SAN FATSAO. I don't think the contradiction Badler points out is terribly confusing at all. Indeed, I'd expect that, as the median Brazilian grows fatter, eating disorders propagate and the societal ideal becomes ever more skeletal. It's long been true that societies construct their body ideal as whatever is most unattainable for the lower classes, thus creating an instantly recognizable visual signal for class hierarchy. This goes back to Chinese footbinding -- a status symbol, only the wealthy could cripple their women, as they didn't require their labor. Fast forward a bit and you find plenty of cultures prizing plumpness, which, in scarcity economies, signalled plentiful access to food and, thus, wealth. Brazil is no different. As the country becomes ever more saturated with cheap, processed, nutritonally barren, fatty foods, the lower classes become heavier. Same as happened in America. And as that transformation continues, the upper classes seek svelteness, which signal, among other things, better quality foods, but also excess time and money spent at the gym, and worrying about appearance, and so forth. It's a little funny, actually, that elite ideals are constructed in such slavish recognition of proletarian realities, but the effects aren't very humorous at all. --Ezra Klein
