 1800s, from Greece (Clubready, 2017,
para. 4). As history dictates, building body for men was never about getting attention of women
or getting depressed, it was just a hobby in order to give an extra boost into the immune system.

In reality, fat males are not what it is usually represented. Vinopal (n.d.) explained that choosing
a fat male companion is sometimes is a matter of feeling secured (para.2). Vinopal (n.d.) also
stated, “While all fat men aren’t necessarily funny, pop culture has socialized most people to
believe that they are until proven otherwise” (para. 3). In an online survey, over 2000 American
citizens expressed their love for a type of body physique labeled as “dad bod”, which is a sign of
confidence and high self-esteem (Hampton, 2019).

There are few notable researches available on the mating choice of women, but all of them are
conducted till now are based on North America and Europe. My report will compare the
understanding of Bangladeshi women against a western settings where women’s rights are far
more valuable and media exposures are comparatively large.

This research will try to understand the perspective of Bangladeshi women about what they think
of different male body standard. We will also try to understand what they will choose mostly as a
male companion and a specific reasoning of why they chose it. Many other traits such as height,
body hair, and color can be factors of determining a partner. But this paper will only study the
impact of body muscles, because this trait is something that can be controlled, built or
manipulated by people.

Background:

As mentioned earlier, Most of the research that are conducted till now are based on western
countries. This research will shed light into how women of general south Asian culture with less
rights and media exposure will perceive a male body. This will also be explored that if there any
effect of media on female proportion regarding their choice of partner.

Though getting ripped seems like a normal thing, the social and economic impact may be far
greater than anticipated. According to Petersen and Laustsen (2018), men with large upper-
bodies have a tendency to favor inequality in society and a limited redistribution of resources (p.

4
17). But there was no correlation between body image and political ideology found among
women. In a review article, Henderson (2019) found that, according to some research, muscular
men are more likely to be short term sexual partner. Haselton and Frederick (2007) asked 141
women to rate different kind of male body structure (p.1172). This was the result (on a scale of 1
to 9):

Built: 6.97

Toned: 6.87

Brawny: 6.37

Slender: 5.42

Typical: 4.28

Chubby: 2.95

It is also found from the same research is that the more the masculinity, the less they are in
commitment. It has been also stated that strong build male companion were chosen for short term
relationships, indicating the loss of trust that a ripped male may possess. To find out the reason,
Durkee et al. (2019) mentioned that women perceive muscular male as a person who can solve a
conflicted situation by the use of force (p.6). In accordance with that, another research conducted
by Durkee et al. (2017) found out that men with strong upper body are easily checked out by
people in public places (p.1). But, Frederick and Jenkins (2015) found in an original research that
overweight men has high number sexual partners compared to lean muscled male companion,
which confirms the fact that fat male companion are also considered for short term relationships
as well (p.3). It has been mentioned that women find overweight men most confident in the same
paper. A similar statement can be found in a paper written by Perusse (1994), where he
mentioned, “male status is an important criterion in female choice” (p.255).

The effect of media influence of women’s choice in companionship was discussed earlier.
Frederick et al. (2004) found out that the magazine images that were portrayed were less
muscular than anticipated, though the influence is still there (p.5). In a book chapter, Frederick et
al. (2013) mentioned about “Runaway selection”, which is a concept of evolutionary selection.

5
Puts (2010) also explained the similar thing, stating that, “female mate choice, sperm
competition, and sexual coercion also likely shaped men's traits” (p.1).

It can be seen that women usually fond of stronger, ripped or jacked male companion with the
question of sustainable relationship. Though many researches shows contradictory findings, it is
pretty clear that fat male companion were not as downgraded as it is perceived by the society. In
future, researchers can put effort on the topic of fat male individual’s advantages as a male
companion.

Research Questions:
This research will address the following research questions:

1. What are the differences between fat and ripped?

2. Which type of body women tend to like more? Fat or ripped? Why?
3. What are the factors that drive independent women to choose fat male companion?

Hypothesis:
I expect to find that general women of Dhaka city will be happy to choose a chubby male as a
long term companion. If they want any emotional attachments for short period, ripped/lean
muscled male will be the choice of partner. I think the factors that are main to choose partners
are more of a social and economic reasons rather than personal taste. It is expected that the bulky
male are more successful keeping their women partner happy compared to strong build male
companion.

Methodology:
For my primary research, a survey was conducted among the general female populations of
Dhaka city to find out their experience and perspective in order to understand what type of
companionship a female want and why. With that goal, a questionnaire with different types of
questions was prepared which helped me to find useful data to help in my research.

