Dieting to death is fashionable, of course. It almost makes sense, in a world where poor people are now the fat ones, having virtually no access to healthy food and being at the mercy of McDonald’s & Co.
Perhaps the fashion industry could canonize Ana Carolina Reston – make her a martyr for the “cause.” Tom Ford could style her dead, emaciated body with white geisha-like body make-up (something like his tasteless… er, I mean, ultra-stylish photo spread in “Vanity Fair,” for example). Karl Lagerfeld could stop fanning himself long enough to make a diamond-encrusted coffin lid for the occasion, and Calvin Klein could parade pubescent girls with white lilies and see-through veils at the wake.
There are many super-talented individuals (I count the Lagerfelds and the Kleins among them, obviously) who work in the fashion industry. There are people who are capable of elevating a basic handbag to the status of an art-form. But this glorious expanse of the imagination is tempered by economic barbarism and a baffling, visceral hatred for the human body. It’s a pity.
Natalia A. 
I was agreeing right up to the point you mentioned vanity fair. Personally, I think vanity fair is a horrible disease that needs to be eradicated.
Random: have you seen Broken Flowers? Just watched it. Uproarious, as some pompous critic might say.
I still read “Vanity Fair” with some regularity, but Tom Ford’s “hollywood” spread was so disgusting that I stopped reading it for a while. I used to not be able to take their images seriously, but that crossed a line with me.
I didn’t really like “Broken Flowers” all that much, although Sharon Stone was awesome in it.
Any magazine that lets Christopher Hitchens open his mouth should be banished from this earth.
But he writes such a good humour column!
And what about women who die from gluttonous obesity? I think it’s safe to say (statistical fact) there are FAARRRR more of those in the US than anorexics!
Don’t believe me – take a stroll thru Walmart any given Sunday…lol.