Journal articles on the topic 'Il bar sotto il mare'

This article confronts the theoretical tenets of reader-oriented short story collection theory and its implications for a literary analysis of Benni’s Il bar sotto il mare (1987) with the results of an empirical study of 12 readers. Through free recall tasks and open questions, we collected their recall of stories, specific passages, recurring topics and general interpretation to assess the processes of reticulation (i.e. searching for recurring elements in stories) and modification (i.e. modifying initial hypotheses based on the identification of new elements) advanced by Audet (2014). This confrontation revealed noticeably disagreeing results. Our findings suggest that flesh-and-blood readers adopt a more straightforward and intuitive approach when reading and interpreting collections as they are subject to a strong primacy effect, privilege personal appreciation of specific stories and passages, and rely on a disinclination to alter initial interpretative hypotheses. The findings pave the way for further investigation into the readers of SSCs.

Nell'intervista il Prof Emiliano Toso ci accompagna nella sua storia connessa tra biologia e musica. Scopriamo una dimensione intima e spirituale che per l'autore si trasforma in opportunita personale e occasione di cura. Il Prof. Toso analizza poi le differenze tra musica a 432 Hz verso quella a 440 Hz aprendoci al mondo delle neuroscienze attraverso i canali che attraversano musica e biologia.

IntroduzioneIl 6 agosto 1993 apparivano sulla Gazzetta ufficiale le leggi n. 276 e 277, contenenti la nuova normativa elettorale per il Senato e la Camera dei deputati. Si concludeva così l'iterdi una riforma cruciale e, in conformità a una consolidata tradizione, il traguardo veniva tagliato all'ultimo momento e sotto la pressione di scadenze inderogabili e drammatici sviluppi politici. Proprio il 6 agosto, infatti, l'intera materia avrebbe potuto tornare in alto mare per effetto dei poteri referenti conferiti dalla legge alla Commissione bicamerale che aveva avviato la riforma nel settembre 1992. Ma, a prescindere dalle prescrizioni costituzionali, sia i tempi che i contenuti del processo decisionale appaiono scanditi (se non puntualmente spiegati) da circostanze contestuali (referendum), sulle quali si innestano strategie invariabilmente reattive dei partiti.

L'articolo esamina alcuni aspetti poco noti della marina creata ex novo dal governo cňrso ribelle di Pasquale Paoli, emersi in seguito all'analisi di numerose fonti in gran parte inedite. Un ruolo decisivo nella nascita e nello sviluppo della flotta "paolista" fu svolto dalle marinerie di Bonifacio, dei regni di Napoli e di Sicilia e dei presidi toscani sotto dominio napoletano. L'autore analizza i legami, non privi di tensioni, che unirono in gruppi di interesse alcuni dei principali corsari e contrabbandieri "paolisti" con uomini di mare, mercanti, mediatori e funzionari pubblici stranieri (napoletani soprattutto, ma non solo), mettendoli in condizione di usufruire delle risorse e delle ampie reti di relazioni proprie di questi soggetti. Un caso specifico, quindi, che permette tuttavia di gettare una luce piů ampia su fenomeni e problematiche proprie del mondo marittimo d'antico regime. In primo luogo il complesso intreccio di interessi che ruotavano intorno alla guerra di corsa e al contrabbando. In secondo luogo il ruolo strategico rivestito da alcune tipologie di merci e di risorse (come il sale e i disertori) e il diffuso ricorso a false identitÀ e "bandiere ombra". Si tratta di fenomeni che solitamente emergono con maggior vigore durante i periodi di guerra e risultano, quindi, particolarmente evidenti nel quadro del conflitto cňrso-genovese, grazie anche all'intreccio con la cruciale questione del riconoscimento della bandiera cňrsa.

The tissue bank at Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children was officially instated by the Department of Plastic Surgery and Burns on July 15, 2021, in compliance with the Transplantation of Human Organ and Tissue Act – 1994, amended in 2011. Our tissue bank follows the guidelines laid down by the Regional and State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization, Mumbai (ROTTO SOTTO), for processes that involve screening, testing, processing, storage, and distribution of human tissues. This ensures that safe tissues of reliable quality for human transplantation are made available. The tissue bank has successfully cleared its inspection by the state government. This is just the beginning of our long journey. We started this journey with the preservation of amnion. We hope to process and preserve different allografts such as skin, bone, tendons, small joints, dura mater, and heart valves that will cater to the needs of our transplant services. We are also working on overcoming barriers by creating public awareness on placenta donation with the help of flyers. As we move forward, we will expand our boundaries for the greater benefit of patients and doctors.