6
For the secondary research, I used online media coverage, research articles published in online
journals and surveys and interviews that are published online as a source.

Result & Discussion:

A total of 63 participants contributed in this research, all of them are general females of Dhaka
city. Most of them are students, very few are job holders, such as corporate executives and
doctors. They were asked a set of different questions to understand how they choose and view
their male counterpart and a why.

Figure 01: Choice of male body types

Above pie chart shows the responses of all the female participants where they were asked about
the type of body they would like to see in their male companion. The respondents were provided
with pictures to answer with. It can be seen that ripped and typical male body has the highest
support from 42.9% and 30.2% of the respondents, respectively. Chubby male body was rarely
chosen as an answer. Skinny body was not as likable, gaining only 23.8% of the support. This
clearly shows that the participants are very much divided to choose a companion according to
body physique. It can be understood from the chart that the attractiveness of the pictures
certainly influenced the answers. There are other traits such as body hair, which also influenced
the choice of male body, according to participants. All in all, there was no stable trend of choice
of companionship based on body shape. This analysis did not help in my hypothesis.

7
 Figure 02: Advantages of ripped male as a companion

The graph from figure 02 conveys the information about the advantages that the participants
thinks a ripped male brings into a relationship. 39.7% of the participants thought self-
consciousness as an attractive trait. Nearly same amount of remaining partakers also gave
importance to the statement that a ripped male companion can provide a sense of confidence into
a relationship. A few portion (27%) of the participants like the point that their personality will
bear high self-esteem if they are in a relationship with a ripped partner. Like the previous one, all
contributors seem to be divided here as well. It seems that every individual have a different
perception about a strong build man. In general, being with a ripped male may not be that
advantageous after all. This answers did support my hypothesis.

Figure 03: Rates of checking out a strong build male in a public place

8
The pie chart from figure 3 shades a light into the question - if females like to check out a male
individual with a strong build in a public place. 47.6% of the contributors think that watching a
strong build male is a fun thing to do. Remaining participants answered negatively, where 14.3%
of them said that they feel suffocated watching ripped male in public places. The partakers are
divided here in half, due to the fact that not all the females find ripped males attractive. Like
previous two survey questions, no certain trends are found. Altogether, this evaluation does help
in my hypothesis.

Figure 04: Advantages a fat male can bring in a relationship

In figure 4, the bar graph represents the data of the advantages a fat male bring into a
relationship. Here, the love for a ripped body as a companion got a 42.9% support, whereas the
s39.7% of the participators thought about avoiding the burden of being a competitive partner in a
relationship as an advantage. A small amount (17.5%) supported the statement that being with a
fat male will make the woman counterpart superior, which is a significant find. From all the
questions till now, a significant portion of participators are choosing their male companion based
on strong body image so far, because they find it attractive. Also, they would like it if being with
a chubby male will keep off some emotional pressure off the relationship. Fredrick & Jenkins
(2015) found out that overweight men has the most number of sexual partners compared to other
male body type, which is a complete opposite of this analysis (p.9). Overall, the trend of

9
advantages are leaning towards the emotional advantages a fat partner may provide. This
answers does not match with my hypothesis.

Figure 05: Opinion on whether or not a strong independent woman will choose a fat
companion over ripped companion

The next pie chart from figure 05 shows rates of different choices based on if woman will choose
fat companion over a ripped companion. 44.4% of the participants supported the fact that choice
will be based on personality. Another 28.6% thought personal taste will be the basis of choice.
The partakers are leaning towards personality features over body images. The women partakers
are certainly not thinking a fat individual an attractive one. In this case, they will value
personality over other factors such as attractiveness because that may be the right thing to do. In
this situation, this survey question partially matches with my hypothesis.

Figure 06: Reasons that a fat male will be the first choice as a companion

10
The following chart from figure 6 talks about the reasons which will help a fat individual to get
chosen by a female. Choices based on personal taste got substantial amount of support (73%),
whereas a small portion (23.8%) stated they did not like being with a fat male. Though it was
expected that the choice of a fat male will be based on social and economic reasons, the results
came out otherwise. Perusse (1994) stated that a man’s social status is an important factor when
choosing for partner by female (p.255). The analysis is not consistent with what Perusse had
determined.

