The Big Beautiful Woman, or BBW for short, is a subversion of Hollywood's usual standards of size and beauty. She isn't sexy despite her full figure, she's sexy because of it. She's comfortable with the fact that her weight is part of her just like her hair color. Any angst or insecurity over her body was resolved long ago (or over the course of the story, if this trope is the end result), and she's a confident woman who has a healthy dating life and knows how to find outfits that look fantastic on her. Sloppier works might give her the same feel as a Pet Homosexual: a raunchy best friend who's always talking about sex but is never seen having it. Writers can avoid this by making her part of the Beta Couple or (believe it or not) making her the main heroine as an everywoman.
There's plenty of overlap with Sassy Black Woman (she'll at least have the attitude if not the skin tone) and Fag Hag. Also a source of Fetish Fuel. When adding examples, avoid ladies who are Hollywood Pudgy. She must be visibly heavy-set for the trope to be in effect. May be part of the Tiny Guy, Huge Girl Pairing. Sometimes paired with Of Corsets Sexy, as a number of full-figured women esteem corsets highly as a way to produce a perfect hourglass figure. Contrast with Brawn Hilda and Amazonian Beauty.
For authors who would like to use this trope, but prefer not to keep the change, a Temporary Bulk Change episode can be used to show off Fetish Fuel.
See also Big Beautiful Man (the Spear Counterpart) and Chubby Chaser (who may admire either of the above, if not both).
No Real Life Examples, Please!.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Cattleya from Queen's Blade, due to her somewhat pudgy stomach, wide hips, large ass and gigantic pillow-like breasts *
And when we say "pillow-like", we are partially referring to the fact that they're so huge, she once uses them as makeshift pillows!
Another Los Bros Hernandez example: ''Whoa Nellie!'◊, about lady wrestlers.
Averted by the Great Lakes Avengers' Big Bertha◊, a skinny model whose superpowers are only available when she is in her Superhero form. It looks just like her usual self, if she became obese.
Volcana from the original Secret Wars mini-series.
Tarot's mother, from Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose. She's not really fat, just a wider version of her daughter, and with an increased bust size to match.
In the Five Years Later continuity of Legion of Super-Heroes Dream Girl became this, although this depended on her wardrobe.
This trope was somewhat averted with Bouncing Boy's one-time girlfriend Iresa from the Silver Age. Plump sure, but she was rather plain. The joke, however, was that BB had dated her after he lost his powers and become svelte.
Sophie from Anastasia is a beautiful, full-bodied Russian blonde of minor Noble position and great wealth living in Paris and housing the former Ruling family.
Marianne Sägebrecht's roles in Bagdad Café and Rosalie Goes Shopping.
Page image Mama Morton from Chicago. Queen Latifah is gorgeous in everything she does.
Fat Slags - Sean Cooley plays the man who uses his infinite wealth and media power to make BBWs globally fashionable, causing all women (especially a few celebrities who get parodied) to become BBWs. Since his PA, Geri Halliwell's Paige, has a huge crush on him, we get to watch her quickly turn herself into a BBW.
Motormouth Maybelle and Tracy Turnblad from Hairspray (Motormouth Maybelle is another Queen Latifah role in the more recent movie); she later convinces Edna Turnblad to join her, in part due to inspiration from Edna's daughter Tracy.
Gloria, the hippo in the Madagascar movies. Designed to be sexy. In fact, her large size became a status of attraction to a male hippo named Moto Moto (the name so nice, you say it twice).
And it would seem that hippos as a species find chubbiness attractive, since Moto Moto and Gloria's flirting is made entirely of fat jokes.
The Master of Disguise features Momma Disguisey, who Poppa Disguisey is most definitely still enamoured with because of her all-Italian large figure. In fact, it is implied that wanting this sort of a wife is as much a part of being a Disguisey as being a Master of Disguise, to the extent that when Pistachio marries Jennifer, his "tiny butter-bottom", there is an obvious implication that she will soon grow to fit the trope.
Especially since camera pans from the Disguisey instruction manual's image of a bride with very large buttocks, straight to Jennifer at the real wedding.
Your mileage will most likely vary on the "beautiful" part with her.
America Ferrera's character in Real Women Have Curves.
Ogress Fiona in Shrek, intermittently in the last half of the first movie and almost the whole second film, then all the time from the third movie onwards.
