"I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. And I plan on finding out what that is.” — Zoolander, (2001)
I recently watched The Adonis Factor, a documentary about body image in the gay male community. The documentary, which aired on LOGO, allowed access into different sub groups in the gay community — muscle boys, twinks, bears — that are predominantly based on looks. Most of the men in the documentary had Right-Said-Fred-I’m-too-sexy attitudes oozing from their pores. I watched as men skipped meals and spent more time in the gym than the whole cast of Jersey Shore.
It seems that a good physique is one of the highest status symbols in the gay community. If you don't have the right measurements — broad shoulders, waist smaller than inseam, big biceps, saucer-shaped pectorals — you don't have access to the upper-echelon of gay life.
This article appears in Jun 9-15, 2011.