Potbellies Are So Hot Right Now

Apparently in Brooklyn, looking slovenly is no longer enough to be fashionable. One must now be slovenly, too. And so hipsters are embracing their potbellies, flaunting them at the Brooklyn Flee and McCarren Park like they're the hottest thing since skinny man jeans, according to the Times. But why? Men's Health editor David Zinczenko argues that men only recently embraced fitness, muscles, washboard abs, and looking like this when women entered the workplace, since they had to have something other than money to attract them. So now that they're losing more jobs than women are in this recession, they probably can't afford their gym memberships, and are sitting around eating fried pork rinds and peanut butter and marshmallow fluff out of jars while watching Oprah and not exercising, right?

Apparently, the new guard of potbellies buy $13 lobster rolls like dirty-water hot dogs, so they must have money. Clearly the new potbelly is a choice that they are consciously making. Details editor Dan Peres posits hipsters, contrarian by nature, are doing this to be unlike Barack Obama, who has a nice flat stomach he has made a conscious decision to keep bulge-free. Out editor Aaron Hicklin postulates being in shape has become "prissy," adding, "It’s not cool to be seen spending so much time fussing around about your body." So although Zac Efron hasn't gotten the memo, the age of the metrosexual might finally be over. While women diet, exercise, pluck, and apply face cream to the point of misery, a group of men have allowed themselves to stop trying. This is not fair and it should not stand. From the Times:

“When do you ever see that guy, anyway?” [Fitness trainer Robert] Morea asked, referring to those legendary Men’s Health cover models, with their rippling torsos and famished smiles.


Well, aside from Abercrombie, how about every time we don't sleep alone at night? Zing!

It’s Hip to Be Round [NYT]

Previously on The Cut...
 

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