Things just never seemed to fit right as we shopped in the ‘ husky’ section at department stores. In the 80s, in my formative adolescence, I loathed shopping for clothes each new school year. Both my parents were ‘thick,’ ‘chunky,’ and ‘plus size’ – code words in our society for fat – so it was inevitable that I would be a kid with weight problems. And that means not to deny the beauty and sexuality of being big.

Now at 40, this ‘old man’ is on Instagram rocking skimpy underwear while discussing depression, the difference between body positivity and body neutrality, how thick men can lead a sex positive life, and encouraging other plus size men to look at their lives as a whole. 20-year-old me was in the closet, suffering a dark depression, hating his body, and contemplating if he would ever find love and happiness in himself, let alone with a partner. “If you had told 20-year-old me that I’d be celebrating my chubby body by posting provocative pictures on Instagram while navigating the body positive, body neutral, and sex positive movements – I would have told you to take your meds.