Fashion and mind control.
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I was at the store the other night and saw a guy and his girlfriend shopping the vegetable aisle for supper. He was unbelievably skinny - so skinny I thought he was a girl. Pencil pants, flip-flops, teenie tight t-shirt, hair gelled way up... the girl on the other hand looked fat in comparison - although she was far from fat. It's a trend I began noticing on The Sartorialist - quite awhile ago in fact. The Paris and Milan runways began showing really skinny guys wearing skinny clothes a few years ago. The look is effeminate and unnatural. Even Ralph Lauren is making skinny clothes. I believe it's more about androgyny and genderlessness today, than what initially was about carriage and build. Having gone beyond the old 'metrosexual', the new look is making contemporary men even more femme and imposing upon them limitations otherwise reserved for female consumers - such as over-priced apparel and unnecessary accessories, cosmetics, cosmetic surgeries, uncomfortable-tight-fitting clothing, and so on. And now guys seem to be ending up with women's ailments as well, such as anorexia or manorexia.
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The pressure to look like a male model is driving more men to develop dangerous eating disorders, experts warned today.
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GPs have been warned to be on the lookout for the potentially fatal conditions, which include anorexia and bulimia, after a rise in the number of those affected.
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Men may be reluctant to admit they have a problem as the issue has until now been seen as something affecting mainly teenage girls.
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Medical experts blame the surge on an obsession with looking good by having bulging biceps and a six-pack stomach. - DailyMail
Trend with just a touch of body dysmorphic disorder?
I am very skinny. But I don't dress like that, but I have been called "Metero" or "Metro" when I wear jeans and a polo. So I usually have to wear more "manly" attire to let folks know... where I stand in the world.
ReplyDeleteI think the fashion is weird. Sure I live in alaska and daily have animal blood on my hands. But cmon... the way guys flip their flops, flip their locks, flip their... ok rhyming is a bad idea, but you get the point.
It is weird because it is even reaching here... where most boys are quite manly. But to see a kid who hunts bears wearing waif little clothes and trying to "be skinny" you realize just how powerful the cultures clenches are.
Further symptoms of the gay culture/aesthetic seeping into mainstream culture.
ReplyDeleteAlso, on a completely other track, maybe some of the uber-skinniness is down to the fact that a lot of these young guys are militant vegans. I notice that you didn't see the couple you mentioned at the *meat* counter. These vegans/vegetarians always look ill and emaciated to me.
(I am noticing, too, lately how aggressive these folks are getting in pushing their food agenda to the general population). Like homosexuality, veganism is the new religion.
Just my two, rapidly devaluing, centimes.
"Manorexia" - good one!
ReplyDeleteJoe - you are thin - I recall a photo of you - but that is cool because you are naturally fashionable - you trendsetter you. No matter what you wear.
ReplyDeleteHoneybee - exactly - which is why I mentioned they were foraging for food in the prodice aisle.
Larry.
Monks Teach Maleness to Thai "Ladyboys" @
ReplyDeletewww.abs-cbnnews.com/.../07/.../monks-teach-maleness-thai-ladyboys
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ReplyDeleteOk, Stupid Question Department:
ReplyDeleteWhat happens when the skinny tattooed guy here gains, say, 20 pounds? What happens when he turns forty-five and gets a beer belly?
Do all those tats morph into unrecognizable shapes?
I'm serious. I want to know.
I mean, I'll see some young woman with a rose tattoo on her behind and I know darn well once she reaches a certain age it'll navigate to someplace else.
But no one ever thinks they'll be "a certain age", do they?
Sigh.
What were we talking about?
lol @joe.
ReplyDeletei'm a big guy, built like a linebacker, so i never have to worry about the thin thing (altho' i am trying to lose weight for health reasons as i'm textbook obese). that said, i really like my tattoo. i've had it for nearly 20 years. combination of the Sacred Heart of Jesus & Immaculate Heart of Mary on a gothic cross, serpent round the bottom, and sunburst behind it.
julie, your question isn't stupid. i've waxed & waned with my weight, and so has my tattoo. it hasn't really gotten misshapen, but the color has faded, and i also want to add on to it. and it's not about trend, just my personal thing.
Anonymous - I saw that - I LOL at one part - as soon as they get some money they run out and buy things like mascara.
ReplyDeletehoneybee, I think the remedy is to offer vegans a nice veal chop. Not only am I carnivorous, but evil. God gave Man dominion over the animals.
ReplyDeleteThe mascara business was the funniest part, wasn't it?
ReplyDeleteLike the mother or aunt or some woman said in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding:"
ReplyDelete"What you mean you don't eat no meat?! I make lamb instead!"
This look was also popular in the 90's when I was in college....we called it the "druggie" look, but probably remnants of the "grunge" look...the vegans too also embraced this look.
ReplyDeleteAll the fighter pilots I work with look like they could use a double cheeseburger with extra cheese...
One of the male stylists in the salon I frequent is uber thin..but half the time I think he's trying to look like a girl..I think he even wears girl's cologne..he does a GREAT weave though...
The really sad thing is that the male underwear model I briefly (?) dated in the mid-80s would be considered FAT by today's modelling standards..
Two weekends ago we had a unber thin guy and gal be assigned to my horse sanctuary stable for "community service work." We were unloading hay bales at the tune of 77 pounds each..we about killed them. They were able to talk themselves into getting reassigned "because the work was too hard." The guy especially could use a few more muscles..
And gals---if you want to scare a guy off, start lifting hay bales.. :) You'll develop muscles you never knew you had :)
Sara
Doughboy: Thank you for answering my question.
ReplyDeleteSara - you dated Markie Mark Whalberg? (sp?)
ReplyDelete+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteSara: I believe the term was "heroin chic." =P
Terry: It's spelled Wahlberg.
(Sometimes I really embarrass myself.)
I love you you little punk! I knew I got the spelling wrong. he's a good Catholic boy now.
ReplyDeleteNope--not Markie Mark...this guy was part of Calvin Klein's stable..the classic square jaw. He was actually so much better looking when he smiled...but for some reason they don't want guys smiling in their underwear.. :) He did do a couple of tv commercials, one where he had to bite into a cupcake...he could make biting into a cupcake about the most sensual thing out there..
ReplyDeleteJust looking at him was a near occasion of sin..one nice thing about being Protestant at the time :) that's when I came up with Sara's first commandment--Thou shalt never date a man who's prettier than thou..
He did get hit on ALOT by the gay community..he always took it in stride and was always polite in refusing them.
Ah...memories...if only I was as emotionally mature then as I am now..
Perfect date to take to a Christmas party or wedding.. :) Looked GREAT in a tux...and I'm the envy of every other girl there :)
Sara
I don't see a problem in being incredibly skinny. It is a person's choice as to what they do with their body and if it doesn't affect you the so be it. To BMI and height-weight standards I would be incredibly underweight (5'10 and 115 lbs) but I eat as much as a normal person should (even more) and I exercise to try to build up muscle but nothing works. Some people's bodies are just naturally thin to the point of it seeming unhealthy when it is not.
ReplyDeleteI get bombarded with countless Ads and PSA's every day discussing the growing obesity problem in America, and I am surprised that more people don't have eating disorders. Media tells us we are fat when many of us aren't and it sends a confusing message to our youth on what the proper body should look like.
Then again, who's to say what the proper body is? If you are happy with your body then go for it.