The Atrium

There is a strange dichotomy of weight issues flying around out there. First, there is the belief that Americans are in the midst of a childhood obesity epidemic. More children, and Americans in general, are overweight than ever before. Then there are the models and celebrities that are so skinny, you can see their rib bones sticking out. Spain recently banned models who were too thin from their runways, and yesterday designer Jean Paul Gaultier had a plus sized model strut down the catwalk. A discussion on a morning talk show revealed that even some of these reporters felt that having a plus sized woman "show off" the clothes made the clothes less appealing. Yet, they were concerned when their daughter noted how great Nicole Richie, one celebrity who is stick thin, looked. So, in this battle against childhood obesity, should we stand with designers like Gaulthier and applaud plus sized models? Should we really encourage teenage girls to strive for the Nicole Richie ideal? Or is there an answerof a health and fitness somewhere in between? My hope is that we could find, encourage, and strive for that.

See this article for Karl Lagerfeld's view