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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24117
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The trick that most novels use is not to describe what is thought beautiful in that world. In most novels, when a character is supposed to be beautiful, this is simply stated, and it is up to the reader to imagine what that person looks like. In fact, in most novels you have no idea what skin color, body height, or wheight the protagonists have. I like this approach, because it allows anyone to project their own ideas of beauty into their reading and come out satisfied.

Only when physical characteristics play a role in the story, is it necessary to describe them in more detail. Otherwise I would abstain from physical descriptions, as they stifle the imagination of the reader and limit the novel's applicability.

If you want to explicitly define a beauty ideal different than the one prevalent in your culture, this will always lead to friction. I remember reading a book about some non-human characters, and one character was seen as beautiful by another and the aspects of their beauty were described. I remember clearly how I thought that fur is not something I find erotic on a person and how I could not follow the character in their emotions, so I finally dropped that book.

You will cause a similar effect. If you explicitly describe overweight bodies as beautiful, no matter how subtle, there will be a point at which those that don't share that beauty ideal will drop out, or at least take a distance and start reading differently: no longer involved, but more like reading a documentary.

I guess that overweight persons have a similar experience when they read of a thin ideal, so there is a choice you have to make: when you promote non-standard ideals, you will lose readers that do not subscribe to this ideal; when you promote standard ideals, you will lose readers that have other ideals; when you promote no beauty ideals at all, all readers can follow you, but beauty ideals are no longer a topic of your book.

So if you want to create a culture in which overweight bodies are perceived as beautiful, **you really don't have to be too subtle** , because no matter how subtle or unsubtle you are, only the readers that share that ideal will be attracted by that book, while all others will find it uninteresting or irritating.

So don't focus your attention on the subtleness, but rather focus your attention on conveying that culture well. For that, just get into your characters and look at their world through their eyes. How would they describe it? Use their words. **It is all about understanding your characters well** , and the challenge is not to tell them from your own, outsider eyes.

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But if you want to convincingly show a culture-wide beauty ideal that differs from what is healthy and vigorous, you will have a problem. People do not simply think something beautiful because it is beautiful. Beauty always signifies something for them.

For example, a certain facial shape appears attractive to a person because it signifies a certain personality. A look (hair style, clothing) appears beautiful because it signifies a lifestyle that we find attractive. And so on. In US-mainstream culture, physical beauty is what signifies youth, health and physical power. There are subcultures where men fatten their wives because they like fat bodies, but for a person from the cultural center another person appears beautiful because they appear vigorous and healthy.

So if you have a culture where the majority find overweight bodies beautiful, a person of that culture will think of and feel the reasons for this beauty ideal.

Think of US culture. The average man looking at the average beautiful woman will not just think: "She is beautiful." He will think: "Oh my god, her skin is so smooth [= healthy], her waist is so thin [= vigorous], etc." So in an overweight-loving culture, you'll have to argue for your ideal in a similar way. A person of that culture looking at another person will have to think of what being overweight signifies for them, and since it is not a fringe subculture (such as the fattening subcultrue in America today), those arguments have to be such that a whole culture can endorse them. And that is difficult, as being overweight is unhealthy (scientifically proven fact) and limits the physical ability of the individual (they cannot run so fast, jump so high, stand for so long, etc.), so you'll have to be very creative in finding a convincing mechanism that lead a whole culture to that ideal.

In the polynesian culture that I mentioned in my comment to your question, the ideal of being fat was limited to the upper class. It was not something thought beautiful, but something thought aristocratic. Being fat was a luxury that only very few could afford, so it signified power and wealth. It was not an idea that every member of the culture tried to aspire to, but more like a crown: a symbol of a social position.

Original score: 3