The body image part is the important part.
I’ve talked about body image here before. It’s those posts that always end up generating the best emails and DMs to me about other peoples’ similar struggles or reminding me that I’m actually doing fine and it’s all fine and to stop being so nuts. And that’s all good to hear, honestly.
And I really didn’t want to post yet another Buzzfeed video here (honestly, I don’t even read Buzzfeed! These things just keep coming to me. So bravo to BF’s social outreach team, I guess), but I really liked what this one touched on. See, I have a photoshoot coming up next week that I’ve been working really hard for. I’m gonna have actual arm muscles and abs and shit, and I haven’t eaten a carbohydrate since May. It’s gonna be great. Everyone will be amazed. So help me.
You all better be goddamned amazed.
But of course, all I can think of is the massive amount of porn that I watch and the guys who live in that world. And how (IDK if you know this) my body doesn’t LOOK like that. I don’t LOOK like Kurtis Wolfe
or really any of the dudes that Mark Henderson dips in that pool in that one same shirt that I have to assume they’re all sharing.
But my brain still has this weird default assumption that that’s how I’m supposed to look. For reference, if you haven’t seen what I actually look like:
It’s not baaaaad. But that was still 20% body fat, and 20lbs I’m not walking around with right now.
Long story short (too late), that buzzfeed video up there (or here if that didn’t load right) is an interesting experiment and a subtle reminder that so much of what we see isn’t real to begin with. Justin Bieber did get his body buffed up and his bulge bulged out. And Christiano Ronaldo did… well. Actually. That dude kinda just looks like that. That’s a bad example.
But my point in all of this is that final products aren’t something you (I) should compare your(my)self to. It’s a dumb way to get down about your body irl and doesn’t reflect anything truly real! Look what they did with those skinny dorks in the video!
I had hopes that this was going to be a more focused somethingorother about body image but I’ve spent most of the writing of this thinking about all the ways I could use liquify in photoshop to fix all the stuff I wanna fix in that pic of me. So. Narcissism wins, everybody.
I’m gonna go do some sit ups.
-t
James
Kurtis is so hot I Think.
tylerthebadwolf
It’s not a competition, James.
Manuel T.
I find your body to be beautiful in that photo.
tylerthebadwolf
Well that’s very nice of you to say. I’m not unhappy about it. 😀 Just always trying to improve.