Annals of catastrophic posture: modern chairs edition
At first glance I thought this chair was a joke. But no, the Surf Chair won the Best Product award for Leif Sorenson and Kenneth Lylover at the 2000 Scandinavian Furniture Fair, in the computing category. I couldn’t find any evidence that it was produced commercially, but a quick look at gaming chairs shows that […]
Annals of Catastrophic Posture: lumbar hump edition
Our first impulse, of course, is to look at the cat. Way cute! But let your eyes drift over to the boy, and things aren’t so good. He sits so far back on his buttocks that his lumbar spine, instead of going in, goes out. If you’re tempted to think: “he’s just a boy, he’ll […]
Annals of Catastrophic Posture: LifeLabs Edition
Why is back pain epidemic in our culture? Could our posture have anything to do with it? And what does it mean that even health care providers don’t recognize harmful posture when they see it? You tell me. This photo of young girls taking part in “healthy” outdoor activity under adult supervision hangs in my […]
Annals of Catastrophic Posture: Immaneul Kant edition
I know shamefully little of 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Ask me to free-associate on his name, and I will come up with the Monty Python drinking song, not the Critique of Pure Reason. But ever since I saw the photo above, in Sander L. Gilman’s Stand Up Straight! A History of Posture, Kant has been on my mind. […]
Annals of Catastrophic Posture, Fashion Edition
Fashion photography always exaggerates. That’s why the pages of fashion magazines are filled with models in catastrophic posture, like the one above, from a 2018 Elle magazine. When I chanced upon it, I was in my ophthalmologist’s waiting room, and I swear it made my eyes hurt. I have a pretty good idea what she […]
The Annals of Catastrophic Posture: emoji edition
If you’ve ever felt guilty about slouching, you can stop now. It’s not your fault. Posture is cultural. Not only do we echo the posture of the people we’re talking to, we also mimic, down to the finest details, the people, and images of people, that surround us. And what we see is largely catastrophic […]