Human mass

The mass contained in a person's body is usually considered as one of the main physical attributes of that person. Along with body height and skin color, the attribute of body mass is, I believe, a main physical descriptor for human beings. As with most physical descriptors, this attribute presents a strong correlation with many psychological and social factors in a person's life. All the cultures which I have experienced so far perceive body mass as a determinant factor of the body's, and transitively of the person's, quality.

As can be observed in a massive part of current media, "attractive" body images are commonly portrayed on the most visible part of their publications, presumably as "bait" for "potential consumers" to be attracted to the "bait" and obtain the related product. It is a very well-known fact that most of these "attractive" body images share many physical attributes. Most "ideal" female images seem to share uniformly-styled hair and smooth, terse skin under optional pieces of clothing, suggesting a sense of grace and delicacy and a low body mass. The "ideal" male image, though less widely exhibited, seems to include short hair, terse skin, angular corners, visibly strong torso muscles, athletic figure, and a pair of jeans. Despite suggesting a higher body mass than the female "ideal" image, it still suggests keeping a low body mass through the terse skin and tight figure.

I focus this entry on body mass because it differs from the other physical attributes, such as body height and skin color, in one very important factor: body mass can easily change throughout the person's life. More importantly, it changes due to the person's behavior, as a direct cause of physics and physiology. And the fact that people are able to change it is what makes it such a widespread and popular topic among all geographical and social strati (Note that skin color and body height are not as highly-shared attributes in the portrayed "ideal" images as is body mass). Try entering these, or related, search strings into Google and read the first matches for each: "body mass", "body height", "skin color". Which of the entries brought up highlighted, commercial search results? Which didn't? Can you guess why? Why is "diet" related to "body mass"? Explain in 256 words or less.

It is no secret that fat kids get made fun of. Yes, they are. Children usually still openly express their perceptions, unknowing or uncaring for others' offense and suffering. And although social "education" does a pretty good job at obfuscating people's comments related to other people's body mass, it hasn't come so far as to completely hide such an obvious physical attribute. Thus, body mass is still quite a determinant factor in many psychosocial interactions. Most obvious and most popular, sexual attraction towards a person can drastically fluctuate due to changes (most noticeably downward due to mass increases) in the body mass of that person.

Following the highly popular Darwinian theory of evolution, it is only natural for heavier people to be less sexually attractive than their lighter (but still healthy) counterparts. Efficiency plays a major role in (arguably) all of any given specimen's features. The amount of resources available to any specimen, be it food, water, territory, money, or internal body energy, will always be limited, and the ability of maximizing the utility of these limited resources (also called efficiency, which I mean here of both time and energy) is what allows a specimen to extend their lives and, by doing so, more probably reproduce more and more variedly. (In this time of abundant resources (I write only from my own experience - I know there are many places in the world in which resources are not as abundant) and technology, these premises may lose validity (surely economists and evolutionists have discussed this in much more detail somewhere else), but this argument only tries to describe our genetic imperative, which has very probably influenced us for a much longer time than has our current time's exception case).

I think, then, that heavier people appear less sexually attractive because they suggest a comparatively lower efficiency. Let H be a person who weighs, say, 1.5 times as much as a person L. Now consider L and H performing the same kind of movement, such as walking. Say they both walk 1 km each. The energy which L must have used to perform this is significantly much less than the energy H used (I would guess around 1.5 times less).

Hey, it's 4:20! (Random comment).

So L is more efficient than H at moving, in general. Wouldn't he be more efficient at doing mostly everything, then? It's like driving a Yaris instead of a Hummer every day. Of course, it's arguable that a Hummer can go to more places than a Yaris can, but in the most general use case (people transport), both can accomplish the objective with no difficulty, with the only difference that the Hummer burns quite a bit more fuel than the Yaris does.

Hey, it's 4:29! (Random treap).

So now that I've stated this redundant example, I state again: it's only natural for heavier people to appear less sexually attractive than lighter people. Besides efficiency, the possibility of movements available to a lighter person is more varied, and in Life, as with hypothesis spaces, a wider availability of possibilities more probably produces richer and "better" results. (And Life, unlike hypothesis spaces, contains the (I believe) non-deterministic factor of Will, which more probably produces these "better" results).

Hey, it's 4:39! (Random variable).

How is the "ideal" image of a person's success related to body mass, then? Does it necessarily contain the "ideal" body? I mean, can a heavier-than-necessary person consider him/herself totally successful, regardless of his/her other accomplishments in life? Picture yourself in your ideal life - imagine anything you want to, any place, any time, around any kind of company, with any kind of occupation, with any possessions... in which kind of body would you rather live that ideal life? In a supermodel-like, triathlonist-style body or similar, or in a categorically heavier one? In this ideal life, would you change your skin color? Would you change your face for someone else's? What made you come to this decision? What is it that differentiates body mass from height and skin color, then, and what effects does this have on common human psychosocial behavior? Write down your answer in conjuctive canonical form.

P.S: No offense meant to people with body of any height or mass, skin of any color or thickness, or supporters of any soccer team. To soccer team supporters, howevers, I do suggest considering other activities as alternatives to soccer match attendance and shouting. As I said, no offense meant.