Saturday, August 15, 2009

Barack Obama causes potbellies? And other such nonsense.

It's Hip to Be Round.

This fashion piece from The New York Times discusses a new accessory for men: The Ralph Kramden (aka a potbelly). About the emergence of this new trend, the author talks about how men have had to work to not only be financially successful but physically fit since women have moved in numbers into the workplace, because, how else could they prove themselves? Their unjustly larger paychecks mean nothing, obviously. The article suggests that perhaps the emergence of the Ralph Kramden as a fashion statement can be blamed on...Barack Obama? Because he is fit and he likes to work out, maybe men are rebelling against that?

Ummm...
Sometimes, I just don't know what to say, although I would hope that this is some sort of satire. I can't really tell.

Check it out for yourself. Leave your thoughts in comments.

3 comments:

Allyson said...

I officially no longer take NYT seriously at all.

I've been saying this all over blogs and I'll say it again: BODY TYPES ARE NOT FASHION STATEMENTS.

I'm pretty disgusted by all of this and am swearing off the NYT for awhile.

Amelia said...

I would like to second that body types aren't fashion statements.

Also, might I ask what other news sources you read, Allyson? I agree, this piece really made me cringe. But I see this kind of thing in all sorts of news sources. Have you found any that have been less disappointing? I'm interested.

tessarae said...

i swear, lately, the NYT will write a style/trend piece on ANYTHING. it's ridiculous. i still think the NYT is a pretty good source for actual news, i just skip the trend pieces.