Lo scritto si basa sulle cartografie a grande scala disegnate nel XVIII secolo, soprattutto dal 1740, anno della ricognizione generale di Pompeo Neri e Tommaso Perelli. I committenti furono la grande proprietŕ fondiaria (Salviati, Mensa Arcivescovile di Pisa, Scrittoio delle Regie Possessioni) e gli uffici dell'amministrazione lorenese competenti in materia di lavori pubblici, di controllo politico-amministrativo del territorio e di gestione agricolo-forestale delle tante fattorie e tenute pubbliche. L'integrazione e la comparazione dei documenti consente di ricostruire l'assetto territoriale d'insieme della pianura a nord e a sud dell'Arno (tra Massaciuccoli e Livorno), con le trasformazioni avvenute dopo il 1740. Emergono i diversi ambienti e paesaggi che si susseguono dal mare all'interno, sotto il profilo geomorfologico-idrologico (spiagge e tomboli, lame e zone umide, bassa e alta pianura) e vegetazionale (foresta sempreverde, pineta, foresta planiziaria, pascoli naturali e prati artificiali, coltivazioni). Sono anche messe in luce le dinamiche che riguardano l'azione umana su: i corsi d'acqua, i canali artificiali e i recinti di colmata, le strade e le poche sedi umane stabili e temporanee, correlate alla fruizione agro-forestale del territorio, al di lŕ dei centri urbani di Pisa e Livorno e del sistema delle fortificazioni costiere.

The interest in focal-plane processing techniques, by which image processing is carried out at the pixel level, has increased since the advent of active pixel sensors in the middle 90’s. By sharing processing circuitry by a group of neighboring pixels such techniques enable high-speed imaging operation and massive parallel computation. Focal-plane image compression is particularly interesting, because it allows for further reduction in data rates. The proposed approach also benefits from processing currents rather than voltages, which not only suits current-mode APS imagers, but also enables the circuits to operate at low voltage supply levels and achieve high speed. Moreover, arithmetic computations such as additions and scaling are easily implemented in current mode. Whereas current-mode imaging architectures produce higher fixed pattern noise (FPN) figures than their voltage-mode counterparts, low FPN can be achieved by applying correlated double sampling (CDS) and gain correction techniques. This work presents a 32 × 32 gray-level imaging integrated circuit featuring focal plane image compression, such that for each 4 × 4 pixel block, analog circuits implement differential pulse-code modulation, linear transform, and vector quantization. Other processing functions implemented in the chip are CDS and A/D conversion. Theoretical details are described, as well as the test setup of the chip fabricated in a 0.35 μm CMOS process. To validate the proposed technique, experimental results and captured photographs are shown. The CMOS imager compresses captured images at 0.94 bits/pixel for an overall power consumption below 40 mW (white image), which is equivalent to approximately 36 μW per pixel. Using photographs taken from bar-target pattern inputs, it is shown that details up to 2 cycles/c mare preserved in the decoded images.

"Paul Valéry said about fables as follows: “Little by little those who loved or liked it, those who were able to understand it disappear. Those who demanded it, those who broke it, those who bantered it died too ... Soon, an instrument of pleasure and emotion will become a school accessory; what used to constitute the truth, what used to constitute the beauty turns into a means of constraint or into an object that arouses curiosity, but a curiosity which forces itself to be curious."" (""Oraison funèbre d´une fable"", in Variétés, apud Sanda Radian, Măștile fabulei. Etape de evoluție în literatura română (The Fable Masks. Stages of Evolution in Romanian Literature), Minerva Publishing House, Bucharest, 1983, p. 5) In a recent conference, held in Suceava[1], I expressed some regrets in relation to the absence of scientific concerns in the vast and important field of legal ethnography and ethnology in Romania, as follows: ""Legal ethnography and ethnology are not obviously, in particular, delimited in Simeon Florea Marian's grandiose work. General science was in the course of being established; it was not the time for particularistic developments. It was late when by means of another pioneering work, that of the Romanian scholar and anthropologist Romulus Vulcănescu, some issues of concern for our jurists, for law sociologists and anthropologists started to be reflected in the Romanian legal culture. Very few. Even the great ethnologist Petru Ursache acknowledged that the domain was deficient, in his very impressive creation of ethnosophy"". ⁂ As for the fable, apparently a minor literary genre, so much lamented, as we have seen above, by Paul Valéry, as an object of historical contemplation only, the intersection of the legal culture with the sapiential, moral and literary spirit of the people increases considerably; so much that it becomes a valuable scientific landmark in the emergent legal ethnology twinned with legal sociology, with legal anthropology and with legal folklore[2]. In the most serious way, even if, isn’t it true, with hilarious