Consumer society tantalises us. We then try within ourselves to control the needs that are being constantly stimulated.

The parents' job is to be there for their kids, not the other way round. Troubles between parents need to be talked through with friends and not visited on the children.

Today, 'fat' has become not a description of size but a moral category tainted with criticism and contempt.

Fat is a way of saying no to powerlessness and self-denial.

In general, the Western body has become a global brand.

Our idea of a healthy body is so destabilised that insecure people have come to bolster their own bodies by deeming others - those with fat bodies - less worthy, less capable and less employable.

In my mum's day, you needed to be beautiful for a very short time to catch your man. It didn't start at six and go on until you're 75, right?