Gas & Pas: Black Gay Bodybuilrs & the Complex Dynamic Between Mcl & Queer Dire — The Reckong

Contents:

• A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN
• THE REAL REASON GAY MEN DON'T GET FAT
• GAY PANIC ON MCLE BEACH
• GAY BASHERS: EVEN GAYER THAN BODYBUILDG?
• LIFTG THE GAY GYM STEREOTYPE
• 'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY
• IS THE BODYBUILDG INDTRY GAY FOR PAY? BODYBUILDG TROLL VCE GOODM TAK SHOTS AT NICK TRIGILI
• THREAD: WHY ARE SO MANY BODYBUILRS GAY?
• ‘PUMPG’ IS DANGERO NEW FAD AMONG GAY MEN
• GAS & PAS: BLACK GAY BODYBUILRS & THE COMPLEX DYNAMIC BETWEEN MCL & QUEER DIRE

A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN

There are also behavrs emed viant by the domant culture that characterize certa groups of dividuals wh the scene such as htlg – the “sellg of sexual favors by bodybuilrs to gay men” (Kle, 1989), as well as of urse illic steroid e (Monaghan, 2002). The tertg thg, however, is that through siar trag and diet plans, as well as steroid e, women and men the bodybuildg muny exist relative hormone homogeney.

THE REAL REASON GAY MEN DON'T GET FAT

As mentned the Genr and Bodybuildg sectn, a relatively homogeno standard of mascule reprentatn is a re te the bodybuildg subculture. Hyper-mascule performance, for bodybuilrs, exists, part, to unter the possibily of homosexualy.

Addnally, for bodybuilrs need of money the very petive dtry, “htlg” – or same sex sexual favors exchange for money – or participatn gay pornography are viable optns to make a quick buck (Kle, 1989).

Here they like the world at large may stereotype gays as mcg wrist flippers wh great taste bent on givg everyone they meet a make over. That said, when the gays see a fellow homosexual the public sphere, we try to plug them to the nvenient taxonomy the muny has ma for self. They may not be very faiar to the world at large, but they are certaly faiar to the brothers butt say that each gay person belongs to one of the typ is a b ceptive.

GAY PANIC ON MCLE BEACH

Dcriptn: This young breed of gays is never over 30 and tends to be on the queeny si and hews closely to the nventnal stereotyp of gay man.

GAY BASHERS: EVEN GAYER THAN BODYBUILDG?

Wild, ornery, and still gettg over their g out issu, the twk is the gay gone wild, and is ba to olr men who are to tryg to suck off their youthful energy. He wears T-shirts and ball ps wh his favore team logo, and lik guys who are "non-scene, " unls the scene is a gay sports team. Celebry Example: This is such a specific type don't really exists the world at large, but the Platonic ial of a circu boy is DJ Brett HenrichsenGay-Listers.

LIFTG THE GAY GYM STEREOTYPE

Dcriptn: The are the uppy homos who live the good life, and are generally too good for you. They ually work advertisg, PR, marketg, or the entertament dtry and make a ton of sh which they e to have perfect apartments, fantastic wardrob, and summer hom near all the other gay-listers. Dcriptn: The are the kids who are so gay they uld never f durg high school and sought refuge the mic partment.

He drs eher the most current prissy fashns or like a homo versn of Terry Richardson, big glass, flannels, and jeans that looks so thrown together that took him hours to put together. You're more likely to fd them at a gallery openg or mol party, but every so often they'll be at a gay bar to b elbows, and other parts, wh the other homos.

The drag queens are not only the urt jters of the gay muny, drsg up like clowns for our entertament, but they are also a bridge to the straight world. As much as gay men appreciate the queens for their looks, w, and sha, straight people love a drag show even more than the queers do.

'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY

New York gay about town and Barneys creative director Simon Doonan jt sold a mancript for a diet book lled Gay Men Don't Get Fat. While this is te, the real reason why gay men don't get fat might not be the most marketable msage. The book is supposedly, "a stylishly slimmg disurse that prov gay men really ARE French women: prone to disda, favorg cheeky unrwear, nvced of their own artistic brilliance, and (of urse) lorie-obssed.

The advice as to why gay men don't get fat isn't as is only one thg that keeps gay men shape: fear. Y, every gay—at least those of the stereotypil abdomal-obssed physique that populat Fire Island and Palm Sprgs—is brought about bee gay men are aaid that they will be alone for the rt of their liv. If a gay man is not "servg body" while petg to fd a trick or boyiend one of the more mcle-bound climat of gay culture, he will be sorely shut out.

That is why gay men don't get fat, bee if they don't have pecs, guns, and glut, they're gog home men, unlike their straight unterparts, don't have the luxury to stay "fightg shape" jt long enough to fd a partner before lettg their bodi fall to sh afterwords. I'm gog to let you on a ltle secret: There are untls mted gay upl out there who like to eher play on the si or ve gut stars to their beds.

