Argyle Grant

I'm posting this here for the beefcake. Of course you know how much I like looking at handsome men with banging bodies prancing around half naked. There's a reason why this blog has a parental advisory. And I think that most of us do like looking at beautiful people showing off what they have worked so hard to achieve. Because achieving a body like theirs is no easy feat. And we're here for that.

I also think that we can both admire bodies like the ones presented here and at the same time recognize that not everybody is going to have those bodies. And above all, we need to understand that having those bodies is not the rule: it's the exception. Those bodies come from extremely hard work and dedication (not to mention genetics, natch) and tying that aesthetic to desire and/or goals is a double-edged sword.

When we, as gay men, bound desirability to a certain set of physical attributes (small waist, wide shoulders, visible abdominal muscles, big biceps, the lot) and youth, we are not doing ourselves a favor. Because very few of us (even though I know some very attractive exceptions) look like these models from Argyle Grant and yet, we tend to perpetuate the school of thought that implies that flawless physical beauty is absolutely tied to desirability when very few of us could model on a runway any of the bathing suits shown in this video.

I'm all for objectifying men, don't get me wrong, but I also know that beauty is skin deep and fleeting. I think that all in all, we should be more mindful of how we use attractiveness and conventional notions of beauty (which are somehow augmented in gay circles) and stop weaponizing them. I was recently reading an article and this paragraph jumped at me:

When thin customers deem fat people’s calls for mainstream clothing lines to carry clothes in larger sizes “irrelevant” and “useless,” it justifies retail stores’ unwillingness to stock clothes that fit fat people’s bodies. These may seem like minor issues to straight-size people, but each of them play a role in aiding in the systemic oppression of fat people.

People who are not required to think about how much space their body takes up, whether their body will keep them from experiencing romantic love, whether they will log onto social media to see that their fat body is the joke of the week, or whether they will even be able to find clothes that fit them, have few to no ties to these experiences

DA'SHAUN HARRISON

All this does not mean we should stop ogling beautiful men. Nope. It's not gonna happen. But we should be more aware that by promoting the idea that the only valid and desirable bodies are the ones presented to us by the media (and the gay body police) as the ne-plus-ultra is a disfavor we are doing to a high percentage of the population and to ourselves. Yes, attractive men DO exist, and yes we can look at them. But no, we should not make it mandatory for everybody to be twenty-five, have a thirty inch waist and the body proportions of Apollo. It's unfair, it's silly and above all, not really attainable unless you want to walk the runway for Argyle Grant. Which you are more than welcome to do, if you feel you can. And please post pictures. We all wanna see.

XOXO

 P.S. According to THIS site, these are my 'ideal' measurements if we are to follow Steve Reeves' lead. I laughed for five straight minutes when I got the results. If I had that chest/waist ratio, I'd be shirtless even in January.  So, do you have a tape measure handy? Go fetch it.  I'll wait here for your results. Yes, I have time.

Neck: 17"

Arms: 16"

Chest: 55"

Waist: 32"

Thighs: 25"

Calves: 17"