‘Fashionably Fat’ Briton Stumps for the Plump : Trends: Dawn French’s ‘big is beautiful’ message seems to be catching on. Magazines and late-night television have begun featuring voluptuous women in sexy poses. But not everyone is convinced.

Forget the wispy waif, the sylphlike child-woman, the bag of bones on the catwalk.

Fear of fat is no longer fashionable in Britain, home of Twiggy in the ‘60s and the waif Kate Moss in the ‘90s.

Dawn French, Britain’s nicer, more appealing version of Roseanne Arnold, is funny, fat and famous. She doesn’t want to change herself. Instead, the actress and television comedian wants to persuade a diet-addicted world that big is beautiful, fat is fun.

The politics of plump have caught on in Britain.

Glossy fashion magazines, including British Esquire, and late-night television have featured photographs of voluptuous women. Swaddled in gauzy wraps, French, a size 20, has appeared in tableaux styled after the painters Rubens and Titian, who celebrated cumulous billows of flesh.

“Big women are sexier than thin ones,” French pronounced in She magazine. “We pump more estrogen, have higher sex drives and fantasize more. Being big is a sign of fertility, of voluptuous sensuality, a love of life.”

French, 36, is a persuasive billboard for her cause.

She may call herself “a short, squat Devonshire dumpling,” but she is gorgeous: peaches-and-cream complexion, huge dark eyes, tumbling auburn curls, a bright smile and seductive voice.

“There is something extremely delicious about flesh, and women who are comfortable about having it are very alluring,” she said.

Some men have been moved to “out” themselves, confessing that they prefer comfortably cushioned women to fashionable coat hangers.

“Big women are bollards that one can tie oneself to in the storm of life, rather than reeds blowing in the wind,” author Will Self wrote.

French has inspired many British women, particularly the ample ones.

“I think she should be voted in as prime minister,” declared Angie Le Mar, 27, a size 14 comedian. Women larger than size 10, Le Mar said, “have been getting a raw deal for so long, and she has had the guts to speak up.”

“Dawn French is absolutely brilliant,” said Patricia Hill, who was shopping at French’s clothing shop in north London. “I feel more confident because of her. I think, if she can look great, I can too.”

The shop is named 1647 in honor of the 47% of British women who are size 16--U.S. 14--or more.

Not all large women are converted.

French’s television show extolling the value of voluptuousness ended with singer Alison Moyet condemning size-ism, great or small. The rebuke was her condition for participating.

“You’re talking a lot of crap,” said Moyet, who is large herself. “What you’re basically saying is that now we’ve got to replace one stereotype with the other. I’m sorry, but that’s a load of bollocks.”

“Fat cow!” French retorted.

Susan Miller, a 27-year-old teacher who aspires to lose 45 pounds, does not buy French’s message that fat is fabulous.

“I think fat is horrible,” she said while taking a break at a London gym. However, Miller said, she “wouldn’t want to look like that Kate Moss--all bones, no boobs.”

Melanie Smith, a 33-year-old bank clerk who is comfortable as a size 16, said at a London wine bar: “I would never say that big is better. I just think big is as good as small or medium, so long as you are reasonably healthy. I wouldn’t diet for cosmetic reasons, but I would if my weight was affecting my health.”

All women, of whatever size, need to be more self-accepting, said Mary Evans Young, founder of Diet Breakers, a national anti-diet organization.

“If we just focus on the Dawn Frenches--and fat women are treated appallingly--we ignore that every woman is brought up not to like her body,” she said.

“Not all women look like Dawn French and not all women look like Kate Moss. The first step is to accept yourself as you are.”