and caricaturizing weapons, with a playful and clever spirit, the fable decrypts a people's propensity for truth and justice or, conversely, for gregarious fatalism in relation to the vices that corrupt the nation psychologically and morally. Its role is didactic. The young jurists would become scientifically and culturally ennobled if they took over the case law, the ""cases"", from the fables ... Or if, their masters guided them towards associating the case law with the comic and fabulising spirit of the wise judge ... [1] Pagini de etnografie juridico-morală în opera fondatoare a bucovineanului polimat Simeon Florea Marian, cronicar al sufletelor românești în pragul Marii Uniri. Remarcabila lui contribuție la înfăptuirea milenarului ideal (Pages of legal-moral ethnography in the founding work of the polymath from Bucovina Simeon Florea Marian, chronicler of Romanian souls on the verge of the Great Union. His remarkable contribution to the achievement of the ideal millennial), conference held during the Scientific Session ""The contribution of the lawyers from Bucovina to the accomplishment of the Great Union"", November 28, 2018, ""Stefan cel Mare"" University from Suceava & Suceava Bar Association. The text of the conference was delivered for publication in ""Analale Muzeului Memorial Simion Florea Marian” from Suceava, under the guidance of Mrs. Aura Brădățan, 2019. [2] Romulus Vulcănescu, Etnologie juridică (Legal Ethnology), Editura Academiei, Bucharest, 1970, p. 9 : ""The following subjects deal with the study of the legal aspects of primitive and popular civilization and culture as constitutive parts of the conception about existence and the world and of the ways of normative organization of life, partially and with unequal theoretical resources: ""legal geography"", ""legal anthropology"", ""legal sociology"" and ""legal ethnology"". """

Cryphonectria parasitica  (Murr.) Bar [syn. Endothia parasitica (Murr. And.] (anamorf: Endothiella sp .) is the causal agent of chestnut bark disease or chestnut blight. This disease produced great damages throughout the world, it has nearly eliminated the American chestnut tree ( Castanea dentata (Marsh.) Borkh.) from its natural range and has heavily affected the European chestnut tree ( Castanea sativa (P.) Mill). Successful protection against Cryphonectria parasitica is a very difficult problem because the conventional control methods against the fungus are not applicable with a great success because of the extreme fungus pathogenity and on the other hand because of the characteristics of sites and host plants. In our experiments the isolates of C. parasitica were picked from the Baia Mare area and for the control with plant extracts the isolates were inoculated on PDA medium that contained the extract using the poison food technique. The different extracts in three different concentrations were tested in 80 mm diameter Petri plates incubated at 25ºC and assessed after three, six and nine days of incubation. The fungistatic effect of the extracts was established by examining the presence or the absence of the colony growth. The colonies were measured establishing the colony area that appeared on the treated plates using the ellipse area formula. The results were expressed as the inhibition percent of the tested plant extracts.

Bit-related oral lesions are common and may impair horse welfare. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of oral lesions and their risk factors in a sample of Finnish event horses. The rostral part of the oral cavity (the bit area) of 208 event horses (127 warmbloods, 52 coldbloods, and 29 ponies) was examined in a voluntary inspection after the last competition phase, i.e., the cross-country test. Acute lesions were observed in 52% (109/208) of the horses. The lesion status was graded as no acute lesions for 48% (99/208), mild for 22% (45/208), moderate for 26% (55/208) and severe for 4% (9/208) of the horses. The inner lip commissure was the most common lesion location observed in 39% (81/208) of the horses. A multivariable logistic regression model with data of 174 horses was applied to risk factor analysis. Horses wearing thin (10–13 mm) (OR 3.5, CI 1.4–8.7) or thick (18–22 mm) (OR 3.4, CI 1.4–8.0) bits had a higher risk of moderate/severe lesion status than horses wearing middle-sized (14–17 mm) bits (P = 0.003). Breed was associated with moderate/severe lesion status (P = 0.02). The risk was higher for warmbloods (reference group) and coldbloods (OR 2.0, CI 0.88–4.7) compared with ponies (OR 0.2, CI 0.04–0.87). Mares were at higher risk of moderate/severe lesion status (OR 2.2, CI 1.1–4.5) than geldings (reference group) (P = 0.03). Bar lesions were more common in horses with unjointed bits (40%, 8/20) than with basic double-jointed (10%, 5/52), formed double-jointed (8%, 6/78) or single-jointed bits (5%, 2/40) (Fisher's exact test, P = 0.002). The results of this study suggest that thin and thick bits and mare sex should be considered risk factors for mouth lesions. In addition, in this sample ponies had smaller risk for lesions than other horse breeds. We encourage adopting bit area monitoring as a new routine by horse handlers and as a welfare measure by competition organizers for randomly drawn horses.

