Holy shit, these look like they might actually be "sans makeup" shots instead of the usual "no makeup... ...except concealer, foundation, eyeliner, mascara, and some coloured lipgloss" "sans makeup" shots we usually get from celebrities.

18.5 is generally considered the start of the "normal" BMI range, but 18.0-18.4 is borderline (I have a BMI in that range as well, and my doctor said it isn't a problem unless I lose more weight). Sub-18 is where health risks start to show up.

That's old data; Mexico is now number one, and many other countries on that list have gained dramatically on the US since then.

Oh, the US hasn't been the country with the highest percentage of obesity for a while now, friend.

Eh, "fat" means something slightly different in Japan than in most American populations, both socially and in terms of ramifications for health (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiol…). We tend to be shocked by what they'd consider "fat", they'd be shocked by what we consider "normal".

It was a running joke at my university that the Philosophy department was the Women's Studies department for men: you went there because you hated the opposite sex, but both groups wound up working at Starbucks.

I thought the io9 had an article on a study that showed that we all have pretty much the same nightmares: falling, being chased, losing our teeth, being humiliated in public, etc.

Straight woman who enjoys gay porn here. I've been watching it since I first discovered it at age 15 on Napster (remember that, kids?).

Six bucks for a daiquiri is ridiculous enough (and reminds me of why I rarely went clubbing) but yeah seriously, six bucks for strawberry juice?

And yet, every Japanese person I know will admit the difference between "classical" (Sakoku) beauty and "modern" (post-Restoration) beauty if the eyes (narrow/tilted -> wide) and chin (round/broad —> narrow/pointed). You can literally see this in paintings and photographs of great beauties pre-Restoration (that I've…

notion that there were foreigners everywhere during the early part of the Meiji Era is simply incorrect

This has happened in just about every couple I've ever seen, yeah. The woman still feels social pressure to stay thin, the man doesn't and now that he's not trying to attract a mate it's 100% Fuck It Time.

making the claim that new tanned look is trying to look like polynesian

Well, seeing as how there really weren't cameras in Japan before that...

Eh, I'd be more convinced if you used pictures of what were considered beautiful women prior to the Meiji Era, where Westernization was broadly encouraged, a Western aesthetic was widely copied, and some intellectuals even advocated marrying European women to make them "paler" and "taller".

From what my (smaller) friends would tell me about how men approached them and acted around them, often phrased as a complaint. It was the kind of thing that never really happened to me. As for date-counting, well, hahah, like a lot of high school and college aged girlfriends we told each other about all the dates we…

I had the same experience being a tall woman and re: shorter female friends. Men just never seemed as threatening or imposing to me as they did to them. They also, I found, treated me differently. I'd get just as many dates, but the men who went about it were a lot more respectful.

I remember those with a fond eye roll whenever someone flies off the handle about a man's stated physical preference in weight/breast size/etc. and how unfaaaaaiiiir and awwwfullll and constructed by sociiiiiiety that is.

Does anyone else literally not have underboob or am I alone over here in Epic Flatland?

Yeah I was about to say the same thing :/ The lack of "she's a liar!" and "she just wants attention!" and "I bet it was consensual but now she's changed her mind/regrets it, the slut!" was absolutely flooring me until I noticed the pronouns in the article.