By Dan Woog The OutField For some gay men, the gym is a place of terror. For others, 's a home away om home. For Erick Alvarez, the gym is the subject
Contents:
- LIFTG THE GAY GYM STEREOTYPE
- MCLE BOYS: GAY GYM CULTURE
- A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN
- IS THE BODYBUILDG INDTRY GAY FOR PAY? BODYBUILDG TROLL VCE GOODM TAK SHOTS AT NICK TRIGILI
LIFTG THE GAY GYM STEREOTYPE
* gay muscle culture *
For some gay men, the gym is a place of terror.
“Mcle Boys: Gay Gym Culture” is a wi-rangg, sightful look at exercise, gay-male style. It roams through history, soclogy, fashn and porn, stoppg to dissect topics like the Inter’s effect on body image, and the difference between gay and straight gyms. Alvarez – a Costa Ri-born, San Francis-raised personal traer – unrstands gay men who work out.
Gettg f raised his self-nfince, and eased his ncerns about beg gay. “Thirty years ago, gay men were not necsarily accepted at the gym, ” Alvarez not.
MCLE BOYS: GAY GYM CULTURE
mcle boys: gay gym culture book ver * gay muscle culture *
“There was a stereotype that gay men were limp-wristed and ail. Today, Alvarez says, “beg gay is equated wh fns, athleticism, havg a great body.
A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN
The gay world is often reprented as some sort of monolhic whole that has the same culture. That is a lie. It is actually broken down to a handful of substrata to which each gay belongs. Here they are. * gay muscle culture *
Acrdg the Alvarez, “average men” make up the largt group of gay gym-goers.
Gay athlet – a sub-group whose numbers crease every year – work out to bee stronger, and to rce the chance of jury. “But as gay men general beme more health-nsc, the mcle bear beme the bear ial. Their newly fed mculature, says Alvarez, fluenced a generatn of non-posive gay men.
“Gay culture is segmentg between men who work out and those who don’t, ” Alvarez says. In addn, he says, “a lot of people have a problem wh the new ‘gay ial. ’ For gay men who don’t f , this adds one more layer where they feel different om the mastream.
IS THE BODYBUILDG INDTRY GAY FOR PAY? BODYBUILDG TROLL VCE GOODM TAK SHOTS AT NICK TRIGILI
One of the most ntroversial subjects the gay muny – and Alvarez’s book – volv not the gym self, but a nearby adjunct. “Gay men are eher fascated by the eroticism attached to the locker room, or disgted, ” the thor says. The locker room is the first place many gay boys feel strong sexual urg – and measure themselv agast other naked mal.
As more gay men participate sports, that will ntue to predomate. Mcle Boys: Gay Gym Culture.
Erick Alvarez is the thor of the ternatnal btseller Mcle Boys: Gay Gym Culture. In Mcle Boys: Gay Gym Culture, Erick lv to the history of the male athletic ial, explorg 1, 500 years of gay fluence and the evolutn of morn bodybuildg, male body image, and mcle-lan media. From the rise and fall of the ancient Greek gymnasiums to Michelangelo’s rvg of David durg the Renaissance to the rurgence of bodybuildg durg Victorian tim to the morn day homoerotilly charged mpaigns prevalent media, Erick reveals the fluence of gay culture today and s powerhoe role morn gay life.