More men are developing form 2 diabetes. I knew I was at risk, but I required a nudge, writes Neil Boom, managing director of Gresham PR
Men, be advised. It seems we are not taking very good care of ourselves. Many of us are overweight and we are paying the price with poorer health. Research by charity the Men’s Health Forum detected humen were over 25% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than females. Shockingly, virtually one in 10 humen are now suffering from this disease.
The research also found that men were more than twice as likely to have a major amputation. Almost 70% of people presenting with a foot ulcer caused by type 2 diabetes are humen. It get grimmer. Untreated, type 2 diabetes kills, and it is now killing proportionately more humen than ever, according to the study.
We can’t ignore the facts that health messages are not getting through to many humen. We are developing problems such as type 2 diabetes through a combination of obesity- apparently the UK is the sixth fattest nation in the world- and a woeful absence of exercising. In March, the NHS’s annual review of obesity said one in four adults in England took less than 30 minutes of moderate exercising a week, compared to the recommended 150 minutes.
Is being overweight abruptly socially acceptable for men? Without the social stigma, is it now OK to be obese? Worryingly, Men’s Health Forum says that more than half of overweight men think their weight is fine.
We are all too familiar with the social pressures on girls and women to be slim( and beautiful ), and how this causes crippling anxiety leading to terrible eating disorder and self-harm. Surely, men can choose a healthy menu that avoids obesity, leading to poor health, without a diet of weight preoccupation leading to sickness?
What the report didn’t reveal was datum relating to men’s ages or social backgrounds. It strikes me the vital missing ingredient is the extent to which our stances to health and weight depend on our friendship groups, ages and jobs. A friend I train with at the gym plays weekly five-a-side football with his mates and says they’re all fit and take their health and fitness seriously. None are overweight.
Most of my friends are middle aged like me. As we have got older, we’ve become much more concerned about our weight and general health and fitness. Still, there’s usually some sort of catalyst before embarking on a weight loss and exercising regime. We all knew and understood the health messages, but needed a spur to action before taking them seriously.
For one, for whom diabetes runs in his family, it was coming last in the daddies’ race at his son’s school athletics day that spurred him to taken any steps. Another friend was prescribed drug for high blood pressure and started to lose weight to help better manage his condition. A friend who freelances for a living said his spur was the need to look youthful and in good physical shape when pitching for projects, in order to radiate vitality and demonstrate capacity to cope with the slog. For another mate, it was simply the approach of a significant birthday, and with it a bit of taking stock.
My catalyst was the kindness of male friends, by which I mean they took the mickey out me for being fat and unfit. In my late 30 s and early 40 s my weight had increased slowly. By my mid-4 0s it had jumped from a lithe 12 stone to a porky 15.5, and was proving no signs of stopping there. Long hours at my desk and client networking concentrated around eating and drinking, combined with little routine exert had caught up with me. A health check at the doctor’s told me I was at risk of kind 2 diabetes.
It was truly the comments from friends that forced me ultimately into to action. One of my more kindly mates remarked that I was a little portly. Others were frankly blunter. Bluster and jokes are fairly typical ways that men get serious phases over, but behind it I could see some genuine concern for my welfare.
I received pleasure in a drastic life change. For eight months, out went all booze, bread, pasta, rice and sugary treats such as chocolate, biscuits and cake. In came working, regular trip-ups to the gym with a personal trainer, smaller food portions and lots more fruit and salads. The weight fell off.
We all agree that media messages promoting us to eat healthily and exert on the whole have gone in. Yet a catalyst is often needed to turn guessed into action.
More men are developing kind 2 diabetes. I knew I was at risk, but I required a nudge, writes Neil Boom, managing director of Gresham PR
Men, be alerted. It seems we are not taking very good care of ourselves. Many of us are overweight and we are paying the price with poorer health. Research by charity the Men’s Health Forum received men were over 25% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than females. Shockingly, nearly one in ten men are now suffering from this cancer.
The research also found that humen were more than twice as likely to have a major amputation. Almost 70% of people presenting with a foot ulcer caused by type 2 diabetes are men. It gets grimmer. Untreated, type 2 diabetes kills, and it is now killing proportionately more men than ever, according to the study.
We can’t ignore the facts that health messages are not getting through to many humen. We are developing problems such as type 2 diabetes through a combination of obesity- apparently the UK is the sixth fattest nation in the world- and a woeful lack of exert. In March, the NHS’s annual review of obesity said one in four adults in England took less than 30 minutes of moderate exercising a week, compared to the recommended 150 minutes.
Is being overweight abruptly socially acceptable for men? Without the social stigma, is it now OK to be obese? Worryingly, Men’s Health Forum says that more than half of overweight humen guess their weight is fine.
