Paul Delacroix
Well-Known Member
As I see it, society came fairly close to almost relaxing its thin supremacy by the late Nineties. Unfortunately around that point, the mass media began its anti-fat crusade, which amounted to The Diet Empire Strikes Back. Then came the relentless tongue lashing about the "epidemic" with its endless photos of headless fat people on the News, the relentless selling of WLS on TV reports, and then, after a few years, the tidal wave of nutritional junk science that made McDonald's its primary target.
And then after the anti-fast food wave, the low-carb diet fad began, which is still with us today in the form of the Paleo Diet.
To add more pressure, the government has begun using a heavier and heavier hand with the "health" issue. The acceptance of the idea that fat causes heart attacks and diabetes is more universal than it ever was...any flicker of fat acceptance that makes through the Internet will now be met by criticism and warnings that "we shouldn't encourage obesity." For example, the two Swedish mannequins that surfaced recently--which had athletic-looking builds--but generated controversy because they were plus-sized and some people actually expressed a liking for them that way. (Horrors!!!) I have my doubts that in the past plus-sized mannequins would have even raised an eyebrow, or become a news story at all.
To make matters worse, any time the beauty issue comes up, there is a sort of political correctness at work, by which, if you express a preference for a woman with a heavier figure, you'd better damned well express it in a delicate and vague fashion, or you will be attacked by someone who accuses you of bashing naturally thin women. This dynamic doesn't seem to flow the other way, for some reason. (Even though naturally fat women probably outnumber naturally thin women 10 to 1.)
I would say at this stage there are certainly more fat people in our culture, but things have regressed considerably. Not quite as bad yet as they were in the anorexic 1970s, but the mild relaxation of body tyranny we saw in the 80s and 90s is now gone. We have lost a lot of ground.
But that's just my opinion. Maybe I am seeing the glass as "half empty." What do you think?
And then after the anti-fast food wave, the low-carb diet fad began, which is still with us today in the form of the Paleo Diet.
To add more pressure, the government has begun using a heavier and heavier hand with the "health" issue. The acceptance of the idea that fat causes heart attacks and diabetes is more universal than it ever was...any flicker of fat acceptance that makes through the Internet will now be met by criticism and warnings that "we shouldn't encourage obesity." For example, the two Swedish mannequins that surfaced recently--which had athletic-looking builds--but generated controversy because they were plus-sized and some people actually expressed a liking for them that way. (Horrors!!!) I have my doubts that in the past plus-sized mannequins would have even raised an eyebrow, or become a news story at all.
To make matters worse, any time the beauty issue comes up, there is a sort of political correctness at work, by which, if you express a preference for a woman with a heavier figure, you'd better damned well express it in a delicate and vague fashion, or you will be attacked by someone who accuses you of bashing naturally thin women. This dynamic doesn't seem to flow the other way, for some reason. (Even though naturally fat women probably outnumber naturally thin women 10 to 1.)
I would say at this stage there are certainly more fat people in our culture, but things have regressed considerably. Not quite as bad yet as they were in the anorexic 1970s, but the mild relaxation of body tyranny we saw in the 80s and 90s is now gone. We have lost a lot of ground.
But that's just my opinion. Maybe I am seeing the glass as "half empty." What do you think?
