Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 9:40 pm
<strong>Filibuster Cartoon</strong>
<strong>Title: </strong> <a href="http://www.filibustercartoons.com/archive.php?id=20070826" target="_blank">Bodies of State</a> (click to view)
<strong>Date: </strong> August 26, 2007
There\'s bit a lot of talk about shirtless world leaders in the news lately.
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<br>Vladimir Putin caused headlines last week when he staged a number of bare-chested photo-ops in the Siberian countryside, looking all majestic and rugged. Evidently this delighted a large number of women and gays as the Russian president is fairly buff... at least by 54-year-old politician standards.
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<br>Then we have Nicholas Sarkozy, the new president of France. While on vacation in the US he was photographed shirtless as well, majestically paddling his canoe. Sarkozy, alas, is not quite so toned, which caused some distress to the editor of Paris Life magazine, a close friend of the president. The photo was run through Photoshop, and some of Sarky\'s flab was edited out.
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<br>This is the tragedy of a media culture that promotes unrealistic body images for world leaders.