Runners and Beyoncé

Reasons #1 through #765 to hate Jay-Z

Nature vs. nurture and the extent of diversity among human beings are two key debates in liberalism today, as ever. Here are two articles that hit on both themes. One is a New York Times piece piece by Sarah Tuff about the growing popularity of running classes among America’s 11 million runners. It touches on a debate among running gurus about the importance of proper form. Some say it’s important for all runners to learn; others say it’s a distraction for many and sacrifices each runner’s learning their own styles and abilities suited for their individual bodies. The second piece is an oddly popular Wall Street Journal article by Amy Chozick (here reprinted in The Toronto Star) about how clothing manufacturers and marketers have had to adapt to the changing bodies of Japanese women, who apparently have been getting bigger and curvier with the adoption of a more Western diet—flying in the face of stereotypes about East Asian body types.

Of course that doesn’t really settle the eternal debates about diversity and genetics. But as with so many other facts about life today forcing us to question assumptions about the nature of diversity (is it more racial, or individual?) and genetics (how much does it affect how we actually turn out?) these articles show how important these questions are to life in a market economy. Will running classes marginalize some runners with great potential? Or will there be a resurgence of people who run with considerable success, “good” form be damned? Will Japanese women look like Beyoncé in thirty years? Will they want to, and what of the social status of those who won’t? End.