-- ILLUSTRATION: MANNY FRANCISCO

Yes, true to form, boy meets girl. Boy and girl act a little crazy, have a relationship crisis and break up, before later coming back to their senses and living happily ever after.

But boy was lead actor Seth Rogen fat.

And the amazing thing was that even though he was paired with the beautiful and svelte Katherine Heigl (who plays Izzy on the popular TV show Grey's Anatomy), the script never made his weight an issue at all.

He never had to slim down to win Katherine back and in fact, the audience was treated to 'morning after' scenes where his chubby body was really quite naked.

I thought that it was a bellwether of sorts. And it only confirms a trend I've started to observe as I walk around town in Singapore.

Fat guys are 'in' again.

Or, at least, they're not automatically 'out'. In fact, many of them have pretty, slim girls wrapped around their beefy forearms.

When I tested this hypothesis on a few female colleagues, I was met with the usual knee-jerk derision.

'Eew!' said one. 'Fat guys will never be 'in'!'

'You mean you're actually going to write about this?' asked another. 'How credible is that, given that you (a) are fat, (b) want to get even fatter and (c) are attracted to fat people?'

I persisted, with a few qualifications this time.

Okay, I said, not wobbly fat or 40-plus-inch waistlines - but burly, stout guys with a few extra pounds, and who aren't afraid to show it.

Hey, some of them even wear tight clothes, I joked - eliciting an even louder 'EEEWW!'.

But then came the payoff I was waiting for.

'Actually my friend is going out with a fat guy, and she's quite pretty,' admitted one colleague.

Within the next minute, she had pulled out another example. And then another.

I rest my case.

ALWAYS up for seriously investigating a thoroughly unserious trend, I asked people around me why they thought this was happening.

Lean, muscled guys (who have no doubt spent most of their lives honing their fine physiques) said that I had fundamentally misunderstood the so-called 'trend'.

'If I were you, I'd look more carefully at the chubby guy's watch. Check out labels on his clothes, his shoes and what car he's driving,' said a friend, who works as a personal trainer in a gym.

'Singapore girls are basically realistic creatures. Being rich definitely overrides being fat.' Ouch!

Another popular but less painful explanation was that, increasingly, Singapore girls are being left with 'no choice' but to date chubby guys.

Economic prosperity has meant that the young of today are growing up extremely well-fed on all sorts of high-grade chow, so the gene pool in Singapore is churning out fatter kids.

On top of that, the brightest - and potentially most successful - kids aren't exactly playing football and losing weight in their spare time.

Instead, they're sitting at home eating oily food and slaying monsters on their computers online, together with a whole bunch of other fat friends.

So if you agree that fat guys now constitute a larger proportion of the pool of eligible guys, it follows that you are - statistically speaking - going to see more fat guys with pretty, slim girls.

My take on this, however, is slightly more serious - but only just. I think this is happening because society's views of what defines masculinity could be changing again.

To be sure, a penchant for chubby guys isn't at all widespread yet. And it remains a niche attraction for a niche crowd.

But as was the case in the gay community, it represents the start of a very real backlash against currently popular notions of the metrosexual as masculine.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, 'bear' culture began to take off among gay men in the US. It was a reaction to mainstream gay media portraying only lean, muscled, hairless bodies as sexually desirable.

Supporters of a burgeoning 'bear' scene began eroticising large, hairy men with a rural or working-class look seen as more authentically masculine.

That movement has now spread to Asia where, in cities like Tokyo, Taipei and Hong Kong, a similar 'bear' subculture is flourishing.

Its members sport crewcuts and goatees, and go to the gym not to lose weight, but to model their bodies after off-season bodybuilders and pot-bellied rugby players.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but it's likely the same type of thing could be happening with straight men as well.

Thanks to the metrosexual revolution, men are becoming more urban and sexually ambiguous. They are slimmer and leaner, and actually bother to colour-coordinate their clothes.

They obsess about better skin and designer hair, and go for facials and manicures to look better groomed.

As the goalposts continue to shift along the spectrum of what's considered masculine, there are bound to be those that hanker after the old extremes.

And even if a fat, unshaven slob isn't your cup of tea, it's nice to be able to hug something fairly solid to sleep.

So excuse me as I leave to vacuum up some more fried chicken. With extra fries, please.

ignatius@sph.com.sg