BBW is a colloquial term, which is an abbreviation for “Big Beautiful Women”, and affirms their sexual attraction of larger women. Sizes can range widely, from slightly overweight, to morbidly obese and the term is loosely fitted to all overweight women.

Some other related terms include Voluptuous, and Rubenesque - which is from the painter Peter Paul Ruben’s idea - and infatuation with, painting full figured women. These terms usually denote that the female has a body type with large breasts and wide hips.The term BBW’s historical origins derive from a magazine of the same title, created by Carole Shaw back in 1979. Although now out of print it still exists, although solely as an online community and website, with its intention to promote healthy weight and offer an alternative to the Hollywood ideal of beauty.

Women may choose to adopt the term, and refer to themselves as BBW, and they do not have large breasts, as would be indicative of a Rubenesque or Voluptuous female. The woman may also adopt these terms as they may reject the terms obese, fat, queen sized, or plus sized. However, depending upon personal preference, some women may just use the term fat, and may find the aforementioned terms superfluous.
BBW can also be used to denote to prospective partners who like fuller-figured women, or the women themselves about certain clubs, fashion shows and stores, that they can meet similar people, or people with an interest in BBW women.

Variations of the term include:

BBBW, which stands for Big Beautiful Black woman.

SSBBW, which stands for Super-Size Big Beautiful Woman, however this term is not used frequently both due to it’s niche description, and due to its lack of what constitutes a Super-Sized BBW apart from the wide description of BBW.

Some famous BBW stars in the pornographic industry include Deyvn Devine, Bunny de la Cruz.