Max and Jason: Still Up | August 17, 2009 | 27 comments

It's Hip to Be Round?

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/fashion/13POTBELLY.html?_r=1&em

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rodstradamus
THIS summer the unvarying male uniform in the precincts of Brooklyn cool has been a pair of shorts cut at knickers length, a V-neck Hanes T-shirt, a pair of generic slip-on sneakers and a straw fedora. Add a leather cuff bracelet if the coolster is gay.

In truth this get-up was pretty much the unvarying male uniform last summer also, but this year an unexpected element has been added to the look, and that is a burgeoning potbelly one might term the Ralph Kramden.

Too pronounced to be blamed on the slouchy cut of a T-shirt, too modest in size to be termed a proper beer gut, developed too young to come under the heading of a paunch, the Ralph Kramden is everywhere to be seen lately, or at least it is in the vicinity of the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene, the McCarren Park Greenmarket and pretty much any place one is apt to encounter fans of Grizzly Bear.

“I sort of think the six-pack abs obsession got so prissy it stopped being masculine,” is how Aaron Hicklin, the editor of Out, explains the emergence of the Ralph Kramden. What once seemed young and hot, for gay and straight men alike, now seems passé. Like manscaping, spray-on tans and other metrosexual affectations, having a belly one can bounce quarters off suggests that you may have too much time on your hands.

“It’s not cool to be seen spending so much time fussing around about your body,” Mr. Hicklin said.

Women have almost never gotten a pass on the need to maintain their bodies, while men always have, said Robert Morea, a personal fitness trainer. (Full disclosure: my own.) It would be too much, he added, to suggest that “potbellies are suddenly O.K.,” but as lean muscle and functionality become the new gym mantras, hypertrophied He-Men with grapefruit biceps and blister-pack abs have come to resemble specimens from a diorama of “A Vanished World.”

More at the NY Times article.

So, now it is ok to be fat and lazy b/c it's cool? What an easy excuse to be an obese loser. Brainwashing is so simple nowadays.
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27 comments // It's Hip to Be Round?

  • Louise_Purvis
  • jb_swl
    • 0
      jb_swl  
    • Louise_Purvis:

      You didn't mention whether you were fat? Your profile photo suggests not which would make you desperately untrendy by your own standards.

      Or were you just trying to build interest in the article as part of your internship at Current TV?

    • 2 years ago
  • cynker
    • 0
      cynker  

    • notice to all commenters: not everyone is designed to be a 'perfect human figure' i find some of these comments shocking and repulsise! there is a difference bewteen having a belly and being really really fat. none of those people in the picture are really that fat. shame on you all !

    • 2 years ago
  • versasrev
    • 0
      versasrev  
    • cynker:

      no one said anyone had to be perfect.

      I'll give you the guy in the light blue shirt, not that big of a deal, but the others have a ridiculous belly for their body type. Those guys are not really fat minus the belly, which works towards disgusting.

    • 2 years ago
  • LozRiva
    • 0
      LozRiva  
    • cynker:

      exactlly, no one said it was the case of having to be perfect model, the tag line was it is cooler to be round, and the following comments are that is isn't cool it is proven to really not be good for your health, it isn't a comment about people that are bigger it is about making it an ideal to which you would want to aspire. i don't think offense is meant. Just some people trying to be funny...

    • 2 years ago
  • jb_swl
    • 0
      jb_swl  
    • cynker:

      Actually, you'll find that more than 99% of people, i.e. apart from those with genetic mutations (and *not* counting the so-called "fat gene" which only pre-disposes people who over-consume to build fat in a certain way), we *are* all designed by our DNA to have a perfectly human figure. What we are seeing here is an abuse of wealth and laziness that leads to people eating too much, people eating the wrong stuff, people not burning off what they eat. Go to a country where the food industry hasn't become overly-processed rubbish and you'll see low obesity rates. Or are you saying that people in poorer countries are genetically different?

      Shame on all the apologists who are too timid to suggest that an awful lot of people have adopted a lifestyle that is bad and will kill a lot of them prematurely -- the current US generation is the first in human history that has a life expectancy lower than its parents.

    • 2 years ago
  • cynker
    • 0
      cynker  
    • cynker:

      i agree with you jb_swl (if thatis your real name..)
      but you should be able to choose if you want to be fat and lazy, i find it shocking how some people are genuinly repulsed by it, as if they dont have any fat friends. as long as your healthy who cares if you have a gut. and do not patronise me by saying do i think people in less westernised countries have different DNA , im not a retard.

    • 2 years ago
  • jb_swl
    • 0
      jb_swl  
    • cynker:

      cynker -- thanks for the reply. JB are my real initials but you try getting your real name as a log-in on anything...

