Amusing and timely reading. http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2010/01/25/100125sh_shouts_saunders?currentPage=all Remember, train hard and you won't end up like Ames.
Brilliant! But seriously... we are turning into a society which venerates the perfect bodies of models, film stars and athletes, while at the same time the general population is growing ever fatter and unhealthier. Stop and think about what that consequences of that are for most people's self-image and where that will lead us as a society! I suppose increasing levels of anxiety about obesity will help to increase the job-security of psychiatrists, and must be great news for dieticians, fitness instructors etc! Because despite the growth of the fitness industry, the obesity boom continues apace. Consider this: one hundred years ago, the most numerous occupation in Britain was coal mining. In hundreds of small towns and villages you had an adult male population with almost non-existant levels of obesity, and for whom chiselled abs were the norm - and without a gym in sight! (Of course it's also true that half the men were coughing their way into an early grave.) If our forebears could see us today, I'm not sure if they would laugh or cry.