Mistress Judith (was Re: Butler on Spivak)

Rakesh Bhandari bhandari at phoenix.princeton.edu
Mon Nov 22 07:57:30 PST 1999



>oh please roger. take a look at that picture. she's thin as a rail and
>has fairly devloped muscles --which means she pumping some iron at least.
>which means she's trying to adhere to the contemporary standard of physical
>beauty for women--lean mean muscle machine. you can have all the fitness
>and health you want and you *don't * have to carve your body into rippled,
>msucles like that to be physically fit.

Hardly thin as a rail, I have been pumping iron this year (got up to over 200lbs on my 2x 15 bench press reps and close to 400lbs on my leg press curls; I do a total of about 15 machines three times a week). I don't do it all for how it makes me appear to others (indeed the idea of lifting weights has always sort of repulsed me); rather it has been a superb way for me to beat off depression that comes from a mild hypothyroid condition, itself the result probably of stress to which weights are a good antidote. Older women are most at risk for hypothyroidism, so it may not be a bad idea to lift weights instead of dosing oneself up on anti depressants. And lift with your walkman playing Africando, a fine Senegalse salsa band! But it's true you gotta run and get that cardiovascular exercise (jogging, swimming, treadmill, cross trainer, strenuous sex) in for the precise reasons Roger has stated. The weights really only make you feel or look good. But no need to lift to make ripples. Just do lotsa of reps. To the health of the left business observers everywhere!

Yours, Rakesh



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