After reading Unbearable Weight, I began to notice the word 'slim'. It seemed ubiquitous - on cans in drugstores and supermarkets, in the personal columns of the New York Review of Books. It was a cultural mantra, a synonym for 'lovable'. In the personal ads, one man described himself as 'trim', as in 'tall, trim, well-built, passionate'; he was also married, vigorous, in his sixties, discreet, and with excellent credentials. But it was in the women's ads that 'slim' became repetitive, dispelling the ever-present suggestion that this woman was too large, too big, too heavy, fat.

LRB 10 March 1994 | PDF Download