” …. she enjoyed eating those cakes as much as she enjoyed making them.”

What’s the saying? “Live life to the full; moderation is only for monks”; …. and not a mention in that of Kilograms, Kilojoules, BMI, Size [pick-a-number] or anything like that at all.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for eating good nutritious food and for doing work or exercise that does not harm you …. but never never never for appearance sake alone - with or without clothes.

I am sure that’s true of you boys as well, Graham.

“Or is society just getting more vain, self obsessed, and objectifying?”

Yes.

Katz, as women we do have to at least consider why we allow ourselves to be complicit with all this body image crap. It’s nice to feel attractive, but it’s anything but nice to obsess over it. I see it as backlash stuff.

What a wonderful world we live in …. where women come in all shapes and sizes. Where women who do not excel in intelligent conversation or other wonderful things usually have some nice quality or another.

Male day spas are huge now too.

And HR publications are advising botox and hair transplants to keep that youthful look in the recruitment/promotion stakes!

sorry to hear you YOUNG guys are now increasingly worried about body image… as if you didn’t have enough on your plate [or in your case insufficient on your plate ] without that stuff

cheerio

old, fat, greying but amazingly wise

http://www.amazon.com/New-Weird-Ann-VanderMeer/dp/1892391554

What worries me is it might be right

Big problems arise when beauty is seen to be a marker for other virtues, like intelligence, leadership, moral goodness.

For males, tall candidates beat short candidates. Hirsute candidates beat bald candidates, and woebetide the bald candidate who is caught wearing a rug!

Women’s problems are compounded by their tenuous position in hierarchies.

Also difficult for women is the pervading ethos of passivity that legitimises the position of women as the object, as the observed, as the subject of judgment.

One could implore women to grow a spine about these matters. However, it cannot be gainsaid that the status of women as peripheral in power structures makes such advice inappropriate and callous.

It would seem to me that redress of power imbalances is the primary objective, but long-standing structures and attitudes make achievement of that object a very distant prospect altogether.

Thus it seems highly likely that women will continue to internalise the judgements of others, or worse still, will continue to be frozen by embarrassment by the mere prospect of judgement by others.

In any case, the more times we dig you out of the Spaminator, hopefully the quicker it learns that it’s come up with a false positive.

Ambigulous, I think a lot of men my age and younger do worry about body image. I think it’s related to the increased sexualisation of the male body in advertising and other media since the early 90s. Eating disorders among men are now not uncommon, whereas they were very uncommon before the 90s.

Ambigulous, I think you’ll find more and more young men are starting to get similar anxieties.

Yes, true. We can all appreciate beauty.

But why is it that many of us blokes don’t seem to get so anxious about our body image. I’m old, fat, greying, etc. Is it the patriarchy? (We can just bloody well do as we please; we’re not “trained” to hope for approving appraisals by strangers??)

I dunno.

Old Carson kressley gives me the kreeeps though. Anyone that obsessed with the removal of facial/body hair needs a good talking to.

Was it because I wrote I thought you were weird?

I take it back. I didn’t really mean it (much).

does it feel strange to break in on this conversation? I’m male.

That’s my experience too, Paul. I have met several exceptionally beautiful women. I think most blokes have. Their beauty shines above the fairly ordinary standards of Hollywood or “glamour” TV. But you’d be hard pressed to convince some of them.

A few weeks ago on LP I opined that Mme Angelina is fairly ugly. I find her face harsh and simple. Of course it’s a matter of taste.

The beautiful women I’m thinking of, one of whom is my wife, have in addition to their physical beauty, an inner beauty that glows in a smile, a glance, a walk. But you may need to get to know her before you’ll see that (or before she lets you see that, if she’s shy).

***************

I agree with Darlene that one factor at work may be ‘raunch culture’, noxious, tedious, demeaning, dispiriting, etc.

***************

But I’d prefer to dwell on the beauty that Paul and I know. {sigh}

As Britney does sing:

I’m Mrs. Lifestyles of the rich and famous
(You want a piece of me)
I’m Mrs. Oh my God that Britney’s Shameless
(You want a piece of me)
I’m Mrs. Extra! Extra! this just in
(You want a piece of me)
I’m Mrs. she’s too big now she’s too thin
(You want a piece of me)