It seems to me the more interesting question is, why is it empowering to do in the home what most of us would never want to do as a career? And what kind of empowerment is it, really, whose denouement is getting approval from a man vs. from by yourself, from yourself? And is it a double standard for men to enjoy it in said home, with a woman they respect, than for them to enjoy it when it's an anonymous stranger that they find hot, sure, but probably wouldn't want marrying their son with the oh-so-bright future (or, at least, would have quite a few reservations that, hot body or no, the stripper isn't some scheming gold digger, even if she is only stripping to 'work her way through college'). Answering these questions would have made this article a pretty cool investigation into the psychology of sex and empowerment, whether atop the pole or in the chair. As it is, it's sort of a petite four of a piece - a quick, sweet but non-nourishing bite forgotten as soon as it's swallowed.

Pretty difficult to do,isn't it? Is that because there are none - everyone is either super-slim (Calista Flockhart, Kate Bosworth, Natalie Portman) or heavy (Oprah, Camryn Manheim, Kirstie Ally etc). Or is it because we don't use the word normal anymore? Does our reluctance to have a midpoint between 'thin' and 'fat' have anything to do with the fact that women are more and more likely to weigh in at the poles, and not at the average? Do women even *be* normal weight? Why be something that gets no attention, after all?

I think that Kate Winslet is normal looking ....but she is derided as fat by the glitterati. Thin Cameron Diaz gets hot Jude Law in their latest movie, while normal, gorgeous Kate Winslet with her Botticelli Venus' face is paired with...Jack Black, who is funny, sure, but way too chunky and homely for a woman like Kate. At a normal weight, Kate's characters aren't allowed to hold their men to standards of beauty - they settle.

The director of Titanic dubbed her Kate "Weighs A Lot". She's actually probably thin in real life, and the camera bulks her up to normal. Rachel Weisz also strikes me as normal weight.

Whatever happened to avrerage/normal weight? Even on the dating sites, men demand 'thin' or 'slender' (those that are brave enough to specify a body type, that is). No one says "I'd like a nice average weight person." Many women are downright offended if you call them 'average' rather than thin/skinny/slender.

What ever happened to just normal, average weight?