Queen Latifah again in Bringing Down the House. She is pretty much the embodiment of this trope.
Hyacinth Hippo in the Dance of the Hours section of Fantasia. Not only did the alligators end up fighting over her favor, her movements were modeled after footage of a real ballet dancer, then given the appropriate amount of heft.
The French movie On Tour fits this trope perfectly.
Lady Sybil Vimes of the Discworld is, to put it politely, not 'delicate'.
Death's adopted daughter is repeated said to be "chubby", too. Her soon to be love interest even notes that her chest alone "contained enough puppy fat for a whole litter of Dobermans."
In Maskerade Agnes Nitt is described as "good-looking, in an expansive sort of way"; all she's missing is the confidence, which her Split Personality Perdita has in spades.
This is noted as the standard of attractiveness in Ramtops. Lancre men are much more interested in big women from families that clearly enjoy their food than they are in slim figures and corsetry.
The main character of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels and TV series is the "traditionally built" Precious Ramotswe. On TV she's played by Jill Scott, who counts as well.
Mae from The Demon's Lexicon is this, and she is also the main love interest.
Lula, former prostitute turned bounty hunter('s sidekick) in the Stephanie Plum series.
Title of the book escapes me, but there was a book about a high-school girl going to work at a dance/strip club for extra cash—one of the most popular dancers there is a BBW whose stage name is "Sweet Petite."
By 2085 in Larry Niven and Steven Barnes The Moon Maze Game this type has become the fashion ideal.
Mary Callahan, later Callahan-Finn of the Callahan's Crosstime Saloon series, who's listed at two-fifty and gives Jake a raging hard-on when he first sees her. Zoey is later described as a nine-tenths scale model of Mary, which still puts her at 225. Jake even admits this is his Fetish.
Penelope Garcia of Criminal Minds is notably bigger than the other women of the BAU, but that doesn't seem to stop her and Morgan from constantly exchanging cheerily flirty banter. Nor does it stop her from actively dating and having sex.
Roseanne is mostly this; she appears to have a healthy sex life with Dan and while she's depicted as just an average-looking woman, she certainly doesn't come across as undesirable.
In The 10th Kingdom, when we first see Snow White's body (not very well) in her ice tomb, we assume she looks very much like her Disney incarnation, fair enough. But when she disappears from the coffin and actually appears in her spirit incarnation she is both larger in proportions than the standard fairy princess and still lovely.
Having exhausted every other fetish known to man, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation examines this trope in the episode "Big Middle".
Nell Carter on Gimme A Break.
In an alternate reality episode of Friends where Monica had never lost weight, she's still quite attractive with a doctor for a boyfriend and Chandler even still falls for her.
Mercedes from Glee. True, while unfortunately there are a few episodes where body image is an issue for her, for the most part she's extremely comfortable in her curves and many fans love her for it.
Lauren Zizes as well. Not as conventionally pretty or stylish as Mercedes, but far more confident and aggressive.
Lulu Roman from Hee Haw, a former go-go dancer who had a thyroid condition.
Perfect 10 by the Beautiful South. "She's a perfect 10/But she wears a 12" Unusually, it's a duet, and both the male and female singers comment favourably on the size of their partner - although Wikipedia says that's not the kind of size the woman is talking about.
"Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)" by Mika.
The Glamazons (the ones from America's Got Talent, not the Australian drag queen troupe) especially Caramella.
"The Spicy McHaggis Jig": "[Spicy was] Always looking for chicks over four hundred pounds / One night at the pub a girl caught his eye / big as a house, just the right size / the broad was enormous, stacked to the hilt / Spicy soon noticed a bulge in his kilt!"
Big Fat Blonde by the Rainmakers is a very good example of this trope, as well.
An Iron Maiden B-side, "Nodding Donkey Blues". "I mean she was big, she was fucking huge! Enormous! You could have sailed the Hindenburg through her legs and never even had landing permission!"
90's R&B singer Kelly Price, who was arguably hotter before she lost the weight. This trope is even invoked in one of her videos, where she leaves a man who won't accept her for her size, only for a stud to drive up and ask "What does it take to make a big beautiful woman like you happy?"
Bow wow's song Big Girl.
Comedian Mike epps made a song with the same name as Bow Wow's .
