TLC - Secret Sex Lives: Supersized Sex [S01E01] (2014)

Gigantomastia anyone? Nope, me neither. Well, not without the help of a thesaurus. Feederism? Mmm, food must be involved, but nope, thesaurus again. Giantish fetish? Well, that’s pretty straight forward – a predilection for giants, surely? In the first episode of Secret Sex Lives: Supersized Sex, we follow the lives of four people, where size does matter and size is everything.

Annie, aka fantasy model Norma Stitz, suffers from giantosmastia, her breasts weighing a combined eighty-five pounds. She’s on an eternal quest to find a bra that fits her bountiful bosom since her previous bra manufacturer went, er, bust. Actor and writer Jonah, possesses the world’s largest penis and hasn’t had a serious relationship in fourteen years. His mighty member brings welcome female attention despite the risk of injury when they, er, bump uglies. Donna weighs six hundred pounds and shares a condition with her boyfriend, Phillipe known as feederism. They have an insatiable desire to feed one another. Phillipe encourages Donna to achieve her ambition to gain a further 400 pounds, rendering her defenceless to him. And Matt has an obsession with giant women, namely Stephanie – high priestess of the giantess video. Matt believes his fascination with all things gigantic stems from a childhood love of Godzilla and experiences intense pleasure when male actors are perilously crushed.

If you were in any doubt that these sizeable conditions actually exist and the programme is not just a gratuitous insight into the sex lives of the elephantine classes, then fear not. The programme employs a plethora of psychologists and sex therapists to give authenticity to the various fetishes and mastias under scrutiny. So while we may struggle to comprehend how Annie, Jonah, Donna and Matt navigate the sexual obstacles of their bulk, Secret Sex Lives leaves us with graphic certainty. Mass is more and these couples are having a lot of pleasurable sex.

Yet there is a cynical undercurrent running through the programme. Despite the couples embracing their over exaggerated frames for supposed mutual sexual pleasure, you cannot help but feel it is male sexual pleasure that is at the forefront in the relationships. Granted, while Annie enjoys the trappings of celebrity and Stephanie gets lucratively paid for crushing dwarfs, it does appear the male partners relish the notoriety of freakdom foremost rather than any inherent emotional connection with their largesse ladies. Donna’s willingness to tip her scales over the thousand pound mark to enhance Philippe’s gratification undergoes no real psychiatric commentary to the obvious risks to her physical and mental health.

The public reaction is predictably divided. Men reinforce the freak show attraction, finding big fascinating and pleasurable. Women are just simply repulsed. Whichever side of the fence you sit on, the programme does make for compelling viewing. It does call into question our perception of beauty and sexual attraction and what is one person’s Aphrodite can be another’s Centaur. Judge for yourself. You may feel these women are portly pawns in men’s fetishes and fantasies or you may view them as strong, strident women who emphatically reject the contemporary size zero culture. As Norma Stitz herself declares, ‘Why fix something that just ain’t broken’?