In the past few decades many economists who situate themselves in the Mengerian Tradition have tried to come to grips with the fol- lowing question: what is the relationship between Austrian Eco- nomics and Public Choice? Can a common ground be established between the two? To the extent that the Virginia school of Public Choice emerged out of the Chicago public finance tradition1 (James Buchanan was a student of Frank Knight), one would doubt that —except for a broadly shared classical liberal outlook— the two research programmes can have many things in common. In their book An Austro-Libertarian Critique of Public Choice economists Thomas di Lorenzo and Walter Block (2016) demonstrate, in fact, how scholars within this tradition rely on too much neoclassical formalism that leads them to part company with both Austrians and Libertarians at the level of positive and normative analysis. Similar criticisms were brought forward by Murray Rothbard (1960), Hans Hermann Hoppe (1993; 2001; 2004) and Joseph T. Salerno (2014). Rothbard, in particular, was appalled at the attempt by Buchanan and Tullock to use the framework provided by neoclassical economics (built upon mechanical physics and embed- ded in a positivist methodology that insists on the importance of starting with unrealistic assumptions for constructing models that possess predictive value) to build a value-free political analysis that, in contrast with “orthodox political theory”, viewed the state, ultimately, as just another type of voluntary agency within the broader division of labour2. For this reason, Rothbard (2011: 932) concluded that “this ‘economic approach’ to politics far from the great advance they think it is… is the death knell of all genuine political philosophy.” Despite all these conceptual errors, however, as Peter Boettke and Edward J. López (2002:112) point out, Public Choice, intended as the extension and application of the economic way of thinking to the study of collective decision-making, has stressed the impor- tance of methodological individualism as well as a “commitment to the unification of the social sciences on the foundation of a rational choice model”. At its very basis, “The public choice school of economic thought”, writes Walter Block (2005), “is dedicated to the notion that political choices and decision making may be prof- itably studied using the tools of economic analysis”, an idea that can indeed find resonance in the work of most Austrian econo- mists. In Human Action, Ludwig von Mises (1949), in fact, presents Economics as a part of a broader social science (Praxeology) that is devoted to the study of all processes of human action and interac- tion (thus including both political action and interaction). “Ludwig von Mises”, in the words of Jesús Huerta de Soto (2009: 251), “was one of the most important forerunners of the School of Public Choice, which studies, using economic analysis, the combined behaviour of politicians, bureaucrats and voters. This approach, which today has reached a high level of development under the auspices of theorists like James M. Buchanan (winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1986), fits in perfectly with the broad prax- eological conception of economics developed by Mises, who con- sidered that the goal of our science was to build a general theory of human action in all its varieties and contexts (including, therefore, political actions)”. In his Estudios de Economía Política, Jesús Huerta de Soto (2004) stresses, in particular, Mises (1944) book on Bureaucracy as a mod- ern precursor of Public Choice. In this book, Huerta de Soto under- lines, Mises (1944) develops, as a by-product of his theorem of the impossibility of rational economic planning under socialism, a comparative theoretical analysis between profit management and bureaucratic management. In The English Constitution Walter Bage- hot (1873: 165) aptly observed that while “a bureaucracy tends to under-government, in point of quality; it tends to over-govern- ment, in point of quantity” for “functionaries are not there for the benefit of the people, but the people for the benefit of the function- aries.” What Mises accomplished was to ground Bagehot’s empiri- cal observation on sound economic reasoning, placing the blame on the methods in use within the government sector and not in the individuals themselves: “The fault is not with the men and women who fill the offices and bureaus. They are no less the victims of the new way of life than anybody else. The system is bad, not its sub- ordinate handy men” (Mises, L 1944: 17). In spite of the above disagreements among various Austrian economists regarding the complementarity of both approaches, the following essay will try to underline the importance of ground- ing the insights of Public Choice within the theoretical framework developed by the Austrian school when it comes to analysing pub- lic policies. The basic argument is that Austrian Economics pro- vides the only correct foundation of Public Choice Economics and that the latter’s empirical consideration regarding narrow political interests on the part of politicians and bureaucrats, if supple- mented by the essentialist and dynamic depiction of the market process that characterizes the Mengerian tradition, can provide an important analytical