"I Wanna Be Fat" by the Go Go Girls.
The Donnie Fritts song "Three Hundred Pounds of Hongry," which has since been covered by several other artists.
"She's got big red lips, and big brown eyes. She's everything my mama has, it's king sized. Oh well, Two Ton Tessie! Two Ton Tessie! Well, she's big and round and I love every pound!"
Cherry from the animated band Studio Killers is a perfect example of this trope. She's beautiful, sexy, flirty, and adores other women of all shapes and sizes.
Hoagy Carmichael's "Huggin' and Chalkin'": "I got a gal who's mighty sweet / Big blue eyes and tiny feet / Her name is Rosabelle Magee / And she tips the scales at three-oh-three..."
Sinergia's song "Mujer robusta" ("Heavyset Woman") is all about a dude who's literally crazy for his BBW girlfriend.
German Hip Hop group "Fettes Brot" uses this trope in the party song "Erdbeben" (earthquake), where they celebrate girls shaking ther huge (and beautiful) asses, while thin girls envy them for their asses' "shakability".
Rosie Lotta Love from TNA was introduced with this kind of gimmick, even planting a kiss on Jeremy Borash her first interview. Unfortunately she was rather ragged in the ring and was quickly released.
Vickie Guerrero though she's noticeably thinner now.
Awesome Kong anyone?
Now retired joshi wrestler Yuki Miyazaki◊. Hell, her nickname was even the Sexy Tank.
Theater
Effie White from Dreamgirls, Captain Ersatz of founding Supremes member Flo Ballard. In The Movie, Jennifer Hudson was certainly gorgeous in the role, but she actually had to gain weight for it, and is normally at the upper end of Hollywood Pudgy.
Magda in Tanz Der Vampire (even when she's played by petite actresses- they end up padded and made up to look heavier and more voluptuous in-character), in contrast to Rebecca, who's usually presented as just plain obese.
Seraghina from Nine is supposed to be a large woman who is beautiful and sexually confident, and teaches the protagonist about romance and sexuality in his childhood (the film adaptation had a decidedly Hollywood Pudgy Seraghina).
Video Games
Ace Attorney has Plum Kitaki. Sister Bikini isn't shy about being flirtatious, either.
In Fable III, there are posters around Bowerstone for a plus-sized dancing girl named "Big Bess."
Fable II had the Hero of Strength, Hammer; tall, gorgeous red-head with a giant hammer to match her awesomeness.
A female PC in either Fable II or Fable III could be one; while fatness normally detracts from attractiveness (except in the case of "fat-loving" NPCs found on Knothole Island in II), one could overcome this with the right hair, make-up, and outfits.
As well as one of the vendors of Oakdale who finds a female player more attractive the more she gains weight.
Ririka Yamamoto, star of the h-game Debu Plus.
Kurumi Kasugaoka from the cancelled dating sim Hachi Koi.
Polly in Skies Of Arcadia. Her long-lost husband notes that she's gotten a little bigger since he saw her last. He certainly doesn't seem to mind though, seeing as they end up having ten more children in the game's epilogue.
Lorenda the Demon-Cow from DMFA. She's noticeably fat, and apparently put a lot of effort into getting that fat, as seen most clearly in the strip when Dan first meets her.
Karen of Penny and Aggie is no lightweight, even post-makeover, but has "learned how to work it." Also subverted a bit in that the confidence is an act; she remembers her pre-makeover days and fears that people (especially her boyfriend) will "realize" she's not pretty.
Cho from Kagerou is this, though it's not apparent until later in the comic, after Art Evolution has taken place.
Whitney from orphaned comic Misty the Mouse is the latino flavor of this trope. She is fun-loving and always ready to party, never doubting her sex-appeal for a second. Her popularity allowed her to live on in Dutch's art.
The Misty comic is no longer orphaned as artist Dutch has resumed drawing pages to the ongoing story.
Clara from The Guild is a full figured Manic Pixie Dreamgirl who got married and had kids, but never grew out of her wild tendencies. While the skinny but spineless Codex spent a whole season pining for the hot stuntman Wade, Clara ended up making out with him shortly after she met him.
There are whole site dedicated to either galleries of photographs of plump/chubby/fat girlfriends/friends/neighbours, and erotic fiction about women who fatten up, intentionally or not, to become BBWs. There is also a lot of fanfiction with the same idea, but based around favourite characters.
