Big Back Trend / Bigbacked Trend

Submission 23,275

Part of a series on TikTok. [View Related Entries]

About

Big Back Trend or Bigbacked Trend refers to a viral TikTok trend in which people pretend to have fat or obese back by stuffing their clothes, usually by putting a pillow in their shirt, to post comedy content related to eating excessively. The trend stems from the African American Vernacular English slang "big back," which is used for obese people that originated in the years prior to the TikTok trend, who started in early April 2024, sparking a viral debate on the platform from some users who labeled the trend fatphobic or fat shaming for the way people used stuffed clothing to appear fat for the videos or poked fun at the physique.

Origin

On March 26th, 2024, TikTok^[1] user @knewtney posted a video of a man playing bowling paired with the text "me bowling then remembering my sister back so damn big." The post (shown below, left) amassed more than 1.8 million plays and 254,000 likes, becoming one of the main audios for the "big back" trend on the platform, and garnered over 22,000 videos in two weeks.

One of the earliest posts of the "big back" trend was uploaded on April 1st by TikTok^[2] user @jayda.waydah, which shows her baby stuffed with a pillow on her back and the text "My daughter's back when all the breast milk catches up to her." The post (shown below, right) received more than 12 million plays and 2.2 million likes in a week.

Spread

Over the following week, several users on TikTok joined the trend by stuffing pillows and pieces of clothing to imitate fat on the back. For instance, on April 5th, 2024, TikTok^[3] user @k33ki3.ugc posted a video in which she added a pillow under her clothes paired with the overlay text "My big back ahh thinking 'oh now time for something sweet.'" The post (shown below, left) amassed over 431,000 likes in four days.

On April 6th, TikTok^[4] user @ninapalaciios posted a similar food-related comedic video with her siblings going to ask their mom to buy food for them. The post (shown below, right) received roughly 16 million plays and 3 million likes in three days.

On April 7th, 2024, TikTok^[5] user @georgiarosecurves voiced her concerns (shown below) about how fat people are being portrayed in the trend, which amassed more than 2 million plays and 88,000 likes in two days.