framework that allows to weigh the incentive structure of different political arrangements as well as (and this is more important still) a thymological tool that enables one to see the invisible intentions behind proposed public policies. As a thy- mological tool Public Choice analysis, grounded on the Austrian dynamic conception of the market process, might prove of extreme value both to entrepreneurs (who can better anticipate the evolu- tion of public policies and therefore employ their ingenuity to anticipate such circumstances) and to historians (who will be able to engage in a more realistic process of revisionism)3. The paper will be divided into five sections. In section 1 we will briefly define and examine what is meant with the term public pol- icy and define both its nature and scope. Section 2 will dive into an analysis of Public Choice and show how it revolutionised the way in which social scientists in general and economists in particular have approached the democratic political process. Section 3 will high- light some of the main drawbacks of the neoclassical model of equi- librium on which Public Choice rests and show how the Austrian theory of the market process, driven by competition and entrepre- neurship, provides a more solid foundation for analysing, for exam- ple, the behaviour of legislators, rent-seeking actors and the voting public. Section 4 will analyse the topics of Competition and Monop- oly as well make an excursus into the real historical origins of Anti- trust to show how the use of a unified Austrian-Public Choice framework can enrich our understanding from both a theoretical and historical perspective. A conclusion will end the paper.

The old “Is the glass half empty or half full?” question does more than just illustrate a person’s proclivity for pessimism or for optimism. It alerts us to the possibility that the same real world phenomena may be interpreted in entirely different ways, with very real consequences. It is this notion that I apply to the way fat sex and thin sex are conceptualised in the larger social consciousness. While sexual, romantic and/or intimate acts between people where at least one individual is fat (Fat Sex) are deemed atypical, abnormal, fetishistic and even abusive (Saguy qtd. in Swami & Tovee 90; Schur qtd. in Prohaska 271; Gailey 119), such encounters between able-bodied individuals who are thin or of average weight (Thin Sex) are deemed normal and desirable. I argue in this article that this discrepancy in how we label and treat fat and thin sexuality is unjustified because the two domains are more similar than distinct. Given their similarity we should treat similar aspects of both domains in the same way, i.e. either as normal, or as fetishistic based on relevant criteria rather than body size. I also argue that fat prejudice and thin privilege underlie this discrepancy in modern western society. I finally conclude that this causes significant personal and social harm to both fat and thin individuals.Fat Sex – The Fetishized NormalHanne Blank, in writing of her foray into publishing body positive material exploring fat sexuality, speaks of the need for spaces that acknowledge the vitality and diversity of fat sex; not in fetishistic and pornographic portrayals of Big Beautiful Women offering themselves up as an object of desire but reflecting the desires and sexual experiences of fat people themselves (10). If there are a 100 million people in America who are obese according to BMI standards, she argues, they represent a whole array of body sizes and a lot of sexual activity, which she describes as follows:Fat people have sex. Sweet, tender, luscious sex. Sweaty, feral, sheet-ripping sex. Shivery, jiggly, gasping sex. Sentimental, slow, face-cradling sex. Even as you read these words, there are fat people out there somewhere joyously getting their freak on. Not only that, but fat people are falling in love, having hook-ups, being crushed-out, putting on sexy lingerie, being the objects of other people’s lust, flirting, primping before hot dates, melting a little as they read romantic notes from their sweeties, seducing and being seduced, and having shuddering, toe-curling orgasms that are as big as they are. It’s only natural. (15)Such normalcy and diverse expression, however, is not usually portrayed in popular media, nor even in much scholarly research. Apart from body positive spaces carved out by the fat acceptance movement online and the research of fat studies scholars, which, contextualises fat sexuality as healthy and exciting, in “the majority of scholarship on this topic, fat women’s sexual behaviors are never the result of women’s agency, are always the result of their objectification, and are never healthy” (Prohaska 271).This interpretation of fat sexuality, the assumptions associated with it and the reinforcement of these attitudes have much to do with the pervasiveness of fat prejudice in society today. One study estimates that the prevalence of weight based discrimination in the US increased by 66% between 1996 and 2006 (Andreyeva, Puhl and Brownell) and is now comparable to gender and race based discrimination (Puhl, Andreyeva and Brownell). This is not an isolated trend. An anthropological study analysing the globalisation of notions of fat being unhealthy and