the times | Saturday September 5 2020 2GM 5
News
Don’t knock the dad bod,
it’s a sign of a good father
A couple who imposed a 100kg weight
limit on people staying in a cottage on
Airbnb blamed “easily offended snow-
flakes” and fat people for the property
being removed from the website.
Marcus Farkas, 52, and his partner
Zsuzanna, 34, vowed to continue their
policy at the 15th-century home in
Sandwich, Kent.
The couple, who claim to manage 20
properties on the site, shrugged off ac-
cusations of “fatphobia” and “discrimi-
nation” from campaigners but they re-
moved the listing indefinitely yester-
day, complaining that they had been
“spammed by fat Airbnb people”.
The original advert for the medieval
cottage, called Bobbit’s Lair, provoked
outrage from activists over its list of
rules, which included weight limits for
“bigger than average” holidaymakers.
Mr Farkas claimed they were acting
on the advice of a builder who said large
people would cause “serious damage”
to the oak beams of the medieval cot-
tage. The row prompted Airbnb to pull
the £199-a-night property off the site as
Queenist,” she says today. After her
cancer was diagnosed, she had the
Whipple operation in which a third of
her stomach, a third of her pancreas
and a large section of her small bowel
was cut away.
The memory of the painful recovery
helped persuade her to reject post-
operative chemotherapy.
“I wouldn’t have been able to walk or
work. I wouldn’t have been able to cook
or garden. I’d be sick again for six
months. I thought, ‘No, I’m not having
that. I am taking my chances’. When I
asked about the percentage difference
on living a longer life, between doing
chemo or not, it was five per cent. I’m
OK with not doing that,” she says.
The novelist, who lives in Norfolk
and was listed as one of Granta maga-
zine’s best young British novelists in
1983, said that the cancer was likely to
return within two to five years.
“Five years would be fine, two not
quite so good,” she said. “But I keep
working, I keep doing things. I keep
talking. I keep loving the people I love.
I keep communicating.
“There is nothing else to be done.
Larkin said that ‘death is no different
whined at than withstood’. I am not
whining.”
Rose Tremain on cancer, MagazineBACKGRIDSetting the tone Charles Dance, 73, and a friend take time out for a swim in the Adriatic during the Venice Film Festival
child new things”, “babies melt this per-
son’s heart” and “this person would feel
compelled to punish anyone who tries
to harm a child”. Negative behaviours
included “this person thinks kids are
annoying”, “this person grabs or han-
dles their child roughly” and “this per-
son seems like they would accept a call
during their child’s game or recital”.
It was the man with a typical dad bod
who came out on top, with the chiselled
chap faring the worst. “High fat and
small muscles were perceived as more
indicative of positive parenting abili-
ties,” the researchers wrote in the jour-
nal Evolutionary Psychological Science.
“The low body fat/high muscle male
target was perceived to have especially
negative parenting abilities.”
Too much weight gain may be judged
harshly. “It is often the case that people
are motivated to be fit to attract mates,
so heavier men and women may be
communicating less concern with per-
sonal attractiveness and attracting new
mates, and greater interest in parental
investment with a current partner,”
Donald Sacco, the lead author, said.
“We did not test perceptions of highly
overweight targets, which may actually
be perceived as lacking the discipline to
be an effective parent.”
Academics at the University of New
South Wales have previously found
that men with full beards were consid-
ered to be better dads.
Survey findings released by King’s
College London and Zoe, the health
science company, at the end of July
suggested a third of us have put
on weight during lockdown.
Their data suggested an av-
erage rise in body weight
across the country of
0.78kg (about 1lb 12oz)
but those who said they
were snacking more
reported an average
gain of 3kg. Those
drinking more put on
an average of 2kg.
Leading article,
page 31You were lithe and lean but then you
settled down, had a child and replaced
the gym sessions and five-a-side with
takeaways and TV. But don’t fret, there
is a silver lining. Fathers with “dad
bods” are seen as better parents,
researchers say.
