Last December, The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that over the last twelve years, death rates among 2,600 adults 60 and older were slightly lower in overweight individuals than in normal weight adults.

Wait, what? Isn’t obesity a major health concern?

Actually, the New York Times reports that “despite concerns about an obesity epidemic, there is growing evidence that our obsession about weight as a primary measure of health may be misguided.”

It seems that medical research is taking a different path down the road of health, obesity, and weight loss studies. In fact, the Archives of Internal Medicine, as referenced in the Times suggests that half of overweight people and one third of obese people are actually “metabolically healthy.”

America’s obsession with beauty and looks has long stereotyped overweight people in a negative light. However, studies such as those mentioned above are proving that in many cases, thin or underweight people are in poorer health than those with a few excess pounds. The Journal of the American Medical Association conducted fitness tests and observed mortality rates of their subjects, and discovered that “fitness level, regardless of body mass index, was the strongest predictor of mortality risk.” Therefore, skinny people blessed with a fast metabolism will still find working out to be advantageous to their health, and “big boned” individuals should not be written off as being “lazy” or “sluggish,” as stereotypes suggest. Read More »

So, now that it’s the 21st century and all, NPR’s Web site has an article proposing the idea that—gasp—Gedde Watanabe’s character in Sixteen Candles, Long Duk Dong, might be a racist caricature that doesn’t actually represent every single Asian on Earth, ever.Fetch me the smelling salts, because I think I’ve fainted of surprise.

This would probably be a good time to come clean and mention that I’ve never actually seen Sixteen Candles, so maybe the character of Long Duk Dong is unfathomably racist and I’m just too cinematically uncultured to know that. But my money’s still on no. Read More »

I have a dating nightmare story that is, I think, something of a urban legend. That is to say, I’ve never actually met anyone else to whom this has happened; sure, I have friends who have friends who know someone who has gone through this, and I’ve no doubt they exist, but I’ve never encountered these people personally.

I always sort of had the feeling that my ex was still in love with his ex girlfriend, but it would never really sink in. I suppose that I felt like I was the heroine in the movie version of my relationship, not the other woman (or, I guess, man)-that’s-totally-wrong-for-him-but-still-has-a-good-heart (AKA, James Mardsen in The Notebook, James Mardsen in Superman Returns, James Marsden in Enchanted and James Marsden in X-Men). But I was so the James Marsden and therefore I wasn’t at all surprised when I let myself in to my ex’s house (with the key he had given me with the understanding that I would meet him at his house that night–great timing, douchebag) to see him doing the mommy-daddy dance with said ex-girlfriend. Read More »

One is not born, but rather becomes, a dude.

This, at any rate, is the conclusion suggested by a recent report in The Journal of Adolescence, which seems to show that teenage boys are more interested in emotional connection than in sex for its own sake.

The report concerns a survey of 105 tenth-grade boys, who answered questions about dating and sex, along with several more general questions of health and lifestyle. When asked about their reasons for pursuing a relationship, over 80% of the boys responded that they did it because they “really liked the person.”

When asked about their reasons for having sex, the boys were as likely to say that they did it for love as they were to say that they had been motivated by pure physical attraction or curiosity about sex.

This evidence flies in the face of the common stereotypes that young men are supposed to be interested in sex rather than relationships (whereas girls, of course, are believed to prize relationships over sex). And so, not surprisingly, some people refuse to believe it.

Tara Parker-Pope, in her New York Times column on the subject, pointed out that, in her experience, the majority of the backlash to these findings came from grown men, several of whom commented on her original blog post to insist that the boys must have been lying. (As far as I can see, these men failed to provide any realistic explanation as to why the boys would have done so - my own research confirms that the “free pizza if you fake interest in a relationship” strategy is usually ineffective.) Why are these grown men so invested in denying the emotional life of teenage boys?

Well, why wouldn’t they be? Read More »

Say you wanted an assault rifle, but being a woman, didn’t want to settle for some boring old black AK-47. Say you wanted to kick some ass in style. What would you do?You log onto glamgums.com and buy yourself a Hello Kitty death machine.

The “Glambo Signature Series “Hello Kitty” HK-AK-47” is a shiny purple limited edition weapon that’s “perfect…for the lady of the house”. For only $1072.95, a girl can keep her feminine streak in tact while still toting a gun that’s guaranteed to do some severe damage.

I’d probably be seriously freaked out by all of this—if I didn’t know the site was a complete joke. Read More »

Generalizations, like clichés, are born from a truth, and ignoring them completely often means we’re trying too hard—especially when it comes to men and women.

There are traits that many women share, as well as traits that a lot of men have, it’s just a fact rooted in ratios; the only time a problem arises is when someone uses those ratios to make thoughtless, stupid remarks.

Like Tom Mitchelson, a journalist for the Daily Mail.

On a whim, Mitchelson decided to live as he “imagined a woman might” (imagined is the key word here), detailing a week’s worth of thoughts into a article so full of derogatory feminine oversimplifications that it’s a good thing I have no idea where he lives.

“I worried about cellulite, obsessed about finding the right partner and thought constantly about my biological clock” Mitchelson details, adding “Pints are out; spritzers (as in wine coolers. WINE COOLERS!!) are in.”

“Westerns are gone (except Brokeback Mountain), to be replaced by romances…I ring my mother every day, buy flowers, read my horoscope, pluck my eyebrows and browse the chick-lit section of the bookshop.” Read More »

If you’re not actively involved in the fashion or modeling industry, you may hold a conception of the commonplace high fashion model that is similar to mine: stick-thin, snooty girls who party hard on the weekends and either suffer from some form of eating disorder or unhealthy drug addiction to keep their weight down.

Of course this is only a stereotype based upon a few bad examples (namely Kate Moss), but us regular girls cannot be entirely blamed for these misconceptions.

Take clothing store Sisley’s new ad campaign into account. Two models are pictured snorting lines of cocaine near the straps of a Sisley dress. They look strung out, with their eyes rolled to the back of their heads in thick black eyeliner and tight party dresses. Read More »