a marker of personal and social failing suggests that we have on our hands a rapidly homogenising global stigma associated with fat (Brewis, Wutich and Rodriguez-Soto), a climate of discrimination leading many fat people to what Goffman describes as a spoiled identity (3).Negative stereotypes affecting fat sexuality are established and perpetuated through a process of discursive constraint (Cordell and Ronai 30-31). “’No man will ever love you,’ Weinstein’s grandmother informs her (Weinstein, prologue), simultaneously offering her a negative category to define herself by and trying to coerce her into losing weight – literally constraining the discourse that Weinstein may apply to herself.Discursive constraint is created not only by individuals reinforcing cultural mores but also by overt and covert messages embedded in social consciousness: “fat people are unattractive”, “fat is ugly”, “fat people are asexual”, “fat sex is a fetish”, “no normal person can be attracted to a fat person”. Portrayals of fat individuals in mainstream media consolidate these beliefs.One of the most loved fat characters of 1990s, Fat Monica from the sitcom Friends is gluttonous, ungainly (rolling around in a bean bag, jolting the sofa as she sits), undesirable (Chandler says to Ross, “I just don’t want to be stuck here all night with your fat sister!”), and desperate for sex, affection and approval from the opposite sex: “the comedic potential of Fat Monica is premised on an understanding that her body is deviant or outside the norm” (Gullage 181).In Shallow Hal, a film in which a shallow guy falls in love with the inner beauty of a fat girl, Hal (Jack Black) is shown to be attracted to Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow) only after he can no longer see her real fat body and her “inner beauty” is represented by a thin white blond girl. All the while, the movie draws laughs from the audience at the fat jokes and gags made at the expense of Paltrow’s character.Ashley Madison, a website for married people looking to have an affair, used the image of a scantily clad fat model in an advertisement with the tagline “Did your wife scare you last night?”, implying that infidelity is justified if you’re not attracted to your partner, and fatness precludes attraction. And a columnist from popular magazine Marie Claire wrote about Mike and Molly, a sitcom about two fat people in a relationship:Yes, I think I'd be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other ... because I'd be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything. (Kelly)It is the prevalence of these beliefs that I call the fetishisation of fat sexuality. When fat bodies are created as asexual and undesirable, it gives rise to the rhetoric that to be sexually attracted to a fat body is unnatural, therefore making any person who is attracted to a fat body a fetishist and the fat person themselves an object of fetish.The internalisation of these beliefs is not only something that actively harms the self-esteem, sexual agency & health and happiness of fat individuals (Satinsky et al.), but also those who are attracted to them. Those who internalise these beliefs about themselves may be unable to view themselves as sexual and engage with their own bodies in a pleasurable manner, or to view themselves as attractive, perhaps discounting any assertions to the contrary. In a study designed to investigate the relationship between body image and sexual health in women of size, one participant revealed:I’ve had my issues with T as far as um, believing that T is attracted to me…because of my weight, my size and the way I look. (Satinsky et al. 717)Another participant speaks of her experience masturbating and her discomfort at touching her own flesh, leading her to use a vibrator and not her hands:Like, I don’t, I don’t look down. I look at the ceiling and I try to – it’s almost like I’m trying to imagine that I was thinner. Like, imagine that my stomach was flatter or something like that, which sounds bizarre, but I guess that’s what I’m trying to do. (Satinsky et al. 719)Others stay in bad marriages because they believe they wouldn’t find anyone else (Joanisse and Synnott 55) or tolerate abuse because of their low self-esteem (Hester qtd. in Prohaska 271).Similarly, men who internalise these attitudes about fat find it easier to dehumanise and objectify fat women, believe that they’d be desperate for sex and hence an easy target for a sexual conquest, and are less deserving of consideration (Prohaska and Gailey 19).On the other hand, many men who find fat women attractive (Fat Admirers or FA’s) remain closeted because their desire is stigmatised. Many do not make their preference known to their peer group and families, nor do they publicly acknowledge the woman they are intimate with. Research suggests that FA’s draw the same amount of stigma for being with fat women and finding them attractive, as they would for themselves being fat (Goode qtd. in Prohaska and Gailey).I do not argue here that all fat individuals have spoiled identities or that all expressions of fat sexuality operate from a place of stigma and shame, but that fat sexuality exists within a wider social fabric of fat phobia, discrimination and stigmatisation. Fulfilling sexual experience must therefore be navigated within this