It’s thought that, while we may have
evolved to view a man with a toned
body as generally more attractive, we
are also likely to take a dim view of their
child-rearing skills — and their com-
mitment to monogamy. We perceive
the fathers carrying a little more weight
to be less dominant and therefore
warmer and more committed.
“Previous findings implicating mus-
cularity as particularly sexy suggest
such body dimensions connote higher
levels of dominance that could impli-
cate them as not possessing the requi-
site warmth for parenting,” researchers
from the University of Southern
Mississippi said. “Additionally, such in-
terpersonally dominant men prefer
pluralistic mating strategies that could
undermine perceptions of them being
interested in providing resources
towards their partners and offspring.”
For the study, more than 800 people
were shown four photographs of a man
with the face obscured digitally
altered to have different com-
binations of body fat and
muscle, from lean to slightly
overweight. Participants
had to indicate on a scale how
likely the figure was to dem-
onstrate 36 different
parenting behaviours.
Positive behaviours
included “this person
seems like they would
help their child with
homework”, “this per-
son tries to teach their
Sophie Freeman
Obesity row Airbnb hosts
shrug off fatphobia claim
Charlie Parker
the company investigated accusations
of discrimination. It was later uploaded
again, but with no reference to weight
restrictions, before being taken down
once more.
Mr Farkas, who does not own the
property, said: “My builder said we
shouldn’t rent the cottage to big people.
We agreed and unfortunately some
snowflakes took offence. It’s under-
standable, people are easily offended by
the truth unfortunately. It’s being
spammed so much we have pulled it.
The owner is concerned.”
He suggested that despite the back-
lash, they will continue to enforce the
100kg (15st 10lb) limit. “The host will
still choose and has ultimate control.
[The website] is favoured towards the
host generally,” Mr Farkas said.
On the website the property was
advertised as a “fine medieval” two-
bedroom cottage from the 15th century.
Among its many conditions were bans
on children, moving furniture and
allowing more than four people in the
hot tub at once. Red wine must be kept
away from bedrooms and carpets.
Sarah Le Brocq, the director of Obe-
sity UK, a charity supporting those
living with obesity, cast doubt on the
couple’s explanation for the ban, which
she said will be “psychologically dam-
aging” for larger people.
She said: “Structural stability of a
property is one thing, but how many
people are you limiting in the house? If
you’ve got ten people all weighing 99kg
then surely that’s just as bad as having
two people that might weigh 100kg
each.
“It just sounds like madness. They’re
trying to frame it as the stability of the
house, but ultimately what it comes
down to is clearly fat-shaming, weight
stigma and real prejudice against
people with larger bodies.”
Airbnb said: “Discrimination and
bias have no place in our community,
and we have suspended the listing
while we address the matter raised. We
enforce a strict non-discrimination
policy and under our Open Doors initi-
ative, if a guest feels they have been dis-
criminated against, we will provide per-
sonalised support to ensure they find a
place to stay.”
Letters, page 30Hope of seeing Queen kept
me alive, says Rose Tremain
David Sanderson Arts Correspondent
Dame Rose Tremain has told how her
pending investiture helped to keep her
alive as she had treatment for
pancreatic cancer.
The novelist, who is 77, has described
living with the disease, which was diag-
nosed a year ago after she was taken to
hospital with severe abdominal pain.
While in the ambulance she received
a phone call informing her that she was
to be made a dame in recognition of her
services to writing.
“I remember thinking, once I’d come
out of the operation, I need to get well
enough to go to the palace,” she says in
The Times Magazine. “It was one of
those things that sort of kept me alive,
I think.”
The writer, whose 14th novel Islands
of Mercy is released this month, did
make it to Buckingham Palace in early
March wearing Chanel that “cost the
price of a small car” to meet her beloved
“Queenie”.
She attended the palace with her
partner, the biographer Richard
Holmes, her daughter Eleanor and her
grandchildren, Martha and Archie,
who threw themselves on the floor with
delight at the prospect, she said.
“I’m not a royalist but I am aMatt Damon, a
father of three, may
be seen as warm
and committed