David von Drehle writes that our obsession with physical appearance may not be so shallow. It’s a nice essay on the (eternal) issues of society, beauty, and self-image:

Critics sometimes refer longingly to earlier times, when Rubensesque nudes and Marilyn Monroe bombshells rang the beauty bell without starving themselves. When I really studied those earlier pictures, though, it struck me that the issue isn’t really weight, but maturity. Something similar appears in the Greek and Roman marbles. Older gods remained fit and powerful, but their bodies were broader and fleshier; Zeus wasn’t trying to fit into the same jeans he wore when he was Mercury’s age.