Oh, Travis…

 

@mattxiv

Full disclaimer: if a dude who looks like Travis Kelce would decide he wants to bone me, It'd be like, drop trou in no time and I'd climb that man like a tree. No questions asked, no strings attached. There. I said it. The man is sexy.

Now, what kind of fuckery is this? Travis Kelce is an athlete: he trains for performance, not for looks, like the instagays and assorted gay men who live for the camera and starve and dehidrate themselves to look good when they take pics and cannot run a block without getting winded. 

On the other side, Kelce at his 'worst' looks better than 95% of the men I know (I do not know anybody who is an 'influencer', btw). Also, I'd like anybody criticizing him for having a 'dad bod' to publish a full-body picture of themselves in board shorts STAT. Then we could compare their bodies and see who's got the 'best bod'. Sounds fair?

“Social media exacerbates body dysmorphia because it’s so easy to dehumanize online,” he adds. “People and their bodies can be reduced to things strangers can comment on.”

@out

I find it annoying that everybody feels like they have permission to criticize other people's bodies (especially bodies that have not been presented by their owners for comment) and I also find it hypocritical: keyboard warriors never show their faces (or their abs) online. Afraid, much??  Or is it that maybe they do NOT have the bodies they expect others to have? The rule should be: in order to negatively critique somebody's body, you need to show yours, so we know what the deal is. Sounds good?

"...His words to everyone who gets chemical help: “Be honest,” he says. “As a gay man, I will never be in a new closet, so when I started experimenting, I always disclosed when someone in the gym asked about my body, and that resulted in honest conversations.”

“Gym culture can do real harm, and it is up to us to reduce that harm,” he adds. “All harm reduction comes from honesty.” This, he says, means talking about the real, lethal effects of high steroid doses."

@out

And there it is. A very high percentage of the Instagays (especially those who are not Porn Stars) get a ton of help from chemicals. Steroid use runs rampant among the shredded few. Just ask around in your local gym. Very few people are naturally pumped all the time. Very few people can burn calories like it's not a big deal and very few people have been genetically blessed to look like an action movie star 24/7. Have you seen Dean Cain lately?

“I would tell queer people curious about fitness that there’s another side to it that is not about conforming to a cultural narrative,” he says. “That other side is about challenging yourself, connecting with yourself, and connecting with others. That side should not be overlooked.”

@out

And this is not only for queer people: I think that straight men (like Kelce) also find themselves at the other end of the microscope of social media, where their bodies are minced once way and another and examined for 'defects'. Apparently not even celebrated athletes escape this practice.  BTW, remember this is a place in which many, many women find themselves on a daily basis. It's not cute.

I think that Instagram -and social media in general- (and movies and porn) are body image's Kryptonite and a cesspool of fuckery that nobody should take into account. Men in movies and in porn train to be in very good shape because it's their livelihood! Their income depends on how good they look when they stand in front of a camera. NONE OF US (unless there's a reader here who does porn or is an actor) has the time and budget to look shredded and fit 24/7/365. Kelce should have not had to 'apologize' for having a body that under any other circumstances would look great, just because he does not look like Thor while on vacation. Not even Hemsworth looks like Thor all the fucking time. 

Get a grip, people!

XOXO

P.S. Here:

@jcriscitello