Gay fat femininities! A call for fat femininities in research on gay socio-sexual applications

ABSTRACT Fatphobia and femmephobia are highly interconnected structures of oppression that heavily impact the romantic and sexual lives of gay fat and femme men. Researchers have yet to place critical femininities studies – specifically femme theory – and fat studies together to analyze the regulation of fatness and femininity in gay socio-sexual applications (GSSAs). As such, this article is a call for future empirical research to use these two analytics – femme theory and fat studies – in tandem to deconstruct systems of homonormativity within GSSAs. Specifically, this article draws explicitly from femme theory and fat studies work on shame and failure, placing both in conversation with current work on gay men and GSSAs, to illuminate how these feelings can be motivating forces for political activism. Such feelings of gay fat femme shame and failure can disrupt hierarchies that exist within GSSAs by challenging the boundaries of identity that marginalize gay fat femme men while also focusing on fat and femme agency.