Pondering pileous: perfecting the presentation of pudge

Growing up, I found the sight of smooth, soft fat on another guy to be beyond exhilarating. This attraction really hasn't gone away. I still find myself drawn to smooth, soft fat, most often displayed by younger gainers, recent ex-jocks who have given up the gym routine for a beer habit, or former gay twinks who have finally succumbed to the battle of the bulge. For me, the attraction is to the fat itself -- its soft, puckered, jiggly deliciousness -- rather than an overall fat presentation or bear-ness physique per se.

It is for this reason that I have struggled with how best to display my own pudge once I took the gaining plunge. Some guys like to shave their bellies and chest to achieve a baby-smooth look. I've done this a few times, and while I do like the look, the irritation associated with shaving is a high toll to bear (no pun intended). And let's face it...rubbing a prickly belly is not nearly as much fun as rubbing a smooth or hairy one. That means that if I chose to shave it, I must do so regularly. I gotta admit, I'm a bit too lazy for that.

I have also let my belly and chest hair grow out, to see how that looked. Because hair obscures the subtle sensuality of soft flesh, I haven't preferred this look either. Think about body builders -- they typically shave to show off every muscly sinew, vein, and bulge. I figure if I am adding new fat to my body, why not show off every ripple, roll and pucker?

As a result, over the past few years of posting vids and pics, I have trimmed my belly and chest. I figured this would be a reasonable compromise. I am a big fan of manscaping anyway. Untamed tufts of body hair, emanating from various orifices and surfaces, just seems ape-ish to me. So I've taken to doing a electric razor trim, as demonstrated in my video below, Fatnesse: To Fur or Not to Fur. Invariably, I get a whole variety of responses from my viewers, some of whom love the trimmed, neat look, and others who chastise me for not showing off the natural fur. What is a pudgy exhibitionist to do?



Well, how about conduct a survey?

So that's what I did, upon posting the video above. The survey was conducted for several reasons. First, and primarily, I was curious about the hair issue. What do people think is sexy with regard to gaining and the hirsute physical appearance? Secondly, I was curious who is viewing my videos. YouTube gives some rudimentary stats to its posters, but people can easily lie about their profile information (and that is how YouTube determines these stats). Of course, people can also lie on surveys, but I figured if they were taking the time to complete the survey, and know that it is anonymous, then hopefully they'll be honest. And finally, I wanted to conduct the survey to see what type of response rate I would get. I conduct psychological research for a living, and for a while now I have been toying around with the idea of doing a comprehensive survey of the gainer community on a scholarly level. So this little experiment was a way to see what type of response I might receive with a more thorough survey of our community.

The Survey

There were 292 respondents to the survey, and most respondents completed all questions. There were 270 males (95%) and 15 females (5%). The age breakdown is listed below.

The age group of 18-21 were the most frequent responders, followed by 22-26. These two age groups accounted for over 56% of responses. The majority of respondents categorized themselves at admirers (58%), followed by gainer/admirers (30%) and gainers (12%). Most respondents reported that their own body hair was lightly furry.

As far as hirsuteness, the vast majority of respondents prefer me naturally hairy (61%). Much less prefer a totally shaved look (22%) and even fewer liked the trimmed look that I usually sport (17%). Hmm. Seems that all that trimming I was doing was for naught. The results clearly supported a more natural body hair presentation. Heck, that's easy enough to do. Less time trimming means more time for beer drinking. :) Even if I do continue trimming, or partially trimming, it is still preferable to shaving. Clearly 78% of respondents prefer body hair of some length.

In terms of cross-tabulation analysis, the older respondents generally tended to prefer a more naturally hairy presentation. For respondents 17 and younger, 41% preferred the naturally hairy look, compared to 57% of 18-21s, 70% of 22-26s, 65% of 27-35s, and 79% of 36-45s. However, this trend seemed to reverse above age 45, with the favorability of hairiness decreasing to a level similar to the tweens responses, with 54% of 46-55s, and 50% of 56s and older preferring the hairy look. I am not sure why this finding was so -- perhaps hairiness gets "old" (pardon the pun) for older respondents, and a smooth look is novel and therefore preferred. I'd be curious to hear what your thoughts are on this, especially older folks reading this.

There was also an interesting gender interaction (although the small sample size of females limits generalizability). That is, 25% of females preferred the au natural hairy look, compared to 62% of males. I actually expected an opposite finding, thinking that gay men would be more fastidious about body hair tidiness. Could we be on the verge of an attractiveness cultural shift?

And without any surprise, 88% of respondents preferred that I keep growing the belly, while 11% suggested that I stay at this size, and 1% (2 respondents) thought I should lose weight. I think the only surprising thing here is that anyone thought I should lose weight lol.

Finally, I had 88 respondents who left me private messages, the entirety of which were positive, supportive, and downright ego boosting. I would say if any readers are on the fence about gaining, you should definitely know that there is a supportive community out there. Of course, getting the support means putting yourself out there, in videos, pictures, blogs, or a combination. Still, it is quite gratifying to know that so many diverse people -- gay, straight, male, female, and from myriad cultures and countries -- are into this wacky little gaining game. :)

So that wraps up my silly survey of gaining. It provides some basic feedback about the suitability of body hair, for those who wondered about it. More so, it serves to reinforce that plenty of people out there like gaining and want to see us continue exhibiting our pounds of flesh, however piliferous it may be. As always, please be sure to comment below!