We are all too familiar with the social pressures on girls and women to be slim( and beautiful ), and how this causes crippling nervousnes leading to terrible eating disorder and self-harm. Surely, men can choose a healthy menu that avoids obesity, leading to poor health, without a diet of weight obsession leading to sickness?
What the report didn’t reveal was info relating to men’s ages or social backgrounds. It strikes me the vital missing ingredient is the extent to which our attitudes to health and weight depend on our friendship groups, ages and jobs. A friend I train with at the gym plays weekly five-a-side football with his mates and says they’re all fit and take their health and fitness seriously. None are overweight.
Most of my friends are middle aged like me. As we have got older, we’ve become much more worried about our weight and general health and fitness. Still, there’s usually some sort of catalyst before embarking on a weight loss and exert regime. We all knew and understood the health messages, but required a spur to action before taking them seriously.
For one, for whom diabetes runs in his family, it was coming last in the papas’ race at his son’s school sports day that spurred him to take action. Another friend was prescribed medication for high blood pressure and started to lose weight to assist better manage his condition. A friend who freelances for a living said his spur was the need to look youthful and in good physical shape when pitching for projects, in order to radiate vitality and demonstrate capability to cope with the slog. For another mate, it was simply the approach of a significant birthday, and with it a little bit of taking stock.
My catalyst was the kindness of male friends, by which I mean they took the mickey out me for being fat and unfit. In my late 30 s and early 40 s my weight had increased slowly. By my mid-4 0s it had jumped from a lithe 12 stone to a porky 15.5, and was showing no signs of stopping there. Long hours at my desk and client networking concentrated around eating and drinking, combined with little routine workout had caught up with me. A health check at the doctor’s told me I was at risk of type 2 diabetes.
It was truly the comments from friends that forced me eventually into to action. One of my more kindly mates remarked that I was a little portly. Others were candidly blunter. Bluster and jokes are fairly typical routes that men get serious phases over, but behind it I could see some genuine fear for my welfare.
I procured pleasure in a drastic life change. For eight months, out ran all booze, bread, pasta, rice and sugary treats such as chocolate, biscuits and cake. In came work, regular journeys to the gym with a personal trainer, smaller food portions and plenties more fruit and salads. The weight fell off.
We all agree that media messages fostering us to eat healthily and exercise on the whole have gone in. Yet a catalyst is often needed to turn believed into action.
More men are developing form 2 diabetes. I knew I was at risk, but I required a nudge, writes Neil Boom, managing director of Gresham PR
Men, be warned. It seems we are not taking very good care of ourselves. Many of us are overweight and we are paying the cost with poorer health. Research by charity the Men’s Health Forum procured humen were over 25% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than girls. Shockingly, nearly one in 10 humen are now suffering from this illnes.
The research also found that men were more than twice as likely to have a major amputation. Almost 70% of people presenting with a foot ulcer caused by type 2 diabetes are men. It gets grimmer. Untreated, type 2 diabetes kills, and it is now killing proportionately more men than ever, according to the study.
We can’t ignore the facts that health messages are not getting through to many humen. We are developing problems such as type 2 diabetes through a combination of obesity- apparently the UK is the sixth fattest nation in the world- and a woeful lack of workout. In March, the NHS’s annual review of obesity said one in four adults in England took less than 30 minutes of moderate exercising a week, compared to the recommended 150 minutes.
Is being overweight abruptly socially acceptable for men? Without the social stigma, is it now OK to be obese? Worryingly, Men’s Health Forum says that more than half of overweight humen suppose their weight is fine.
We are all too familiar with the social pressures on girls and women to be slim( and beautiful ), and how this causes crippling anxiety leading to terrible eating disorder and self-harm. Surely, humen can choose a healthy menu that avoids obesity, leading to poor health, without a diet of weight obsession leading to sickness?
What the report didn’t reveal was info relating to men’s ages or social backgrounds. It strikes me the vital missing ingredient is the extent to which our stances to health and weight depend on our friendship groups, ages and jobs. A friend I train with at the gym plays weekly five-a-side football with his mates and says they’re all fit and take their own health and fitness severely. None are overweight.
Most of my friends are middle aged like me. As we have got older, we’ve become much more worried about our weight and general health and fitness. Still, there’s usually some sort of catalyst before embarking on a weight loss and exercising regime. We all knew and understood the health messages, but needed a spur to action before taking them seriously.
For one, for whom diabetes runs in his family, it was coming last in the dads’ race at his son’s school sports day that spurred him to take action. Another friend was prescribed drug for high blood pressure and started to lose weight to assist better manage his condition. A friend who freelances for a living said his spur was the need to look youthful and in good physical shape when pitching for projects, in order to radiate vitality and demonstrate capacity to cope with the plod. For another mate, it was simply the approach of a significant birthday, and with it a bit of taking stock.
