Pleasingly Plump, Part 1: Nonfiction

How often today do you hear a woman described as “pleasingly plump”? Never, because this is the “Fitness Generation.” In the past, a woman could be heavy (or zoftig), but today overweight women are just plain fat, ugly, and unhealthy. Even the euphemism “overweight” means “unhealthy.” It comes from “over the weight for maximum life expectancy”—or over the ideal weight determined by life insurance companies—and has extremely negative connotations itself.