in praise of fat still

by Maria Sofou

For the second season of NOWNESS’ Define Beauty series, director James Lees explores the sensuality of an overweight body, creating a beautiful film which features porn star Brock Avery and model Vanity Fox.

Speaking of beautiful, who decides what is beauty? Certainly not all those fake, body-shaming standards that are dominant in modern society. Lees’ camera follows a sexual encounter that refuses to go by the norms and -finally!- shows that an overweight body can be sensual and erotic, exploring Fox’s nudity in great detail, revealing us about every fold of her skin.

The director explained about his project: “When do you ever see an overweight model being sexual? It’s almost as if it is taboo; deemed not something people want to see. I wanted to confront this face-on.”» Well, we couldn’t agree more!

Here are some stills of the film, which you can watch here:

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