Is "shallow" or "superficial" used to describe LA by those who don't care about being stylish and slim? (Merced: low cost, wealthy)

[L1985111]

I am stylish and slim and I AGREE with anyone that says LA is superficial and shallow!

[7stringguitarguy]

im kind of biased on this one ,because i tend to dislike yuppie culture , because i don't fit personally. ( growing up in malibu a majority of my life and watching the town change culturally). So I would say yes in los angeles , but in other places im not sure, its probably the same...

[BarcelonaFan]

I am on the fence too because the yuppie culture in LA is completely unbearable sometimes and the showing off one's body and looks is not subtle at all. It is what makes (West) LA unique from other cities around the country. Other people in other cities are a bit more subtle about wanting to show off but here it's almost disrespectful and annoying how blatantly obvious some people can be about wanting to flaunt.

I am not a hater in the slightest though. I am slim and somewhat fit but if I had a rock hard bod and the style to boot I would show it off but I guess growing up outside of LA I would feel awkward about just putting myself out there like that.

It's like that restraint is just completely gone in certain parts of LA almost as though the bronzed greek statute of a man with the sleeve tattoo, the green soled Nike shoes, jogging with his shirt off and listening to his music on his I-Phone 5 entering the Jamba Juice all sweaty just has no shame, LOL.

It's just a city where if you're rich, pretty and fit you can do whatever ridiculous thing you want, literally it's haute culture much like the lengths ridiculous excess ghetto fab culture can reach. Same thing.

But yes, I do think part of the hate is a bit of envy I admit but I don't think it's as largest part of it.

[PDF]

There's nothing shallow about being healthy.

[BarcelonaFan]

Originally Posted by PDF

There's nothing shallow about being healthy.

It's not all healthy. Sometimes I see women that clearly do too much cardio not enough weight training, have loose skin, and avoid carbs like the plague. Yet, they still wear fitted clothing and hit the treadmill like it's the only machine at the gym.

So there is a vapid culture surrounding the "health conscious" and it has more to do with looking fit rather than being fit. It's obviously not prevalent with everyone but there are significant few where you can tell do it simply for the image. Some do it completely wrong too.

That is just a habit in our overall national culture though; to do stuff because the majoriy don't do it and we can feel good about ourselves for being unlike the rest.

[Tinawina]

Originally Posted by PDF

There's nothing shallow about being healthy.

I would say a place like Denver has a culture that's more about being healthy. LA's culture is about being skinny and status-conscious. It's not the same thing.

[BarcelonaFan]

Originally Posted by Tinawina

I would say a place like Denver has a culture that's more about being healthy. LA's culture is about being skinny and status-conscious. It's not the same thing.

Bingo! Said it better in less words than I did. Thank you

[moonsparkle]

Most everyone's main motivation for working out is looking better (regardless of city), at least for younger people. Maybe in LA they're a little more obvious about it.

[jm1982]

Good point, and how many of those skinny people are anorexic or bulimic or smoke or drink a lot or use drugs...

None of those things are healthy...

I know I need to work out more, but it would be for both I guess...I'd lean more towards being/feeling healthy ..versus just 'looking healthy"

I was thinking about this the other day seeing people work out at the park. There was a 'boot camp' type thing going on..I wondered if the people just wanted to "look healthy" or they want to actually be healthy.

[BarcelonaFan]

There are some that just want to look skinny, others that are really into health and a lot more who use is as status symbol to look better than their neighbor. I don't know why this is so hard to believe for some people.

Sometimes I am really shocked at how naive people are to just think that people really do things out of the love for it or the benefits of something with no motive to increase your status in life. There are people that do it for the love of things and there are a lot more who do it for the status, money or social benefits. Why is this such a hard concept to grasp?