No one should be calling anyone a “Big Back.”
“Big back” is slang for an overweight person, a “food lover” or someone who eats a lot, according to Urban Dictionary.
People on TikTok use “Big Back” as a caption on videos wherein they cook fat-heavy meals or eat large plates of food. One literal way to become a “Big Back,” is to stuff pillows under your shirt to create a hunchback while cooking, eating or opening the refrigerator.
There’s even a viral “Big Back” tune, a remix of Dora the Explorer’s “Backpack Song” that substitutes “Big Back” for “Backpack.”
Clarence Lomax, creator of “Big Back — The Original Parody,” tells TODAY.com he was inspired by his own wellness goals.
“I was beginning my health journey of taking my weight loss more seriously and making healthier food choices, so it was really a taunt or an insult to myself, as a way to stay on track,” says Lomax. “It took off from there.”
Where did ‘Big Back’ come from?
“It’s like folklore to some degree — you can’t pinpoint the exact moment it started but you can pinpoint moments where it became popularized,” Tyler D. Parry, associate professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, tells TODAY.com.
“Some people trace it back to this idea in African American pop culture that having ‘back’ was a compliment, meaning you have a nice derrière, like in the Sir Mix-A-Lot song, ‘Baby Got Back,’” says Parry. “The degree to which that’s attached to the recent term of ‘Big Back’ is hard to determine, but it might have been appropriated and given a different context.”
The palatability of “Big Back” relates to its sound.
“Alliteration can disarm the idea that it’s offensive,” says Parry. “Big Back’ sounds very different from, for example, ‘Fat a–’ which seems more aggressive.”
Why kids shouldn’t say ‘Big Back’
“Big back” is a hurtful term, according to Erika Stapert, lead psychologist at Manhattan Psychology Group.
“Given the constant presence and influence of social media, teens are already facing immense pressure to conform to specific body image standards,” Stapert tells TODAY.com. “Slang terms like ‘Big Back’ only make this pressure worse, as they draw attention to someone’s eating habits or weight.”
Stapert adds, “Many people who struggle with their body image, appearance, and weight do so quietly, without making it obvious to others. So even when a term like ‘Big Back’ is used in a lighthearted, joking way with no intent to shame, it can still trigger and amplify the internal struggles that the person may already be dealing with.”
“Big Back Behavior” can hurt anyone, at any size.
