My black spidey suit form ebay arrived today, although I am slightly disappointed that upon wearing it I am not magically hot -- and look more like Jack Black in the MTV Spiderman parody. Many people consider Jack Black a sex symbol, in a similar sort of way as Har Mar Superstar. The question is, are they sexy because they are famous, or because they are confident? I quote Tyler Durden and tell people "self improvement is masturbation" and "I feel sorry for guys packed into gyms, trying to look the way Calvin Klein or Tommy Hilfiger says they should", but the truth is I'm as much sucked in by it as anyone else. I go swimming two or three times a week, just swimming laps constantly for an hour, on the days I'm not swimming, I'm lifting weights in my bedroom. Because I hate how I look, and how I feel -- because it's not 'right'. It's not what we are told a man should look like.
You hear about the stereotyping of women in men's magazines -- the unattainable figures, the impossible ideal. But there's rarely a word about the men. Pick up a copy of magazines like Men's Health, Men's Fitness -- and it's all chiselled abs, features on how to get that six pack in a week (because nobody will love if you don't), the ultimate exercise regimes, make more money... Or pick up the "lad's mags" and look past the girls wearing little but a football shirt. It's still the unattainable -- of course, the pictures of the perfect male figures are gone, because that would be just a little bit too close to the line, wouldn't it? Couldn't possibly have that, someone might get confused, stop fancying girls... But just the same, it's telling you what it takes to be a man -- and it's all beer and cars and games and football and make more money to buy their expensive clothes and how to shag 100 times a night.
But really, who am I to criticise? I've been the person placing the expensive clothes in the glossy, men's consumer magazines in the past. I'm at least partly responsible for encouraging people to spend money they don't have on things they don't need.
If we stay on the subject of body image, it doesn't get any better in the gay magazines. You still have the men with their perfect biceps and abs that you will never achieve. It's all the same editors, the same fashion executives making the decisions -- putting skinny boys with sharp cheekbones and tiny waists on the catwalks and on the pages of the magazine. Or how many times a day does Armani tell you from a billboard or a bus stop ad what a real man should look like? It's never you.
You don't so often hear about what this might do to men, or to boys. If you do, it's often given some stupid name like "Manorexia" -- as if to not call the illness by its name makes it seem less serious, like it's not the same thing. Or how often do you hear about reverse anorexia? Where the sufferer constantly believes themselves to be too skinny and wanting to bulk up, build more muscle, whatever the cost. Studies have looked at children's action figures, and measured their "vital stats" against real men -- concluding that not only are they completely out of proportion, and they are getting worse.
So where do we go from here? With this post, and with people in general. It seems everyone is being told how they should look, or how to behave, or who they should be -- and it's almost never how we are. And, sure, I guess any of us can reject it. Nobody can make any of us feel anything. But just the same, it seems like something isn't right.
I guess that's a bit of an understatement.
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