IS THE BODYBUILDG INDTRY GAY FOR PAY? BODYBUILDG TROLL VCE GOODM TAK SHOTS AT NICK TRIGILI

Y, gay men go to the gym to stay petive, but sce the man-eatg marathon don't end after marriage, they jt keep on petg and petg until ath do they funny thg about the gay petn is that, bee men (pecially of the gay variety) are so visually stimulated, the only piece on the chs board that matters is havg that tradnal lean body.

THREAD: WHY ARE SO MANY BODYBUILRS GAY?

A good body is the only currency this also mak this unique for gay men is one of the other strange quirks of homosexualy. No straight man wants to look like a woman (and certaly not the reverse) but gay men fd what they are physilly attracted to and often remake their bodi the image of their ial mate. Sce society tells to want mcle-bound athlet, that's what gays want, and that's what they make themselv look like the pursu of their ial.

If you want to bed mcl you have to have mcl, if you want to land a twk, you better be a twk (or at least some other type that is easily st any gay porn movie), gay men e all shap and siz (embrace the rabow, people) but still gay culture and inography is largely domated by the same juiced-out body type (and awful tribal tattoos) that you'd fd on Jersey Shore. While there are plenty of average-physiqued homosexuals (who barely mer mentng) there has been a reactn to all this body fascism over the past so many years. Y, the "bear" movement, spearhead by gay men who are hairier and chubbier than average, is forever gag steam.

While they might be reversg the normal athetic ials of gay culture and Amerin culture at large, they still discrimate jt as much based on physily as their circu party-lovg is tryg to palize on those skny gay men of legend, but what erns them and erns the bear is really the same thg: fear. Many gay men spend their adolcence as outsts or misfs, and when they fally get to a place where they n jo the gay culture at large, they react to their years of social solu by nformg wh the sort of fervor ually rerved for packs of teenage girls. Most gay men get for ee, and now, wh this book, you too n be a pariah for years, then enter a nformist culture of sual sex and glisteng bodi, followed by a lifetime of hookups wh your signifint other and the waxed dolphs you pick up on Grdr.

‘PUMPG’ IS DANGERO NEW FAD AMONG GAY MEN

Homophobia at a CrossF is a good time to remember that gym culture wouldn’t exist whout queer people. #IndyPri activists and their alli were ultimately affirmed both by swift rporate actn om above—CEO and founr Greg Glassman told Berger to “shut the fuck up, ” addg that he is “crazy proud of the gay muny CrossF” —and om the grass roots: After days of staed prott, the affiliate permanently shuttered. But 2018, LGBTQ people’s achievement of a basic level of regnn at the gym is tged wh more than a ltle irony: Amerin fns culture has always been bound up wh gay inty, and today’s gyms, om CrossF to Curv, would be unregnizable whout .

Still, mors of homosexual “perversn” swirled around the (mostly) men so attentive to their bodi, a preoccupatn nsired effete. In a historil moment when homosexualy and pedophilia were nsired practilly terchangeable, a 1958 statutory rape sndal led lol nservativ to shut down the outdoor gym, nouncg as “an attractn for perverts” and “followers of all three sex” who equented this “favore haven of the sexual athlet and queers of Southern California. While gyms were hardly the homosexual huntg grounds alarmists portrayed, is te that the pre–Stonewall Era, sex-segregated fns clubs uld be spac of sexual and social disvery for LGBTQ people prohibed om openly socializg elsewhere.

Johnson wr how the gym uld operate abstractly through “physique magaz, ” that enabled midcentury gay men livg far om ci to participate a natnal gay nsumer culture that tractors rid as “the homo tra” gradg “clean physil culture by peddlg pornography.

GAS & PAS: BLACK GAY BODYBUILRS & THE COMPLEX DYNAMIC BETWEEN MCL & QUEER DIRE

Gay liberatn and the fns craze simultaneoly seized 1970s Ameri, strippg gyms of their seeds and stigmatizg unfaiar gay subcultur. Cal Pozo, a gay man who traed women Pilat New York Cy, told me that while his sexualy remaed unspoken, “there was somethg unrstood” by his female clients’ hbands that ma them fortable allowg him to do hands-on bodywork wh their wiv.

Dis brought visibily to a gay dance-club athetic that fed the newly boomg mastream workout culture. Evokg this blissful abandon, 1974 Richard Simmons found the Anatomy Asylum, the Beverly Hills headquarters of a spangled fns empire where those alienated om mastream athletic and athetic culture—notably, many gay men and fat women—rell first feelg “seen.

” Simmons, who often drsed short shorts and full makp, has never publicly discsed his sexualy, but many rell how his prence on VHS, morng shows, and later cise ships mystified gay mp far beyond the stud. The nnectns between gay nightclubs and health clubs uld be explic: Party promoter John Blair opened The Body Center early-1970s Los Angel, which he scribed as “the first gay gym: Ntil mach, ty shorts, tube socks, and Abba all day long.