Last week, I was interviewed by a newspaper about last week’s article in the New York Observer about the sudden rise in popularity of celebrities like Jack Black and Vince Vaughn. Both actors, it seems, are leading a new generation of White boy comedians whose frat boy movies are yielding major box office dollars.

More important, they, along with golfer Phil Mickelson, are also bringing “man flab” back into style. For those that don’t know what “man flab” is, Sara Vilkomerson explains:

“Man flab must also be distinguished from ‘fat.’ If you imagine a man-flab man with his shirt off, what comes to mind is a sort of doughy mattress, soft but not squishy, and no beer gut. It feels good, not distressing, to get a man-flab hug.”

While many attribute the resurgence of man flab to talents of Black and Vaughn, the leading comedic actors of this generation, I’m wondering if it also has to do with a metrosexual backlash. Have Americans finally tired of the weight conscious, finely manicured, immaculately dressed, narcissistic character that has been the poster boy for 21st century American life? Are A-listers like Jack Black, Vince Vaugn, and even Phil Mickelson signposts of a new era where big waists and “man boobs” are what society accepts and adores?

Unfortunately, such a luxury will never be available to women, whose real-life and cinematic bodies must consistently reflect the unrealistic demands of a world ruled by the same frat boys who have forced us to love their surplus pondage.