The Daily Mail: You want heavier? I'll show you heavier! The Daily Mail applauded Jean Paul Gaultier's decision to put a size 20 model on the runway in response to recent controversy surrounding Karl Lagerfeld's ectomorphic models. But was the display of flesh a slap in the ass to the concave-butted industry, or a subtle flab-you to those who had complained? The appearance of a plus-size model who fairly spills out of her black corsetry and lingerie makes Gaultier's motivations look seriously suspect. A size 10, 12 or 14 could have made the point, but this big-is-beautiful statement next to all the other starving "professionals" smacks of carnival sideshow. As one Mail reader put it, "If Mr. Gaultier was trying to make a point, the only thing that he achieved is to show how an adult can behave like a little silly boy."
New York Times: Some Chinese daughters aren't even free when they're dead -- arranged marriage continues into the afterlife. From the aren't-they-different world beat, the Times reports on the Loess Plateau in China, where families of dead sons arrange for marriages with families of dead daughters, and bury the girls' corpses alongside the sons'.
Los Angeles Times: How does the saying go? "Our Bodies, Our Rocket Fuel"? Oops, I guess it's not such a good idea after all! Perchlorate, a rocket-fuel chemical that has leached into our food, well water and breast milk, has long been a battleground between environmentalists and the aerospace industry (along with the Pentagon), which has lobbied against the Environmental Protection Agency's limiting perchlorate levels in drinking water. Until recently, studies of the chemical hadn't shown that low levels caused significant health risks. But there was a problem: Most of the studies involved only male subjects. Now the Times reports on a study on women. As it turns out, the chemical is linked to thyroid deficiency in women, a disorder that can cause hypothyroidism and abnormal brain development in fetuses.
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