framework. As noted, the fat acceptance movement, body positive spaces online, and fat studies scholarship help to normalise fat sexuality and function as tools for resisting stigma and fetishisation.Resisting Stigma: Creating Counter NarrativesGailey, in interviews with 36 fat-identified women, found that though 34 of them (94%) had ‘experienced a life of ridicule, body shame and numerous attempts to lose weight’ which had an adverse effect on their relationships and sex life, 26 of them reported a positive change after having ‘embodied the size acceptance ideology’ (Gailey 118).Recently, Kristin Chirico, employee of Buzzfeed, released first an article and then a video titled My Boyfriend Loves Fat Women about her relationship with her boyfriend who loves fat women, her own discomfort with her fatness and her journey in embracing size acceptance ideologies: I will let him enjoy the thing he loves without tearing it down. But more importantly, I will work to earn love from me, who is the person who will always play the hardest to get. I will flirt as hard as I can, and I will win myself back.Books such as Wann’s Fat!So?, Blank’s Big Big Love: A Sex and Relationships Guide for People of Size (and Those Who Love Them), Chastain’s Fat: The Owner’s Manual and her blog Dances with Fat, Tovar’s Hot and Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion, as well as Substantia Jones’s fat photography project called The Adipositivity Project are some examples of fat activism, size acceptance and body positive spaces and resources. The description on Jones’s site reads:The Adipositivity Project aims to promote the acceptance of benign human size variation and encourage discussion of body politics, not by listing the merits of big people, or detailing examples of excellence (these things are easily seen all around us), but rather through a visual display of fat physicality. The sort that's normally unseen. When fat individuals create personal narratives to resist stigmatisation of fat sexuality they confront the conundrum of drawing the line between sexual empowerment and glorifying fat fetishism. To see one’s own and other fat bodies as sexual, normal and worthy of pleasure is one way to subvert this fetishism. One would also take seriously any sexual advances, seeing oneself as desirable. The line between normal expression of fat sexuality and the wide spread belief that fat sex is fetishistic is so blurred however, that it becomes difficult to differentiate between them, so it is common to ask if one is being sexual or being an object of fetish. There is also the tension between the heady sense of power in being a sexual agent, and the desire to be wanted for more than just being a fat body.Modern burlesque stage is one arena where fat bodies are being recreated as sexy and desirable, offering a unique resource to ‘fat performers and audience members who want to experience their bodies in new and affirming ways’. Because burlesque is an erotic dance form, fat women on the burlesque stage are marked as ‘sexual, without question or challenge’. The burlesque stage has a great capacity to be a space for transforming sexual identity and driving changes in audience attitudes, creating a powerful social environment that is contrary to mainstream conditions in society (Asbill 300).The founder and creative director of “Big Burlesque” and “Fat-Bottom Revue” the world’s first all-fat burlesque troupe, however, notes that when she started Big Burlesque there were a couple of “bigger” performers on the neo-burlesque circuit, but they did not specifically advocate fat liberation. ‘Fat dance is rare enough; fat exotic/erotic dance is pretty much unheard of outside of “fetish” acts that alienate rather than normalise fat bodies’ (McAllister 305).In another instance, Laura writes that to most men her weight is a problem or a fetish, constraining the potential in relationships. Speaking of BBW (Big Beautiful Women) and BHM (Big Handsome Men) websites that cater to Fat Admirers she writes:As I’ve scrolled through these sites, I’ve felt vindicated at seeing women my size as luscious pinups. But, after a while, I feel reduced to something less than a person: just a gartered thigh and the breast-flesh offered up in a corset. I want to be lusted after. I want to be wanted. But, more than this, I want to love, and be loved. I want everything that love confers: being touched, being valued and being seen.That sexual attraction might rely wholly or partly on physical attributes, however, is hardly unfamiliar, and is an increasing phenomenon in the wider culture and popular media. Of course, what counts there is being thin and maintaining the thin state!Thin Sex: The Normalised FetishUnlike the fat body, the thin body is created as beautiful, sexually attractive, successful and overwhelmingly the norm (van Amsterdam). Ours is a culture fixated on physical beauty and sex, both of which are situated in thin bodies. Sexiness is a social currency that buys popularity, social success, and increasingly wealth itself (Levy). Like fat sex, thin sex operates on the stage set by the wider cultural ideals of beauty and attractiveness and that of the burden of thin privilege. Where stigma situates fat sexuality to abnormality and fetish, thin sexuality has to deal with the pressures of