When Men Let Themselves Go

Letting yourself go is not exclusively a male pursuit, of course. It's just that men can get away with it. Last year, Tyra Banks publicly defended herself after photos of her in a swimsuit looking less than svelte were published in the tabloids. Jennifer Love Hewitt was on the cover of People magazine in December next to the headline stop calling me fat! after gossip blogs published photos of her in a bikini with captions like i know what you ate last summer. She's a size 2. This happens because we still secretly believe that a woman's job is to look good. Added girth on a man can be a marker of success, and a way of dealing with the stress that comes with it. You make it through another day in which you somehow manage to close another deal or file another brief. You stare blankly at bumper stickers on the freeway, or wedge yourself into the subway as the conductor squawks "STAND CLEAR DA CLOSING DAWS!" At last, you're home. What's next--a five-mile jog and a dinner of arugula and Evian?

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