Global Courant
Welcome to the era of the muscular billionaire
Is it because they know that many people hate them? Are they afraid that a revolution is coming? Are they preparing for an apocalyptic future where AI goes rogue and they have to fight robots with their bare hands? Is that why billionaires have become so obsessed with being buff?
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You may have noticed that a number of billionaires can’t stop showing off their muscles. I’ve seen Jeff Bezos’ bare chest way more times than I’d like (and that’s zero times) because the Amazon founder always seems to be shirtless on a yacht. Okay, Jeff, we get it. You have a six pack. You look like you can crush walnuts with your buttocks. Very impressive. What about now pay a little more tax?
Bezos’ transformation from weedy e-commerce nerd to dollar store Vin Diesel seems to have inspired his peers. Mark Zuckerberg definitely hit the gym: Last week, the Facebook founder celebrated Memorial Day by “the Murph challenge‘, an intense workout where you put on a 20-pound vest and do 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and a mile-long run. He did it in just under 40 minutes, an elite time. A few weeks before bragging about his Murph time, Zuckerberg revealed that he had won gold and silver in a Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament. Apparently he got into jiu-jitsu during the pandemic, while we lesser mortals were baking bread and watching Netflix.
It’s not just that Zuck and Bezos are sweating. We are in “the age of the buff mogul”, the New York Post declared last year. “Ripped abs are the new power trip for CEOs,” El País has stated. “Billionaires are buff these days‘ the Guardian recently noted. The size of your biceps has become as much a status symbol these days as the size of your bank balance.
There are many reasons for this, including the obsession of the tech world biohacking and treat the human body as if it were a machine that can be optimized. More generally, we live in an image-obsessed culture that has led to a increase in body image problems in boys and young men. Muscle has always been associated with masculinity, but in recent decades there has been a shift in male ideals of beauty: the ideal male figure has become a lot bigger and more difficult to reach.
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A 2006 studyfound that for example action figures have become more muscular in the past 25 years. “The increase in action figure size may contribute to the multifactorial development of an idealized body type that focuses on a lean, muscular physique,” the researchers wrote. Related research from 2018 found that both boys and girls “prefer hyper-muscled male action figures to normal-muscled action figures: (e) evidence that children have internalized the ideal of the muscular male body”.
Superheroes have also gotten bigger. As a health writer Sarah Berry pointed it outHugh Jackman’s 2000 Wolverine was a lot less ripped than his most recent portrayal of the character: “Over the years, Jackman’s physique has changed so much that his original Wolverine now seems downright doughy.”
None of this is to say that Bezos and Zuckerberg have body image issues — just that the rise of muscular billionaires should be seen in the broader context of a more muscular definition of masculinity. Even tech titans seem to have internalized the idea that bigger is always better. At least when it comes to everything except the amount of your tax bill.
If you want to reduce female and infant mortality, give them money
A new study published in Nature has discovered … wait for it … that when you give poor people money, their lives usually improve. An analysis of the effects of cash grants in 37 countries found that cash remittance programs led to female deaths fall by 20%, and deaths among children under five declining by 8%.
Blind women help detect breast cancer in India
A program is training women with a visual impairment to become medical tactile examiners and provide routine breast cancer screenings to more women in India.
American women are more likely than men to skip or delay taking medications because of cost
An annual survey by the CDC found that about one in 10 Americans was not taking a prescription medication by 2021 to save money. More women than men skipped their medication: 9.1% versus 7%.
Fox wants to protect children from gay Pride, but not from abusers in the Catholic Church
A analysis of Media Matters found Fox News covering more than two hours of Target selling some LGBTQ+ merchandise for Pride month. “For comparison, Fox reported just 22 seconds on the recent Illinois Attorney General’s report that Catholic Church clergy and religious lay brothers had abused nearly 2,000 children in the state since 1950.”
China is seeing a boom in AI-generated fashion models
No prizes for guessing these digital models have small waists and huge breasts. “Many Chinese women say they find the images disturbing — and fear AI fashion will reinforce toxic, unrealistic beauty standards,” reports English-language Chinese media outlet Sixth Tone. “The ‘male gaze’ for AI models is certainly a problem,” notes one expert.
Ghanaian writer and academic Ama Ata Aidoo has died at the age of 81
Ata Aidoo was a pioneer, but not a household name. “I really think one of the reasons she’s not as well known as I think she should be is because she’s a woman,” said author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on a Guardian books podcast. “And a lot of her work is very much about women… She not only writes about women, but she also writes truthfully about women… when you have people who are the tastemakers of literature, and when they can’t absorb what you talk, then it becomes difficult for you to be well known.”
The week in the potato archive
Fans of Scandinavian noir have a weird new Scandinavian mystery to sink their teeth into: the case of the spilled potatoes. A lorry driver has been arrested after loads of potatoes were strewn over a major bridge connecting two Danish islands. Was it an accident? Was it a protest against new traffic laws? Nobody knows. “It looks weird”, said a police spokesperson. No doubt they will quickly penetrate to the core.
