March 16, 2006

"The days when a man's beer belly was shown off as a symbol of his manliness are over."

Who knew men thought a pregnancy-like protruberance was manly? The report is from Britain, so apparently it was some strange British perspective on the male body. Anyway, it's over.

16 comments:

Ron said...

Why settle for a six-pack of abs when you can have the whole keg?

Laura Reynolds said...

Gee I never thought it was manly to have "dicky do" disease, you know, where you stomach sticks out more than your dicky do.

AFFA said...

Drat. All these years I've had a powerful manly symbol and only find out about it when it goes out of style.

It's like junior high all over again...

michael farris said...

The cult of the big belly used to exist in the Southern US as well (maybe it still does?) I remember reading an article almost 20 years ago that customer researchers (who spy on customers from behind two way mirrors) found southern (white) men tended to moddle coats and jackets and buy the ones that made their stomaches look largest ...

Balfegor said...

I remember reading an article almost 20 years ago that customer researchers (who spy on customers from behind two way mirrors)

Oh horrors. I am never making a silly face at myself in a changing room mirror again.

David53 said...

Every night at the bar you could see him arrive
He stood five-foot-six and weighed two-forty-five
Kinda narrow at the shoulder but broad at the hip
Everybody knew you didn't give no lip to Big Wally

Big Wally
Big Wally
Big Bad Wally
Big Wally

goesh said...

Burly, beer-bellied bulldozer drivers with their short sleeved shirts cut off at the shoulders, chewing tobacco with cigar stubs clenched between their teeth, leering at women and guffawing over crude jokes, sweating, brawling, cursing, gouging the earth. Thank God for college.

Bruce Hayden said...

To some extent, this may have come from a time when girth correlated to wealth. Only the wealthy could afford to be fat.

But now, the wealthy and famous in this country tend to be thin and fit. I should add that the more active, esp. outdoors, the inhabitants of a location, the thinner they are here. In CO, you just don't see nearly as many heavy men or women as you do in much of the rest of the country. I attribute that to a couple of things. First, there are a lot of outdoor activities available year round - skiing in the winter, hiking, biking, etc. in the summer. And, second, many of those here come here to participate in these outdoor sports.

Mark Daniels said...

In late-nineteenth century and early-twentieth century America, a male's rotund midsection was regarded as a sign of both manliness and healthfulness. The portly man was seen as one who was prosperous and had arrived, as in the phrase "fat and happy."

Mark Daniels

dirty dingus said...

I'm not convinced that even the saltiest of "salt of the earth" Englishmen ever actually considered the beer belly to be manly. It was more that claiming it it be manly was a way to justify the accidental addition of girth. More like "worn with pride and desperately hoping that no one calls you on it IMO"

XWL said...

It's not just our species that found (finds?) a big gut a sign of studliness, just observe gorillas, the silverback with the biggest harem usually also has a nice round belly.

Eli Blake said...

It depends on your perspective.

How many Buddhists are there in the world, who worship a fat diety?

I suspect that at one time, it was considered 'manly' and 'sexy.' However, now that we have decades of research, it no longer is, mainly because there is nothing sexy about heart disease, stroke and gastrointestinal disease. But then again, nothing is absolute-- Hardy outlived Laurel.

Matt Brown said...

I've been telling my stomach for years now that it's over, but it won't listen to me. It's like my children in some respects...

fatdude said...

i like a beer belly, it shows that ur a man.
also most woman like a man havein a beer belly.
i wigh 17 stone and still im heathy as ever.

fatdude said...

i like a beer belly, it shows that ur a man.
also most woman like a man havein a beer belly.
i wigh 17 stone and still im heathy as ever.

fatdude said...

i like ma beer belly, it shows im a man, woman round ma area think it is cool, woman like it, i wigh 17 stone and im as heathy as ever.