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Much more than mere leisure must be fueling this run for the money, however. Today a record 30 million confirmed runners are lapping about the U.S. Thirteen million biceps builders are working out in the 5,000 health clubs built in the U.S.; 20 million overweight Americans—and 20 million more who believe they are—will join in the battle of the bulge by dieting this year; and an alltime high of 440,000 patients will elect cosmetic surgery to freshen their features and tuck in their tummies. As if to give the surprisingly durable trend an official fillip, President and Mrs. Reagan have joined the race. A Universal-type weight-lifting machine has just been installed in a spare room of the White House family quarters for almost daily workouts.
Between the calorie counting and aerobic breathing, the yoga and the yogurt, the rolfing and the rope jumping, exercised Americans will admire their improved chassis in 300 million sq. ft. of new mirrors. The reflections of these new Adams and Eves glowing radiantly through the steam rising from the hot tubs are provocative indeed. They portend even more than they posture.
While Americans may seem younger, feel healthier and slimmer, the passion for muscularity reverberates in the country's collective unconscious. More than waistlines may be getting leaner. In fact, the glorification of the body, the absorption with physical beauty, the passion for youthfulness and health that are now part of everyday American life at home and on the job, are transforming the nation's character, like it or not.
A top executive of an investment brokerage firm spoke before a New York Society of Security Analysts group. The man was only 54 and intended to work for another decade. But during the question-and-answer period, he was challenged: When did he plan to step down? Shaken, he made an appointment with a plastic surgeon for a face-lifting the next day. Such tales are often heard these days; it is as if the latest role model for success has become Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray. Fully 16% of patients tightening up their features with surgery are men, who once confined their transformations to hair transplants (still an $11 million business). The number of men seeking cosmetic surgery, as opposed to plastic surgery performed on burn and accident victims, is expected to triple within five years, and the number of women may double.
In a culture hipped on youth, face-lifting is becoming an economic survival tool. Says Robert Stevenson, 58, a New York corporate interior designer who does not want to be forced into retirement: "If you're a dynamo but have gray hair, you won't get the job." Uplift by scalpel is not to white-collar occupations, either. A surgeon says, "It is Mr. and Mrs. America who shop at K mart are getting face-liftings." New York cosmetic surgeons report a new class of patients — policemen, sanitation workers and truckers.
That so many Americans should be transforming their features, and futures, to compete for jobs and mates is a dramatic development after postwar rich living and the automobile had all but taken the country's breath (and legs) away. But America always had a weakness for do-it-yourself salvation and made