My catalyst was the kindness of male friends, by which I mean they took the mickey out me for being fat and unfit. In my late 30 s and early 40 s my weight had increased slowly. By my mid-4 0s it had jumped from a lithe 12 stone to a porky 15.5, and was presenting no signs of stopping there. Long hours at my desk and client networking concentrated around eating and drinking, be included with little routine workout had caught up with me. A health check at the doctor’s told me I was at risk of type 2 diabetes.
It was actually the comments from friends that forced me ultimately into to action. One of my more kindly mates remarked that I was a little portly. Others were candidly blunter. Bluster and gags are pretty typical ways that humen get serious phases over, but behind it I could detect some genuine concern for my welfare.
I received pleasure in a drastic life change. For eight months, out ran all booze, bread, pasta, rice and sugary treats such as chocolate, biscuits and cake. In arrived work, regular journeys to the gym with a personal trainer, smaller food portions and plenties more fruit and salads. The weight fell off.
We all agree that media messages fostering us to eat healthily and exert on the whole have gone in. Yet a catalyst is often needed to turn supposed into action.
The vibrators long, slow procession from taboo to mainstream( and maybe even cool) has been all about figuring out what exactly women want
Consider the humble vibrator. Invented as a medical device in the 19 th century, it has gone on to become a Mad Men plot line, a Sexuality and the City tie-in, a celebrity talking phase and a feminist cause.
Not merely are vibrators not invisible, theyre hardly even avoidable. New vibrators are unveiled to the frightened public at TechCrunch seminars. They are reviewed on Gizmodo. They comprise valid talking points for celebrities, including Barbara Walters.( Walters named hers selfie, Alicia Silverstone endorses eco-friendly vibrators, Beyonces is allegedly gold-plated and Maggie Gyllenhaal claims an incredible collect .) High-end companies marketplace them as luxury products. One 2012 survey found that 52. 5% of women use them, whether alone or with a partner, and that women who use vibrators were actually more likely to take care of their sex health by going to the gynecologist for regular quizs.
Its odd to acknowledge this, but vibrators may have gone way beyond not being shameful. They may simply be cool.
Its been a strange road to this phase. For one thing: vibrators, despite their generally positive connotations today, were not invented out of some solely benevolent desire to give women orgasms.
The electric vibrator was actually fabricated by a British physician in the 1880 s to treat nervous conditions of various kinds in both men and women, tells Lynn Comella, associate prof of gender and sexuality studies at the University of Nevada, whos currently completing a volume on the subject.
Specifically, vibrators were used in treating hysteria: doctors devoted manual genital massages to unruly women, with the goal of bringing on hysterical paroxysm. The vibrator was a quicker way to bring on that particular and apparently medically inexplicable fit. Today, wed hardly find any of this inspirational; hysteria diagnoses could include forced institutionalization and clitoridectomies, along with the manual therapies. And even the massages themselves were often not undertaken by choice.
But, despite the oppressiveness of the hysteria panic and the odd sex divide consciousness of Victorians women seemed to pick up on what the devices were really doing. And advertisers started softly signaling their better, more recreational use in ads.
Vibrators were marketed initially as medical devices and beauty and health devices, Comella tells. Although their sex uses were known, advertisers in the early 20 th century were coy, using coded speech to both hint at and mask their sex uses.
The Vibra Touch massager, in the 1970 s. Photo: Archive
For example, in the 1908 advertising for the Bebout vibrator , which lands somewhere between New Age relaxation tape and religion creed, we are informed that the Bebout is gentle, soothing, invigorating and freshening. Invented by a woman who knows a womans needs. All nature pulsates and vibrates with life.( This soon takes a turn into the vampiric, when we are informed that the most perfect girl is she whose blood pulsates and oscillates in unison with the natural law of being .)
Oscillating blood aside, well into the 20 th century, vibrators have been sold disguised as something other than sex toys as weight-loss devices( as noted in the Mad Men episode where Peggy Olsen procures some relief from the burdens of being a working gal) or as personal massagers, like VibraTouch, whose 1970 s box presented a woman happily applying it to her shoulder.
So when did it become acceptable to refer to vibrators as sex toys? Or to refer to them at all?
The answer comes through the convergence of three important historical forces: feminism, LGBT rights and television.
In the late 1960 s and 1970 s, feminists began to disagreement mens received wisdom about things like the vaginal orgasm( then supposedly preferable to the clitoral assortment ). The rising gay rights motion, with its push for increased visibility and pride, also meant that more people were talking about sex, and defining what they wanted out of sex, while refuting shame. Sexuality educators like Betty Dodson began to advocate for masturbation often, as in Dodsons case, with vibrators; she led( ahem) hands-on workshops as a healthy and needed way for women to get to know their own bodies and predilections.
