20. To paraphrase Catherine Deneuve: You have to choose your fanny or your face

It's one thing to be in shape, but quite another to be a silhouette. And by the way, this applies to men as much as it does to women. At least three shows on T.V. this past week featured guys in their 40s who used to be hot, but have now become manorexic. What happened? Am I just old-fashioned for preferring my men not to have an eating disorder?

Actually, I dated a guy when I was in my 20s who, after every meal, would get up from the table and disappear to the bathroom for at least fifteen minutes. It took me years until I put the pieces together and had that "Oh, yeah!" moment. It wasn't as pervasive then, though he would look in the mirror and proclaim how fat he was (which even in my denyeverylittlebadthingabouttheguyI'mseeing frame of mind was a jump out), but I just chalked that up to his being an actor. Hey, I thought I was fat too. What girl in her 20s didn't?

To stay on point, though, Catherine Deneuve was right. Once you get to a certain age, and of course that varies, you need a few extra pounds. People argue about this because of all the options there are now that didn't exist when Ms. Deneuve made that statement: Restylane, Botox, surgery, etc., but the options can be dangerous. Of course, a little here and a little there is fine, it's even refreshing. But the problem is, people do too much of it.

Did you know that, according to some studies, forty-two percent of girls in 1st - 3rd grade want to be thinner, and eighty-one percent of 10-year-old girls have restricted their food intake so as to be thinner? It's not just girls; boys account for five - ten percent of anorexia and bulimia cases. I find that horrifying.

I also find it horrifying that if this keeps up, in 40 years Western Civilization is going to look like the set of the movie "Brazil". And yes, this is the second time I've used that reference in recent history, but is there a better one?