*giggle* I'm not sure 200 lbs qualifies as a big, soft belly in my book.

I'd like to see how I feel at around 300 lbs., and see if I feel like I could handle more.

As for guys, I like guys of most sizes and shapes, but I do love a really big fat guy, 3-400 lbs. Yum.

Well, I think more people would experiment with it if they

a) knew it existed (see jester's post above);

understood that we aren't all killers like the fat community and movies like *Feeder* make us out to be.

As someone who has yet to find a workable feeding relationship in a reasonable distance from where I live--and I admit, I'm picky, but I'm entitled to want to be around people I like and can talk to and find attractive!--I really feel the need for a change in our public profile.

But I began this thread with Earthling's question ringing in my ears. Does no one else wish there were more of us? or that it seemed ok to suggest experimenting with feeding to dates? or listing it on a dating website as an interest?

If you answered yes to any of those three questions, doesn't that logically mean our public profile needs some help?

In the thread that Max started, there's been a big debate about being 'out' as an FA and so on, and there was a loose consensus that one should be out as an FA but not as a feeder. The basic idea here is that feeding is a sexual practice, and therefore not anyone's business.

But someone had to be talking about BDSM publicly to make it more acceptable--when I was a kid, it was thought of as grotesque and horrific, and now it's something that ordinary couples can consider trying out, and it's easy to get gear for everything from the mildest to the most intense practices.

I'm not preaching any particular course of action, but I am asking a question: am I alone in caring about the public profile of feeding? do others of you long for a time when we're less hidden? I don't want to tell everyone what I do--not by ANY means--but I do wish I didn't have to be embarrassed and secretive about it.

Is there a way forward? Do you want one?

Could we maybe refer to strenght of character and bravery and all that good stuff as something other than 'having balls'? I like to think I have those qualities, but I sure as heck don't have any balls...

Maybe 'having gonads'? awkward, but effective. I've heard it used well often