It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to claim that we live in a physical world. While it is still objectively true (disregarding the possibility that we’re currently in the matrix), almost all of our daily processes, our reputations, and our jobs are dependent on the many virtual realities we find ourselves engrossed in. But, what about the physical world? It almost seems like the only aspects of life that thrive on the physical things nowadays are the necessities like energy, housing and transportation, or the advancement of hardware that brings us closer to living in a virtual reality. What about the advancement of the human body? I can only imagine that the average person from 2025 would get their ass kicked by the average person from even just 1925. Don’t get me started on a dude from thousands of years ago. Not only that, but I bet those people would be more attractive as well. I bet they didn’t struggle with infertility or had to avoid gluten either. Being physically ept isn’t just about being able to open the jar of pickles or to assert your status in virtual reality. It has massive implications that reach far beyond the conversation of “natty or not.”

The term “sexy” has been overused and incorrectly used, at least in normal social settings. But those are the settings that drive culture. Therefore, instead of “sexy” referring to a person’s ability to procreate - an all-encompassing term that includes physical fitness, inferences to a person’s cardio-respiratory state, diet, muscle mass, psychological state, strength, cognitive ability, proclivity to have a family and support it, even dipping into the possibility of projecting values and principles, essentially a better term for “healthy” - it simply brings associations like “lingerie, perfume commercials, and porn” to mind. You don’t have to be in the physical upper echelon of people on earth in order to procreate, but you do have to maintain a certain bar of overall health. And that bar, respectively, is getting higher by the day. Every single system and pathway of your physical being contributes to that ability. Most perceivable attributes of a person point to this ability in a person, even down to the more subtle things like your gait, mannerisms, breathing patterns, and tongue color. Obviously there are exceptions and unfortunate circumstances that can cause a person to lose their ability to procreate that aren’t entirely dependent on their choices affecting their health, but as of now those are still statistically secondary. We may have to reconvene on those statistics in a few years. Regardless, the point still remains that the qualities that make a person “sexy” are also the qualities that point to a very well rounded human being. And again, it’s not just about intercourse or what you could bench press in high school.

The next time you get bored, look up statistics on how well attractive people do in the workplace in both getting jobs as well as their performance. There’s a reason cliché’s exist (because they’re true), and one of the oldest in the book is the pretty girl getting whatever she wants. But why is this the case? We can speculate, and many experts on this topic have. But in my humble opinion, it simply boils down to how we view health in a different light. In my lifetime alone, the amount of open discourse on the subject of people’s bodies has decreased dramatically. Referring to fat people as “fat” is now a hate crime. I’m not advocating for bullying, but I’m not sure that this dampening of rhetoric that elicits shame has been a net positive. Even if people refrain from talking about your body in front of you, they still treat you differently. When was the last time someone asked you to help them move? Hit the links? Play pickleball? Go to the gym, for crying out loud? Human perception is an extremely complex phenomenon, as we’ve discussed in MMM on multiple occasions, and the beauty (or lack) of people’s bodies have a huge impact on how we view other’s character, identities, and souls.

No matter how great an effect a societal shame can have on this subject, I can’t subscribe to prejudice. As there are exceptions in everything, just because a person is clearly not physically fit does not mean they aren’t an exceptional human on the inside. Humans are resilient, if nothing else. Some of the most impactful of us throughout history have had terrible eating habits, physiques, substance issues and even physically incapacitated. That’s why I believe that the right steps moving forward are not to shame those who are struggling, but to highlight those who have understood this implicitly. Not idolize, but to promote their decision-making, inquire about their processes and encourage their healthy - or sexy - habits. A fantastic example of this is an Instagram account I came across recently that I can’t recommend enough. Enjoy… and invite a friend to the gym.