Figure 07: Reasons that a ripped male will be the first choice as a companion

The pie chart from figure 7 takes into consideration the opposite question- reasons behind
choosing a ripped male over a fat male. Here, most of the participators (77.8%) choose personal
taste will be the main factor behind choosing a ripped male. A previous question asked about the
advantages a ripped male bring into a relationship, provides somewhat a different perspective
from this question. None of the advantages were considered for choosing a ripped male. This is
may be for the fact that woman generally fall for a ripped male because of the attractiveness. The
all in all direction is towards the personal taste to choose a companion. This analysis does
support my hypothesis.

11
 Figure 08: Opnions on how a man perceive female’s choice

The next analysis from figure 8 takes a little different approach. It asked the contributors about
what they think about the male perspective of a strong body. 50.8% of the contributors thought
that men are too lazy to go to the gym. Another significant point made by the participants
(23.8%) is that men generally wants the female to choose them based on other traits. According
to females, this is may be because getting a strong body is an enticement to the both population,
but everybody do not possess the gut to initiate because it is too much work. Overall, the trend is
going towards a distaste of doing hard work.

Figure 09: Rate of stalking a ripped male in social media

In figure 9, the pie chart describes the rate of surfing a social media accounts of a ripped male.
52.4% surfs rarely, compared to 17.5% who stalks them indefinitely. Another 17.5% did not
want to disclose this information. The general trend is oriented towards not checking out the
photos of ripped male personality in social media. The reason simply may be they do not like it
or, they are lying in their answers. This analysis matches with my hypothesis.

12
 Figure 10: Chances of a ripped male’s success to acquire a first date

The next pie chart from figure 10 shows the rate of success of ripped male asking for a first date.
Just like most contributors who do not like stalk the photos of a ripped male, they also do not like
to go on a date with them as well (54%). 23.8% of the partakers answered they will reconsider
going into a long term relationship with a ripped male, but they also thought casual dating is fine.
The female contributors somehow sees the ripped male unreliable for dating. Largely, the trend
is going towards ‘not going on a first date’ with ripped male. This analysis does support my
hypothesis.

Figure 11: Opinions on longevity of commitment of a ripped male

13
From figure 11, the data indicates the rate of longevity of relationship with a ripped male. 65.1%
of the participators thought it will solely depend on the characteristics of the ripped partner. This
is because they seem to be somehow unreliable in a relationship, which is also mentioned by
Vinopal (n.d.). 17.5% of contributor supported that the commitment is generally long. The
general trend is swinging towards an uncertainty of commitment with a ripped companion. This
statement matches with my hypothesis.

Figure 12: Choice of short term partner

The final graph asked about an emotional void that can only be filled by male partners. The rate
of ripped and fat male are shown in this graph. A large portion (57.1%) supported that choosing
will not help. Another 30.2% will choose both of them. But Frederick & Haselton (2007) has
discovered otherwise, which is that, women’s “most recent short term sex partners were more
muscular than their other sex partners” (p.1167). The reason of higher rates of not choosing may
be because of the fact that emotional support has nothing to do with body image. This analysis
supports my hypothesis.

Summary of the findings:

As it can be seen from the survey analysis, not all the survey questions matches with the
hypothesis. One thing is clear, though females are clearly attracted to the ripped body compared
to the fat body, it certainly did not helped to choose their companion. Some new insights can be
found also. Body hair also plays a big role along with the body structure, as I deducted from the
very first survey question. Female contributors will choose their companion based on personality

14
and personal choice, mostly. Though we cannot ignore the portion who still chooses their partner
due to attractiveness. So, being fat or ripped male does not matter, as long as their personality is
up to the standard and matches with personal taste of a woman counterpart. Bulky men are found
to be most appreciated as a long term companion, so they are the most successful ones to keep
their partner happy So, it is safe to say that, my hypothesis is partially true.

Conclusion:
Choosing a male companion is not a taboo anymore. Women has every right to choose who they
want to be with. But this privilege is somehow clouded by the influence of media, putting a lot of
unnecessary pressure on the average men of the society. This research paper showed that body
physique is not an important factor to choose the right partner. There are other circumstances
where various researchers showed the superiority of strong build men, which is not found
common in this research. Some women always appreciates the strong build some men possess,
but that is not a determining factor in the long run.

