FATS, LEANS, AND IN-BETWEENS
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"Let me have about me men that are fat," writes Shakespeare in Julius Caesar. "Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous."
Now, it may not be true that lean people are more thoughtful, or that thinking people are more dangerous, but Shakespeare knew that, in people's minds, at least, certain personality characteristics are associated with certain body types.
It has long been thought that fat people are content and easygoing and jolly, and that thin people are nervous and scheming.
Through the centuries this impression was substantiated by direct observation: The village fat man obviously was well-fed because he was successful and had all he needed and thus had no need …show more content…
At the other end of the scale is the endomorph: broad-hipped, fleshy, softish, and considered sensuous, lazy, good-natured.
Between those two is the mesomorph, the classic athletic figure, broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped, sinewy, and rugged; this somatotype is associated with quickness, adventurousness, and self-confidence.
It should be noted that attitudes toward those basic types are changing in our day of calorie and cholesterol-consciousness, and nowadays the fat man or woman is no longer identified with success. Successful, fashionable men and women now strive for the slim look.
Tallness or shortness also make a difference in the treatment one receives in life; people react to a taller man as if he automatically had more authority, and studies have indicated that a man over six feet tall may reasonably expect to earn several thousand dollars a year more than an otherwise identically qualified executive. It may not be fair, but often it works that way.
Though you can't do a great deal to change your height and body type, you can influence other aspects of your
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"Let me have about me men that are fat," writes Shakespeare in Julius Caesar. "Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous."
Now, it may not be true that lean people are more thoughtful, or that thinking people are more dangerous, but Shakespeare knew that, in people's minds, at least, certain personality characteristics are associated with certain body types.
It has long been thought that fat people are content and easygoing and jolly, and that thin people are nervous and scheming.
Through the centuries this impression was substantiated by direct observation: The village fat man obviously was well-fed because he was successful and had all he needed and thus had no need …show more content…
At the other end of the scale is the endomorph: broad-hipped, fleshy, softish, and considered sensuous, lazy, good-natured.
Between those two is the mesomorph, the classic athletic figure, broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped, sinewy, and rugged; this somatotype is associated with quickness, adventurousness, and self-confidence.
It should be noted that attitudes toward those basic types are changing in our day of calorie and cholesterol-consciousness, and nowadays the fat man or woman is no longer identified with success. Successful, fashionable men and women now strive for the slim look.
Tallness or shortness also make a difference in the treatment one receives in life; people react to a taller man as if he automatically had more authority, and studies have indicated that a man over six feet tall may reasonably expect to earn several thousand dollars a year more than an otherwise identically qualified executive. It may not be fair, but often it works that way.
Though you can't do a great deal to change your height and body type, you can influence other aspects of your