In an attempt to gain some spin, Clothes Show Live has announced that "unnaturally thin" male models will be banned from its shows, in response to an increase in cases of what its own press release calls "manorexia".
They do not positively exclude all other features, though, and are capable of further determinate specification: 'rational mortal animal' as the content of the concept of 'human being' signifies all humans, whatever their further features may be tall or short, fat or thin, male or female, and so on.
In 1984, the author and Black feminist, Audre Lorde penned the essay, "Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference," where a "mythical norm" was defined as "white, thin, male, young, heterosexual, Christian, and financially secure".
Next month, Rootstein will offer a line of reed-thin male mannequins.
Guy Trebay's article about thinner male models ("The Vanishing Point," Thursday Styles, Feb. 7), struck a chord with me, though a different one than I believe he intended.
We are all of an age – grey and white hair, thinning male tops; deep, creased laughter lines; shoes chosen, slightly regretfully, for comfort.
Almost exclusively thin, wiry males, lost under over-sized suits and garish neckties.
The pelvic fins are small and thin; mature males have relatively large claspers.
So there's a novelty value to it all, but also, finally, a gallery that reflects the fact that we all like different things, that enforced physical Fordism (any colour, so long as it's black; any female body, so long as it's thin; any male body, so long as it's muscly but not weird) doesn't really suit the marvellous variety of human desire.
Researchers have also examined how men are affected by media imagery that features buff, well-muscled, thin, attractive male bodies as the aesthetic norm.