15
References:

Agliata, D., & Tantleff-Dunn, S. (2004). The Impact of Media Exposure on Males’ Body Image.
Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23(1), 7–22.
https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.23.1.7.26988
Biron, B. (n.d.). Fitness has exploded into a nearly $100 billion global industry as more people
become obsessed with their health. Retrieved April 10, 2020, from
https://www.businessinsider.com/fitness-has-exploded-into-a-nearly-100-billion-global-
industry-2019-9
Brown, K. (1997). From fashion to fitness: A sociocultural analysis of the representation of
thinness within the mass media. Ottawa, Canada: National Library of Canada
Clubready. (2017, February 15). Evolution of the fitness industry: A brief history of the public
gym. Retrieved April 11, 2020,
from https://www.clubready.club/blog/evolution-of-the-fitness-industry-a-brief-history-
of-the-public-gym
Durkee, P. K., Polo, P., Muñoz-Reyes, J. A., Rodríguez-Ruiz, C., Losada-Pérez, M., Fernández-
Martínez, A. B., Turiégano, E., Buss, D. M., & Pita, M. (2019). Men’s Bodily
Attractiveness: Muscles as Fitness Indicators. Evolutionary Psychology, 17(2),
147470491985291. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704919852918
Durkee, P. K., Goetz, A. T., & Lukaszewski, A. W. (2018). Formidability assessment
mechanisms: Examining their speed and automaticity. Evolution and Human Behavior,
39(2), 170–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.12.006
Frederick, D. A., Fessler, D. M. T., & Haselton, M. G. (2004). Do representations of male
muscularity differ in men’s and women’s magazines? Body Image, 2(1), 81–86.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2004.12.002
Frederick, D. A., & Jenkins, B. N. (2015). Height and Body Mass on the Mating Market.
Evolutionary Psychology, 13(3), 147470491560456.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704915604563
Frederick, D. A., & Haselton, M. G. (2007). Why Is Muscularity Sexy? Tests of the Fitness
Indicator Hypothesis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(8), 1167–1183.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167207303022
Frederick, D., Reynolds, T., & Fisher, M. (2013). The importance of female choice: Evolutionary
perspectives on constraints, expressions, and variations. In M. L. Fisher, J. R. Garcia, and
R. S. Chang (Eds.), Evolution's empress: Darwinian perspectives on the nature of
women, 304-329. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

16
Hampton, N. H. (2019, June 11). Planet fitness study finds that love for the dad bod continues to
rise in 2019. Planet Fitness. Retrieved from Planet Fitness: https://tinyurl.com/y6d3shqs
Henderson, R. (2019, July 20). 5 resons why the big muscles matter, to men and women.
Psychology Today . Retrieved from
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/after-service/201907/5-reasons-why-big-
muscles-matter-men-and-women
Midgley, B. (2018, September 26). The six reasons the fitness industry Is booming. Forbes.
Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/benmidgley/2018/09/26/the-six-reasons-
the-fitness-industry-is-booming/#42d7a25a506d
Monaghan, L. F. (2005). Big Handsome Men, Bears and Others: Virtual Constructions of “Fat
Male Embodiment.” Body & Society, 11(2), 81–111.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034x05052463
Muller, G. (n.d.). The influence of male body image in media. The Psych Professional. Retrieved
April 10, 2020, from https://psychprofessionals.com.au/male-body-image/
Pérusse, D. (1994). Mate choice in modern societies. Human Nature, 5(3), 255–278.
https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02692154
Petersen, M. B., & Laustsen, L. (2018). Upper‐Body Strength and Political Egalitarianism:
Twelve Conceptual Replications. Political Psychology, 40(2), 375–394.
https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12505
Price, M. E., Pound, N., Dunn, J., Hopkins, S., & Kang, J. (2013). Body Shape Preferences:
Associations with Rater Body Shape and Sociosexuality. Plos One, 8(1), 52-53.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052532
Puts, D. A. (2010). Beauty and the beast: mechanisms of sexual selection in humans. Evolution
and Human Behavior, 31(3), 157–175.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.02.005
Shead, J. (2018, December 18). Male body-image pressure increases with influence from social
media. Spartan News Room. Retrieved from shorturl.at/fuwBX
The linguistic reasoning behind ripped muscles. (2017, November 2). Retrieved April 10, 2020,
from http://www.bloggers4freedom.com/ripped-muscles-origin/
Vinopal, L. (n.d.). 5 scientific reasons why women love fat guys. Retrieved April 10, 2020, from
https://www.fatherly.com/health-science/wellness/romantic-advantages-for-fat-guys/
Williams, B. (2018, November 7). Cut, ripped, jacked, or swole? Retrieved April 11, 2020, from
https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a24079330/muscular-definition-guide/

17