It was at around this time that feminist sex doll stores Eves Garden in New York, Good Vibrations in San Francisco and the bi-coastal phenomenon of Babeland began to spring up, with welcome, well-lit environments and highly trained and informative staff, as ways for women to get beyond shopping in uncomfortable or male-dominated venues like your standard porn store. The endeavour was often spearheaded by faggot women, and it eventually began to change not only how sex toys were sold, but how they were made.
You had retailers that were trying to cater to a less skeevy marketplace, but the products were pretty much the same, tells sex educator and journalist Lux Alptraum. You had lesbians and feminists starting to make their own sex toys. When we think about two women having sex, theres more likely to be toys.
Alptraum points to companies like Tantus, which was founded in 1997 and was instrumental in popularise the medically safe silicone over popular soft PVC plastics that had been linked to endocrine disruption and cancer.
Women-friendly sex shops also played an important role in putting demands on an industry not typically known for producing quality products, tells Comella. Good Vibrations, for example, offered clients warranties and were not afraid to send defective products back to producers.
With less stigma, there was more pressure for vibrators to be well-made, healthy and effective. And, though vibrators are traditionally focused on clitoral or vaginal stimulation, vibrators focused on prostate stimulation have been on the rise as well, which is helpful in getting the whole gender identity spectrum in on the action.
And then there was Tv. Which may have been the one thing to push the whole deliberation over the edge, and into the public eye, once and for all.
Carrie Bradshaw mulling her vibrator in Sexuality and the City. Photo: Screengrab
It was only really in 1999 that[ sex toys] began to gain some respectability in the mainstream, tells Filip Sedic, founder and CEO of high-end sex doll company LELO. That was largely thanks to an episode of Sexuality and the City, which featured a rabbit-style vibrator. That episode, in which Charlotte was so enamored by her sex doll that her friends had to stage policy interventions, caused a sudden increased number of interest in personal pleasure products.
Increase is putting it mildly. At that time, Sex and the City occupied the dead center of the cultural conversation; it effectively popularized everything from shoe brands to specific cocktails. But demand for the Rabbit Pearl, which provided clitoral and vaginal stimulation simultaneously, was riotous. In 1999, UK store Ann Summers tells it sold over one million rabbit vibes alone.
And thus, it was upon us: the first celebrity vibrator. The Rabbit was so trendy that not only was it more than acceptable to know what it was, you could actually was acknowledged by owning one.
Which more or less brings us up to the present day. By now, vibrators are not only a recognized industry, they attract major technological talent.
By 2008, women were considered to be the most wonderful growth marketplace in the adult industry, Comella tells. What you began to see were sex doll companies founded by mechanical technologists and design school grads who were really interested in bringing ideas about kind and function and, importantly, lifestyle branding, to the forefront of the novelty sector.
Sedic, for example, has a background in smartphones, and his companys vibrators have a particularly sleek, minimalistic, future-by-Stanley-Kubrick appear that unavoidably reminds one of a sexy iPhone. Alptraum also points to the rise of independent designers.
There are three factors that have aggressively sped up invention, she tells. One of them is lessening stigma. MIT technologists can say this is a viable career.[ Factor] two is 3D printing. You can now more easily prototype, more cheaply prototype. And three is crowdfunding. People with an idea and a 3D printer can now get something constructed.
With bigger budgets and easier manufacturing comes more research and developing Sedic says that LELOs in-house designers work with CAD, 3D simulate, clay, wood, you name it and with research and developing comes the chance for the products to work in new ways.
LELOs Ora, which won the Cannes Lions award for product design in 2014, is a clitoral vibrator designed to simulate the feeling of oral sex.( The upgraded Ora 2 model was released last June .) Meanwhile, the Womanizer, which has get rave reviews everywhere from O Magazine to Autostraddle, works on the principle of suction.
The quality of sex toys across the industry is improving generally, and thats very heartening, Sedic tells. But there are still common blunders that we try to avoid. For example, we try not to gender LELO products except where its more or less unavoidable, and we try to construct predicts for specific purpose but without dictating how they should be used because everyone sensations are different. Its a fine line.
That said: simply because you can buy a $12,000 24 -karat gold vibrator does not inevitably mean you have to. At least not on your first try. Alptraum recommends buying a inexpensive bullet vibe model( a Doc Johnson Silver Bullet is typically available for less than $10 from online outlets) before anything else, simply to figure out what you like. After that, its really a matter of personal selection: Theres a vibrator thats altogether worth it to some people, but not worth it to me, because our bodies are different, she tells.
But, if you recollect, thats what the entire history of the vibrators long, slow procession to the mainstream has been about: figuring out what you, personally, want. If we can say nothing else about the state of the vibrator in 2015, its that you now have a whole lot of options.