conforming to and maintaining the thin state (vam Amsterdam).Thin individuals also deal with the sexualisation of their bodies, confronting the separation of their personhood from their sexuality, in a sexual objectification of women that has long been identified as harmful. Ramsey and Hoyt explore how being objectified in heterosexual relationships might be related to coercion within those relationships. Their evidence shows that women are routinely objectified, and that this objectification becomes part of the schema of how men relate to women. Such a schema results in a fracturing of women into body parts dissociated from their personhood , making it easier to engage in violence with, and feel less empathy for female partners (in cases of rape or sexual assault). (Ramsey and Hoyt) What is interesting here is the fact that though aspects of thin sexuality are recognised as fetishistic (objectification of women), thin sex is still considered normal.Thin Sex, Fat Sex and 50 Shades of OverlapThe normalisation of sexual objectification -- society for the most part being habituated to the fetishistic aspects of thin sex, can be contrasted with attitudes towards comparable aspects of fat sex. In particular, Feederism, is generally viewed within scholarly discourse (and public attitudes) as ‘a consensual activity, a fetish, a stigmatised behaviour, and abuse’ (Terry & Vassey, Hester, Bestard, Murray as qtd. in Prohaska 281). Prohaska argues that Feederism and Diet Culture are broadly similar phenomena that elicit tellingly opposing judgements. She reports that the culture of feederism (as analysed on online forums) is a mostly consensual activity, where the community vocally dissuades non-consensual activities and any methods that may cause bodily harm (268). It is mostly a community of people who discuss measures of gradual weight gain and support and encourage each other in those goals. This, she argues, is very similar in tone to what appears on weight loss websites and forums (269). She contends, however that despite these parallels ‘the same scrutiny is not given to those who are attempting to lose weight as is placed upon those who do not diet or who try to gain weight’ (269).She notes that whereas in judging feederism emphasis is on fringe behaviours, in evaluating diet culture the focus is on behaviours deemed normal and healthy while only disorders like anorexia, bulimia, and pill using are judged fringe behaviours. This disparity, she claims, is rooted in fat phobia and prejudice (270).In comparing the dating sections of feederism websites with mainstream dating sites she notes that here too the nature of ads is similar, with the only difference being that in mainstream sites the body size preference is assumed. People seeking relationships on both kinds of sites look for partners who are ‘caring, intelligent and funny’ and consider ‘mutual respect’ as key (270).This is similar to what was revealed in an article by Camille Dodero, who interviewed a number of men who identify as fat admirers and delved into the myths and realities of fat admiration. The article covers stories of stigma that FA’s have faced and continue to face because of their sexual preference, and also of internalised self-hatred that makes it difficult for fat women to take their advances seriously. The men also create BBW/BHM dating websites as more than a fetish club. They experience these online spaces as safe spaces where they can openly meet people they would be interested in just as one would on a normal/mainstream dating site. Even if most women fit the type that they are attracted to in such spaces, it does not mean that they would be attracted to all of those women, just as on match.com one would look over prospective candidates for dating and that process would include the way they look and everything else about that person.Attempting to clear up the misconception that loving fat women is a fetish, one of the interviewees says,“Steve, over there, has a type,” gesturing wanly at a stranger in a hockey jersey probably not named Steve. “I have a type, too. Mine’s just bigger. He may like skinny blondes with bangs and long legs. I like pear shapes with brown hair and green eyes. I have a type—it just happens to be fat.” Besides, people aren’t fetish objects, they’re people. “It’s not like having a thing for leather.” (Dodero 3)ConclusionAnalysis of the domains of thin and fat sex shows that both have people engaging in sexual activity and romantic and intimate relationships with each other. Both have a majority of individuals who enjoy consensual, fulfilling sex and relationships, however these practices and desires are celebrated in one domain and stigmatised in the other. Both domains also have a portion of the whole that objectifies relationship partners with immense potential for harm, whether this involves sexualisation and objectification and its related harms in thin sex, objectification of fat bodies in some BBW and BHM circles, and the fringes of feederism communities, or non-body size specific fetish acts that individuals from both domains engage in. Qualitatively, since both domains significantly overlap, it is difficult to find the justification for the fetishisation of one and the normativity of the other. 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