hollywood

Should We Worry About Baby Fat on… Babies?

February 19, 2012

Haven’t you heard of an ear thermometer!? Gasp. This is not the first noise you want to hear when your baby is born. “What? What’s wrong?!” I struggled to sit up as best as a woman who’s just had her entire abdomen rearranged like a Rubik’s cube can do. Nurses, doctors, husband – all were staring at the baby I’d just popped out.  Finally someone answered me. “Nothing’s wrong,” the doctor said handing me my second son. “Except you just gave birth to a 3-month old.” At nearly eleven pounds he never even wore newborn clothes. I have a lot [...]

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From Oscar-Seeking Stars to Empathetic Personal Trainers: What happens when people try to gain weight?

November 21, 2011

When super-fit personal trainer Drew Manning decided to “get fat” for six months and then lose the weight, chronicling his journey on his website Fit2Fat2Fit, his story shot into the media limelight faster than a starlet’s nip slip. Everyone, it seems, wants to know why Manning would voluntarily shed his rock-hard body – one he’d used to model in the past – and trade in his thin privilege for something most Americans are doing their darndest to get rid of? He explains, “My goal is to inspire people to get fit, teach them how to do it and give them [...]

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Is Model Adriana Lima an “Athlete”?

November 8, 2011

Groaning in a puddle of sweat while holding a pose that would be considered obscene in any environment outside of the gym (quite a few exercises fall in this category, to my constant amusement), I considered taking a rest but just then Turbo Jennie yelled, “Come on athletes! Don’t quit now!” That was exactly the first time in my life anyone has ever called me an “athlete.” And I liked it! After we finished the 5 minutes of ab hell – during which I did not take a rest – it occurred to me that she might have been being [...]

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Adderall: Perfect life in a pill or Stepford epidemic?

November 2, 2011

I was first introduced to Adderall a few years ago by a friend deep in the anorexic abyss. At the time I wrote it off as just more evidence of the all-consuming nihilism of the disease. Not only was she starving herself, working out hours every day and popping diet pills like candy but now she was taking prescription meds too – just one more thing to maintain her tortuously thin frame. To her though it was significant: it allowed her to maintain her focus and mental functioning during an illness that is notorious for compromising both. Yet, I wrote [...]

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Ginnifer Goodwin’s Epic Diet [How Old Were You on Your First Diet?]

January 6, 2011

I’ve always had a soft spot for Ginnifer Goodwin – we’re both pale with dark hair, we’re both 32, and she plays a polygamous Mormon wife on a show that purports to not be about Mormons but really is, (or at least is really about the weirdly naive-yet-oversexed stereotype of Mormons that Hollywood so loves) and I’m an actual Mormon (albeit a way more boring one than the Big Love family – once you take away the kinky sex quadrangle all you’re left with is a bunch of smiley people who don’t drink, don’t smoke and bring Jell-O to parties). [...]

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Actresses Get Oscar Buzz For Eating Disorders [While a real ballerina gets called "fat"]

December 15, 2010

Two girls make a pact to lose weight together. Each desperately wants to get under 100 pounds and over the course of a year through hours and hours of exercise and severe diet restriction they reach their goal. With visible chest bones and protruding hips and bony knees, they are proud of themselves but how does the world react to them? Surely they are carted off to eating disorder therapy as their loved ones worry and onlookers whisper what a shame. Not so for Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman who did just that and are being rewarded with fame, fortune [...]

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Mariah Carey Gets a Modesty Makeover

October 8, 2010

We’ve all seen Photoshop used to slim down “fat” people (read: everyone not emaciated), hid pimples, smooth aged skin and even to plump up sickly thin people but the Saudi Arabian censors have taken computer image enhancement to a whole new level: They used it to de-sluttify Mariah Carey. Somebody nominate them for the Nobel, pronto. Confession: Mariah Carey’s music is like nails on a chalkboard to me, especially when she sings in her famous upper register (she sounds exactly like a Whistling Pete firework – you know, the ones that screech higher and higher until they end with a [...]

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When Makeovers Go Bad

October 1, 2010

Orange Velvet Suit Man at the Twin’s baseball game the other night: I salute you. Not many people would go to a ball game decked head to toe in a bright orange velvet zoot suit with matching orange fedora. I love that about you! And I don’t even know you! Ignore the frat boys calling you “pimp”, revel in the gawkers – you are awesome and I hope you never change. My love for the Orange Velvet Suit Man might stem from the fact that I too will take any occasion to dress up – I myself wore a kicky [...]

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"Truthiness" in Advertising

September 23, 2010

You already know that many starlets grace (is grace really the word I’m looking for here?) magazine covers half undressed but did you hear about Carey Mulligan wearing a towel around her bottom on the cover of Vogue this month? No it’s not the latest terry-cloth fashion hot off the runway – as if! – poor Carey was actually the victim of an ill-fitting haute couture dress. As she explains: “The cover dress was very pretty but wouldn’t go over my arse. Sample size is very, very tiny. I’m actually wearing a towel around my waist and the bottom is [...]

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How Thin is Too Thin?

June 18, 2010

Photo Credit Our society is warped. Twisted. A veritable fun-house of fat and thin mirrors when it comes to body image. One on hand we have Kim Kardashian, queen of curves, compelled to exclaim in an interview, “I look a lot bigger on TV. When I meet people, the first thing they say is, ‘Wow, you’re so much smaller than I thought’. I look about 15 lbs heavier. I’m only 115 lbs, and everyone thinks I’m like 130 or 140. It’s bizarre. I’m a US size 2!” On the other hand we have Kai Hibbard, a finalist on Season 3 [...]

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