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The Round World: Life at the Intersection of Love, Sex, and Fat
Imagine being loved for a quality you don't love about yourself. Imagine growing up in a world where what you think is most beautiful is considered most grotesque. There is a landscape of desire where this all transpires and where these people meet. This is a place where fat is beautiful, powerful, and erotic. It's a place author Dan Oliverio calls the Round World.
The Round World is the first book to explore obesity from the perspective of the people who find it erotic and seek fat people as romantic partners. In a personal and conversational style, Oliverio discusses existing prejudices against and medical issues around people of size, obesity, kink, and general fat acceptance. With humor and practicality, The Round World provides a primer on loving yourself as you are—fat or not.
Going beyond a discussion of sex and relationships, the book also encompasses what the Round World has to teach even those who don't share a sexual attraction to obesity. By investigating language at the level of words, phrases, and societal dialectics, Oliverio introduces us to what he calls the Taboo Conversation, a way of speaking that alienates human beings from each other whether we're discussing obesity, or race, or gender, or religion, or money, or any taboo topic.
The Round World is the first book to explore obesity from the perspective of the people who find it erotic and seek fat people as romantic partners. In a personal and conversational style, Oliverio discusses existing prejudices against and medical issues around people of size, obesity, kink, and general fat acceptance. With humor and practicality, The Round World provides a primer on loving yourself as you are—fat or not.
Going beyond a discussion of sex and relationships, the book also encompasses what the Round World has to teach even those who don't share a sexual attraction to obesity. By investigating language at the level of words, phrases, and societal dialectics, Oliverio introduces us to what he calls the Taboo Conversation, a way of speaking that alienates human beings from each other whether we're discussing obesity, or race, or gender, or religion, or money, or any taboo topic.
356 pages, Paperback
Published June 30, 2016
10 people are currently reading
198 people want to read
About the author
Dan Oliverio
1 book16 followersI talk about the issues that come up for people when fatness intersects with sexuality.
In a society where fat is taboo and fat-shaming is encouraged, it may be hard to imagine being valued and appreciated for being fat. And if you find fat attractive, acknowledging your sexual desires can feel like an uphill battle against what’s “normal.” But obesity doesn’t have to mean indignity.
By drawing on my personal experiences as a “chubby chaser,” and on the experiences of hundreds of fat people and their admirers whom I’ve talked to, I’ve identified a new way to think about fat and size acceptance that empowers people, helping them make peace with their bodies and their desires. I’ve led seminars in New Orleans, Orlando, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Berlin, and my unique perspectives have brought me to be featured on MTV’s True Life, the Tyra show, and several American and European documentaries. My writings on obesity and sexuality have appeared in several publications including The Huffington Post .
Obesity as a cultural taboo affects everyone. I see the attraction to fat as part of society’s greater conversation about masculinity, femininity, power, and beauty that has resonance far beyond the world of fat people and their admirers.
The aim of my work is to help people discover the freedom to embrace who they’ve always been and to love what they’ve always loved.
In a society where fat is taboo and fat-shaming is encouraged, it may be hard to imagine being valued and appreciated for being fat. And if you find fat attractive, acknowledging your sexual desires can feel like an uphill battle against what’s “normal.” But obesity doesn’t have to mean indignity.
By drawing on my personal experiences as a “chubby chaser,” and on the experiences of hundreds of fat people and their admirers whom I’ve talked to, I’ve identified a new way to think about fat and size acceptance that empowers people, helping them make peace with their bodies and their desires. I’ve led seminars in New Orleans, Orlando, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Berlin, and my unique perspectives have brought me to be featured on MTV’s True Life, the Tyra show, and several American and European documentaries. My writings on obesity and sexuality have appeared in several publications including The Huffington Post .
Obesity as a cultural taboo affects everyone. I see the attraction to fat as part of society’s greater conversation about masculinity, femininity, power, and beauty that has resonance far beyond the world of fat people and their admirers.
The aim of my work is to help people discover the freedom to embrace who they’ve always been and to love what they’ve always loved.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 23, 2016
It's a great book that talks about things not talked about. It opened my eyes and brought me many insights. I now know better who I am and what I like.
February 3, 2022
I highly recommend this book! But only if you're brave enough to read it. This book will challenge everything you know/think about sexuality, body size and even our culture at large. (No pun intended, or maybe it was, you decide...)
Dan Oliverio has presented an incredibly candid "Tour Guide" of a world most people will never know even exists. In doing so, he bravely speaks of his own challenges and triumphs so that we may learn and examine our own beliefs.
It is simultaneously shocking, funny, enlightening and intellectually stimulating. It has spurred conversations, made me stop and think before reading on, made read passage over and over to really digest them and given me so much to think about.
If you can "Handle the Truth"... read this book!!!
Dan Radlauer
Dan Oliverio has presented an incredibly candid "Tour Guide" of a world most people will never know even exists. In doing so, he bravely speaks of his own challenges and triumphs so that we may learn and examine our own beliefs.
It is simultaneously shocking, funny, enlightening and intellectually stimulating. It has spurred conversations, made me stop and think before reading on, made read passage over and over to really digest them and given me so much to think about.
If you can "Handle the Truth"... read this book!!!
Dan Radlauer
March 7, 2022
A transformative journey
The only book I have found so far that delves into the truth of "The Round World" as the author (or rather his partner) so aptly named it. It is a liberating journey through the authors experiences and the triumphs and challanges that many who live in this world face. Informative, bold, and never holding back I would and indeed have, reccomended it to everyone who has ever been curious about their own or others attraction to fat and the way it affects their lives.
Thank you Dan Oliverio for this book, it has helped me more than you may ever know.
The only book I have found so far that delves into the truth of "The Round World" as the author (or rather his partner) so aptly named it. It is a liberating journey through the authors experiences and the triumphs and challanges that many who live in this world face. Informative, bold, and never holding back I would and indeed have, reccomended it to everyone who has ever been curious about their own or others attraction to fat and the way it affects their lives.
Thank you Dan Oliverio for this book, it has helped me more than you may ever know.
February 25, 2020
A wonderful book the demystifies the concept of "chasers." Dan is one smart cookie!!
August 24, 2020
Amazing! Life changing
A friend recommended this book because I’ve been teetering on both ends of the kink, and it honestly changes my whole perspective and gave me a sense of belonging.
A friend recommended this book because I’ve been teetering on both ends of the kink, and it honestly changes my whole perspective and gave me a sense of belonging.
August 31, 2016
This book takes a look at love and sex involving people who have extra weight. It gives the reader something to think about and asks us to think about the stereotypes we have.
November 9, 2024
4 Sterne, gut
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews