Daily French Roast

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Santorum Exposes The Real Republican Party by Andrew Sullivan for The Daily Beast

Sullivan calls Santorum’s vision for America what it really is: radical, not conservative.

It is a radical theocratically-based attack on modern liberal democracy; and on modernity as a whole. It would conserve nothing. It would require massive social upheaval, for example, to criminalize all abortion or keep all gay couples from having any publicly acknowledged rights or status. Then think of trying to get women back out of the workplace or contraception banned - natural, logical steps from this way of thinking. This massive change is radical, not conservative. It regards the evolution of American society these past few decades as literally the work of the Father of Lies, not the aggregate reflection of a changing society. It is at its essence a neo-Francoite version of America, an America that was not the pinnacle of Enlightenment thought, but an America designed to destroy what the theocons regard as the catastrophe of the Enlightenment.

More DFR

Barbie on the left is a creation of Jocelyne Grivaud, the creator of the site Barbie Ma Muse, which focuses on representations of women and their transformations as Barbie dolls. On the right is Man Ray’s image of Kiki, the Montparnasse singer, a woman with obvious curves.

Vogue Italia asks: The choice of the most famous doll of the last fifty years is important for the female stereotype it refers to – a skinny physique that obliterates curves and flattens shapeliness. Is Barbie really the women that we all now want to be?

Men and Female Shapes

Psychology Today asks: Do Men Find Very Skinny Women Attractive? We note that this very question now exhausts the vast majority of women. Let’s skip over the question and focus on some data. The author is focused on fashion runway models and Playboy Playmates.

Playmates haven’t gotten thinner over the years, unlike fashion models. The average Playmate is 5’6” tall and weighs 115 pounds with a BMI of 18.5. Ignoring today’s obesity epidemic, before 1980, almost two-thirds of American women in their late teens has a BMI below 20. The Playmates are more curvaceous with typical measurements of 35-23-34.

The average BMI for fashion models is 17.1, with half being under 17, compared to only 6% of Playmates. At 5’10”, they are taller than 99% of American women. Their busts are smaller by 3 inches than Playmates.