      I agree that people should have the choice, what I disagree with is that it should be promoted as fashionable or good for you in any way. There is a difference between a beer belly and morbid obesity, but one often leads to the other and neither is healthy.

      In terms of attraction/repulsion, again there are a host of studies into what attracts us to other people (thinking more of for life partner here rather than friends) and I'm afraid fat and lazy would factor in none of them. Genetically, we are attracted to fit, healthy and "good looking" people. The last of those is subjective but the former are not so much.

      And think of this: how many fat(ter) people are always trying to lose weight? I'd say most people I know in that situation talk about it even if they do nothing to change their lifestyle. And it's not about being size 0 or having a six-pack, it's simply that people know what is healthy and the way they ought to be (from a anthropological point of view, not societal/fashion one). I'd say my body is about average and I'm happy that I keep things in balance. I don't go to the gym but then I don't eat crap where I have a choice.

      It's all a lifestyle choice and one we each make, but trying to make something which we all know in our heart of hearts is bad into something good just so we don't feel bad about it is simply wrong. Economists talk about the financial cost to society as well, so collectively all those personal choices do affect others.

      Anyway, happy for you to respond to these points, but the overall point I was trying to make is that the marketing of bad things does not make them good.

    • 2 years ago
  • Sumbodyswatchin
    • 0
      Sumbodyswatchin  

    • Dear Fat PPL,

      Knock it the fuck off! Your desire to consume everything in sight and your disreguard for your body's necessary daily excersise requirements is not only disgusting to look at, but is a burden on our healthcare system. STOP IT!

      Let the hate mail begin....

    • 2 years ago
  • EclecticBadger
    • 0
      EclecticBadger  
    • Sumbodyswatchin:

      Hey its all down to my... (tick all that apply)

      [ ] Gender
      [ ] Age
      [ ] Additives
      [ ] Bones
      [ ] Body shape
      [ ] Parentage
      [ ] Hormones
      [ ] Medical condition
      [ ] Intensive farming
      [ ] Enviromental pollution
      [ ] Lack of sleep
      [ ] The Government

    • 2 years ago
  • cynker
  • Sumbodyswatchin
    • 0
      Sumbodyswatchin  
    • Sumbodyswatchin:

      Not quite my illustrious companion. Young at heart maybe, but try telling my knees im 15. And im not saying we should all aspire to be Adonis or Persephone but there is a level of physical maintenance we should keep and I find it repulsive that you cannot distinguish between our berating of those who choose to be morbidly obese and those who are larger than others due to their nature. Listen and think friend.

    • 2 years ago
  • cynker
  • LozRiva
  • carmalite
    • 0
      carmalite  

    • America is probably the fattest country. There are some other fat ones, but I am sure we are near the top.

      Fat being fashionable also means heart attack, high cholesterole and diabetes are fashionable. So is this a way to make people forget about health care and just let go and die early?

    • 2 years ago
  • Mr_Costello
    • 0
      Mr_Costello  
    • Image

    • Of course it is fine to have a round belly. 25 years ago AC/DC fans had beer bellies, facial tattoos and 15 year-old-girlfriends and that was cool. These days they're Zac Effron lookalikes and the only time they're shitty wives let them out is with a 4 month notice period. Jajaja.

    • 2 years ago
  • dainjdc
  • Sumbodyswatchin
  • EclecticBadger
  • alivein85
    • 0
      alivein85  

    • To all those guys in the picture I say, 'Get off your stupid X-Box and get your fat lazy ass to the gym, or at least on some sort of exercise schedule (keg-stands don't count as exercise, either)."

    • 2 years ago
  • cynker
  • alivein85
    • 0
      alivein85  

    • I think its disgusting. I wouldn't date a guy who doesn't take care of himself. He doesn't have to be, ah, "hypertrophied He-Men with grapefruit biceps and blister-pack abs"
      BUT
      to say, “It’s not cool to be seen spending so much time fussing around about your body,” is just ridiculous!

      This is why Americans are so fat and unhealthy. This is why we have shitty health and health-care. We spend so much time worrying about what everyone else thinks we can't even take care of ourselves anymore. Have we lost all self respect??
      There is a middle ground between the hot dog eating, beer drinking couch potato and the steroid taking, body building macho man!!

    • 2 years ago
  • jaystyx
  • abbym0308
    • 0
      abbym0308  

    • I think it's hip to be whatever you feel most comfortable being. Whatever makes you happy. If you want to be healthy, great! If you want to have a beer gut, great!

      Note: Google Ad on this page right now is "5 Tips to Get a Flat Stomach"

    • 2 years ago
  • versasrev
  • MissAmanda
  • jh64487
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