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.
Acrdg the Alvarez, “average men” make up the largt group of gay gym-goers.
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 *
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.
IS THE BODYBUILDG INDTRY GAY FOR PAY? BODYBUILDG TROLL VCE GOODM TAK SHOTS AT NICK TRIGILI
’ For gay men who don’t f , this adds one more layer where they feel different om the mastream.
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.