Nofbar:
Another thing from the BBS era is that email could go worldwide. A BBS with a Fidonet or UUCP feed would do. Also if you had the money for services like Compuserve...

Ischubbyguy:
Zines. In the early 90's people would put out little self published zines. A good number of them were about kinks and fetishes. That was how I figured out that i wasn't alone with having different sexul fantasies. There were others out there that had them too.
I met my first feedee through a indie paper. She had put an add in the "kink" section and i answered.
Anyway that's how got met others.

ILuvChubbyChix:
It would have been a very dark time. In short, likely through sheer dumb luck and overcoming abject fear. But for the most part, I think that maybe they just didn't?

I don't know if I'm fully qualified to answer, since I was a kid during the rise of the World Wide Web, which is about the time when "the Internet" really reached mainstream status.

In the 80s and early 90s, Usenet groups existed that operated over the Internet. There also would have been BBSes (bulletin board systems) that relied entirely on dial-up.

However, there would have been a rather substantial technical learning curve, so the average person would not have used it. Keep in mind, this was also when the average household didn't even have a computer, and the cost to obtain one would have been substantial - it would have been a tough sell to a lot of people.

Usenet would have had worldwide reach, but the userbase would have been small in relative terms. However, I'm sure there would have been a lot of "adult oriented" groups on it.

Most BBSes were accessed via dial-up. A lot, perhaps most of them were just run by some local who left one of his computers running 24/7 and he signed up for multiple phone lines. The phone number to the BBS was likely posted on a physical, literal bulletin board at the local library, community center, or coffee shop. Because of long distance charges, the vast majority of BBSes would have consisted of local users, which meant people you might run into the grocery store or see in person.

This is perhaps too much background information, but it was probably not likely many such connections were formed.

But what about methods that didn't require fancy electronics?

Before there was Dimensions Magazine, there was apparently something called BUF magazine. It was largely pornographic, available only in adult boutique shops. I've never read it, but some of the covers suggested there were articles that might have covered certain relevant topics. There might have also been some other such magazines. But I think BUF ceased publication sometime in the early 90s?

I can't know for sure, but it's conceivable they could have run a dating service through the magazine, similar to the way newspapers in larger cities did. It would not have been cheap, and it would have been slow. You'd mail letters in, and the service would then forward it to the other person.

There's also the question of how many female readers they might have had; probably not many due to the nature of the material.

If you lived in a small town, this was likely your only option, short of incredible luck.

How about in person? Was that possible?

Maybe if you lived in a large city, went to just the right night club, and then got really, really lucky with meeting the right person?

The NAAFA was founded in '69, and would have had conventions. Perhaps it was occasionally possible for connections to form that way.

There are still occasionally "BBW bash" events but I have no information on how they would have been organized prior to the Web, or even how frequent they might have been.

But in short, I think it was maybe, more often than not, just through sheer dumb luck.

You might still think it's a big challenge now, and it is. It often feels like everyone is too far away, even in the largest cities. But it's a hell of a lot better now than it would have been back then.

It probably also helps a lot that people in general are much heavier now than they were in the 80s or before.

Fallenangel:
I’m only 22 so take what I’m saying with a pinch of salt but I have this feeling that like attracts like. It’s like gaydar in a sense but spread to everything. You can just tell, the attraction, that lure, its innate. One just knows who their kind is. I’m a very peculiar person in many ways and yet I have met people in real life with similar interests to me. It’s like it’s fate, you’re just drawn to each other. Also being in certain spaces like alternative clubs or in the music world, in the art world ect you’re a lot more likely to meet people who are generally open minded.

Stockylove:
And the fact that it’s completely unintentional on the part of these cartoons and movies is really funny too.



Biscuitsnhoney:
seeeeee idk if that's true 😅😅😅 PBS was the only network untouched by Epstein / Dan Schneider 👀

Cinnamoroll:
Funny you mentioned PBS because Arthur had some WG plus vore scenes. I can also remember one stuffing scene from Clifford. And yes, I am ashamed to admit I got my vore kink from Arthur.

Stockylove:
Are you talking about that Arthur cartoon? With the antropomorphic animals ?

I used to watch it when I was little too. I don't remember any scenes from Vore or WG, but the cartoon was really good.

Cinnamoroll:
Yeah, that Arthur! There was only 2 vore scenes. The first scene is where Arthur for some reason has a nightmare. (it's been a while since I've watched this cartoon) At one point he swallows (unintentionally) his grandmother who is in the form of a talking cake.

The second scene comes from an episode about Arthur having a crush on his baby sitter. He gets devastated that his teenage babysitter is dating a guy. He vent his feelings out by writing a comic where a monster sheep swoops down and eats the babysitter and her boyfriend.

Sadly, I can't find a video of the last scene but here is the screenshot of part of the comic. /revision/latest?cb=20110912192420

There are other weight related scenes but my memory is foggy. For sure there's some involving Buster since he has a big appetite lol.

Stockylove:
And the fact that it’s completely unintentional on the part of these cartoons and movies is really funny too.



Biscuitsnhoney:
seeeeee idk if that's true 😅😅😅 PBS was the only network untouched by Epstein / Dan Schneider 👀

Cinnamoroll:
Funny you mentioned PBS because Arthur had some WG plus vore scenes. I can also remember one stuffing scene from Clifford. And yes, I am ashamed to admit I got my vore kink from Arthur.

Stockylove:
And the fact that it’s completely unintentional on the part of these cartoons and movies is really funny too.



Biscuitsnhoney:
seeeeee idk if that's true 😅😅😅 PBS was the only network untouched by Epstein / Dan Schneider 👀

Cinnamoroll:
I have plenty of examples to list. My biggest one was Charlotte's Web when the character Templeton the rat sings about eating leftover food at the fair and eventually gains a big sloshy belly.

I had that movie on DVD and was always fixated on that scene. I even was inspired by it by drinking a ton of water and it felt good when I sloshed my stomach. Of course, I didn't know what arousal was as a child. Funny enough, I dated like 3 gained guys in the past who got their kink from that scene.

Biscuitsnhoney:
I think about this all the time!! So many of my feeders tell me about episodes of popular cartoons that stuck with them through adulthood