Writing.Com has an enormous number of "Choose Your Own Adventure" stories that the reader can add to. The majority of them are Weight Gain stories or Fanfiction, or Weight Gain Fanfiction.
The Judgment of Paris is a huge resource focussing on plus-size fashion models (who are by definition required to be both curvy and to be viewed as attractive in their milieu), with endless images & videos and plentiful discussions of the whole concept of plus-size female beauty.
This work-safe "thickspiration" video juxtaposes present-day BBWs with classical art. (Originally available here, but YouTube has flagged it.)
"Lard Biscuit Enterprises" has a whole section on "Hot Chicks" which, as the name of the site suggests, is full of fuller figured femme fatales.
Curvage Forum started out as "Fat Celebs" and was dedicated to pictures of fat/fattened celebrities. Its expanded focus includes Celebrities, Friends and Girlfriends, as well as including sections for art/fiction, lifestyle discussion, other-topic chat and weight gaining tips.
There are other forums dedicated to similar topics.
DeviantArt has many, many people on the site solely for the weight gain/BBW pictures and stories. About twenty percent of them are Furry art as well.
MySpace is absolutely full of people whose profile seems to be no more than a hosting page for their gallery. Those galleries are full of folders and each folder is a collection of picture of a topic related to BBWs, such as BBWs In Tight Clothes, BBWs Eating or Before & After They Became BBWs. In fact, a lot of women post folders full of pictures of themselves as they go from being skinny to being a BBW.
Youtube, similarly has a lot of users dedicating their entire video gallery to nothing but videos of large women eating a lot, wearing clothes that used to fit (often trying to pop off the buttons), playing with their belly rolls and even comparing early, slimmer, videos to those from months or years later when they have potentially doubled in weight or more.
One of the most popular Internet gainers is the famous (and frequently vanishing from the Internet) Jeshicuh, who went from this to this (slightly NSFW) in about two years.
"Annoying Girl", later renamed "Special Girl", the character based on the woman who later became the author's wife, in The Binder of Shame. At first he refuses to date her for fear of what his friends might think of him seeing a fat girl, but upon realising exactly what a Dysfunction Junction his gaming group is, he decides to drop them in favour of her.
The erotic cosplayer known as "Luu." Let's just say she's one of the few cosplayers out there who can truly pull off Cattelya.
In an episode of Family Guy, Lois gains a lot of weight, and Peter finds he likes having sex with her like this. In a later episode, he mentions going into a lonely fat woman's club, indicating he still likes 'em big.
In "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story" Stewie's future self lost his virginity to one. Surprisingly, there were no jokes made at his expense for this, and only one line that referred to her weight at all, about "cracking open those Lane Bryant stretch pants."
This may be because they were too busy making fun of what an utter weiner Stewie turned out to be. For example, said cherry-popping was such a horrendously embarrassing experience that if you had precognition and saw that in your future, you'd just stay a virgin all your life.
American Dad! gives us Steve's on-and-off girlfriend Debbie. He even calls her "you big beautiful creature" at one point.
In Home Movies, Coach McGuirk dresses in drag for Halloween (which really turns on the girl he's with) - he describes himself as "a big beautiful woman".
Considering the occasional Fan Yay one may encounter, Coach McGuirk's girth is attractive even when he's not in drag. Makes one wonder what the Spear Counterpart of this trope is.
One of the Muses (specifically Thalia) in Disney's Hercules is a BBW.
Miss Kitty from An American Tail: Fievel Goes West falls under this; she's husky and very good-looking.
Susan Strong from Adventure Time, according to Rebecca Sugar, she was created with this concept in mind.
An episode of Futurama had Fry and Bender stranded on the moon. A farmer offers them shelter with the stipulation that they stay away from his three beautiful robot daughters: two Daisy Duke types and The Crushinator, a pink combine / tank. Later, we see Bender fleeing from an irate, shotgun-weilding farmer.
Fry: Oh, Bender. You didn't touch the Crushinator, did you? Bender: Of course not! A lady that fine, you have to romance first.
Also, the robot stripper from "The Lesser of Two Evils" episode.
Farnsworth's new girlfriend in "300 Big Boys" after the stem cell reveal.
