La ciccia da cannone

Questa mi mancava. Era il 1962, JFK era presidente degli Stati Uniti, in piena Guerra Fredda, e c’era chi “proponeva” l’obesità come messaggio per chi viveva oltrecortina, per dimostrare opulenza:

Muscles may be useful in hand-to-hand combat, but I fail to see what advantage they give one in the Cold War. Indeed, that gaunt and bony look so much in fashion among Americans today may be a positive liability in the battle for the minds of men. How can we expect the world’s starving masses to believe that a nation of emaciated people is as well off as it pretends to be? We seem to have forgotten that while obesity is the bane of modern America, it remains the ultimate symbol of happiness and security to that portion of mankind which goes to bed hungry every night.

Ma tutto l’articolo è da leggere assolutamente :)

The great American appetite, once harnessed to a sound government program for physical fatness, will lean into the traces with a will. We shall match the Russians potato for potato, calorie for calorie. We shall fight on the beaches; we shall fight on the picnic grounds; we shall fight in the all-night hamburger stands. We shall never surrender! And if the American nation should last a thousand years, history will say, “This was their fattest hour!”

John Crawford - Atlantic Monthly