At one point, as recently as Dickens if not earlier, plumpness was a sign of affluence and health, and hence plump people were described as "jolly," comfortable, and attractive.  Now it is often a sign of malnutrition due to low income that restricts an industrial-worldista to a diet of corn products and other greases and sugars. However, as pointed out above, for complex reasons (despite social "tells" such as "you can never be too rich or too thin") we hang onto a perception of "fat" as overnourished, greedy, lazy, wealthy, as in "fat cat". Fat is also, of course, considered Unmanly (bodily softness, eeee-yew!).  So there's all kind of cultural whammy riding on the BS spewed by the poison-pens at Heritage Foundation...

Visiting poorer parts of Africa with a group of westerners is revealing. Suddenly the more corpulent members of the group are viewed as richer, having higher status. Fat is wealth, which in men is very manly indeed. Thin is poor, sickly. Sounds kind of feminine.

I write with a group because then you carry your internal status system with you all that more clearly. The clash is enlightening as it illuminates your own prejudices and internalised values.

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