Boys, the patriarchy is coming for you, too:

“This taste of a future in which we objectify men as we have for so long objectified women is not the kind of gender equality we were hoping for. Furthermore, from the neck down, these men all look remarkably similar –- white, very lean and extremely muscular –- and it would not be unreasonable to wonder what repeated exposure to these kinds of images is doing to women’s ideas about the ideal male body, and to their expectations of the real men in their lives.”

Marcel’s fact-based script centers around Travers’ deeply personal connection to her books. Mary Poppins contained elements of Travers’ own real-life hardships and her relationship with her father, who passed away when she was a child. Travers was therefore reluctant to hand over the rights, fearing that Disney couldn’t do her story justice, but eventully gave in after years of wheedling. Unfortunately, although the finished product was well regarded by critics and audiences alike, Travers herself hated the film, particularly the animated sequences. She subsequently refused to sell any more of her works to Disney.

(via Disney Nearing Deal for Black List Script ‘Saving Mr. Banks’, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep Rumored to Be Circling | /Film)

Despite the fact that the American Diabetes Association tells us that most overweight people will never get diabetes, the concepts of obesity and diabetes have been so conflated that the term “diabesity” has come into vogue. Except it’s not by crazy random happenstance – the term “diabesity” was trademarked by a group called Shape Up America. According to their website, they are supposed to be “high profile national initiative to promote healthy weight and increased physical activity in America”. So why do you think for-profit diet companies like Weight Watchers International, Jenny Craig and Slim*Fast, not to mention pharmaceutical companies including Wyeth Ayerst, Ortho-McNeil, and Novartis, have donated millions of dollars to this initiative? An initiative which, if they thought it would actually work, would put them out of business? Do you think it’s possible that they know that the fat panic created by Shape Up will drive them customers who will have a 95% chance of failing and then becoming their customers again?