beautiful girls? no doubt about it. but here in the western civilized world we love to swing from one end of hell to the other. its almost as if we don’t know any shades of gray. it has to be one extreme or the other, otherwise its not show biz. so from the anorexic-boyish 13-year-old girls, selling clothes to 30-year-old women, we skip to wagner’s opera. this new obsession with over-sized women is of course no coincidence. marketers and business’ alike have seen the news too. 67% of americans alone are overfed and overweight. the rest of the consumer world to follow. beer brands, chips companies and candy manufacturers have been pandering to fat men for years. making it seem ok, blessing it and telling them to relax, kick back and crack open a bag of chips while surfing the cable box… and it worked. what kind of guilt ridden mind wouldn’t want to hear the kind-voice of the mr. butterfinger telling him that it’s all o.k… now it’s time to expand and cater to the “women’s grand market”. because boy, talk about guilt ridden!! they’ve been working on that for centuries.

to point out… v magazine taking lead from marie clair (curves ahead) is a first, but it is not the first glossy mag or the first “marketer” to milk this one. i remember the first time i saw such editorial images, years ago, in some euro art pub, my first reaction was “that’s cool, someone had the balls to dis the fashion status quo, i wish i had done that.” but i’m afraid that is not the premise here.

first off i highly doubt if mr. lagerfeld and v mag’s intentions have turned 360º overnight from the blatantly glossy fashion-megaphone of the mainstream, to kindhearted citizens who want to give “over-sized women a voice”. so good intentions, they are not. shock value? im sorry but about 10 years too late. alternative motive? possibly so. in these hard times, fashion is desperate enough to open the gates. butterfinger did it, why not dolce… after all they have the right name!

burlesque star dirty martini; by karl lagerfeld

its not cool, and its not fun, to glamorize, bless, ok, promote, or justify what is a major health liability in this country. its even worse to make a profit out of it. as much as you/i/media may have disliked the 13 year old boyish girls in fashion, from what i can recall anorexia was never an epidemic wasting away 67% of the public… or did i miss that news flash? seems like we have lost our internal campus or maybe it doesn’t work due to the excess blubber. we argue about what body shape is too skinny and what is too fat?

ask yourself this: have you ever met a waif hippo in the wild? or a gravitationally challenged giraffe standing in line at serengeti-grill? how about an obese lion who cant walk? an anorexic grizzly who turns down a meal? maybe in bronx zoo where people are involved, or maybe a sick one in the wild, but not in nature. that’s because every species has a natural body type, and humans are but a species. look at your ancestors. not 200 or 500 years ago, not the venus of willendorf they showed you in art history 101, but way back before man took things in its own faulty hands. there lies your answer and your form. by cm

** political correctness disclaimer: if you have a medical condition which makes you overweight, please do not take offense. this is not related to you. but if you are overweight because you cant stop eating food, food that others around the world are dying from its lack of, then please be our guest.