Celebrating the Body

-
I spent Saturday night staring at a bunch of half-naked men

By the end of Saturday night I jumped rows to get a better view of a guy's amazing...uh, lats

Where to begin? While driving to see my first bodybuilding competition yesterday evening, I passed a Hooters and started to worry. What if the people who buy tickets to such events are there simply to ogle, and what if the events themselves exist for the ogling? Once the bikini division had sashayed away, the figure competitors waddled off in their five-inch heels, and the fitness models revealed their amazing wax jobs completed their cartwheels, the bodybuilders came on stage and I understood what was going on.

A celebration of the body. Permission to linger over these well-oiled (yes) machines, carriers --and, often, cause--of our hopes, dreams, and insecurities.

Like beautiful ballet...danced to Metallica.

Beauty arrives in this context when genetics meets discipline. Nearly any healthy person with somewhat symmetrical form can, with a strong drive, do well at this sport; no particular skills are needed. By celebrating the body at these events, we honor discipline and self-control. It might look like the big bodybuilder polished off one of the smaller, bantam weight competitors for lunch, but really he's been restricting himself to asparagus and chicken breasts for a long, long time, all the while wanting to empty a keg into glassfuls rather than carry it around for a good workout.

Extreme diet x intense workouts = most muscles showing = best body. Beauty is reduced to an equation, for starters. Many of the competitors weren't conventionally-beautiful people, but symmetry and well-defined muscles can aesthetically please to the point of accomplishing beauty, so to speak. I had to wonder how many of them had entered the sport for just this reason--to defy nature by improving on it (this was a natural, drug-tested competition, by the way). Having recently attended my 20th high school reunion, I can understand the inclination.

All that said, the people who tried too hard--were too orange, were looking like they'd explode while holding poses--usually didn't win. Those who were comfortable with themselves on stage--and were well-defined, of course--did well. They were fun to watch, too. In the end, people are more than the sum of their parts, and even bodybuilding competitions seem to recognize that.

This guy had the crowd eating out of his tanned hand. I love how they oohed and aahed with his every move at the beginning and what he does when he turns around




Comments

  1. SIMON I. weird0September 27, 2009 at 7:06 PM

    WATCH WHEN HE TURNS AROUND!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. _*rachel*_September 27, 2009 at 8:47 PM

    You're going Roman on me, aren't you. Next thing we all know, you'll be a sculptor.

    ReplyDelete
  3. allieSeptember 25, 2012 at 9:51 AM

    I must be blind - I don't get what's happening when he turns around?!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Amy PhillipsSeptember 25, 2012 at 11:53 AM

    He does the pec bounce thingy!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Why

-
Simon, who is 11, isn't doing particularly well in math. The other night, we sat at the kitchen table to work on the multiplying and subtracting of mixed numerals, and what I discovered upon looking closely at his test was that Simon actually does understand fractions, for the most part. So when I say he's not doing well in math, this means, actually, that Simon is not slowing down enough to do well in math. The theories he's got down, for the most part. The motivation to do well, he does not. We reviewed the concepts, and then I stressed the importance of taking the time needed to do a good job. We talked about why grades are important, as faulty a system as that may be, and why he needs to try to get those grades up. And then I brought up diabetes. Diabetes is the elephant in every room, even though the type 1 diabetic himself was elsewhere in the house. A calculator there, test strip here, vials in the frig. With diabetes, I told Simon, we do much the same kinds of math...
Read more

Getting Rid Of The Children's Pets, One Lonely Creature At A Time (The Video)

-
Theo, age 8, spent the summer collecting frogs and tadpoles from a nearby creek. With the help of his friend Ethan, who is 9 and can answer any and all questions on amphibians, Theo learned to distinguish leopard frogs from tree frogs, and studied their development daily on our back deck. Theo was so enamored with the whole operation that he wanted to purchase some more exotic strains. We visited a Pets Mart and hovered near a tank until a saleswoman came by. The right saleswoman, I should say; with disheveled hair and wire-frame glasses favoring one ear, this woman was all about the frogs. She hunched forward as if to let out a call that might travel the road back to our creek. My main concern was the amount of upkeep these $30 pets would require. "What do these frogs need, because our frogs from the creek...," I started to say, and immediately realized I had violated a sacred rule: removing the animal from its natural habitat. I tried to play it off. So did she--at first. ...
Read more

These Things Are Wrong

-
1. Our local chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation hosting a pancake breakfast. Let it be known that Type 1s can have pancakes. They may eat anything they want if they inject themselves with the proper amount of insulin. But pancakes are difficult to account for, as are bagels and pizza, rice and potatoes. The glycemic index mixes with the fat content to produce a blood sugar unpredictability that I, for one, avoid when possible. Maybe I would have forgiven JDRF for this fundraiser had it not been for our one visit to their office. At an open house, they served--wait for it--chocolate cake. And soda. And boxes of chocolates. Once again: Type 1s can have their cake and eat it, too. Theo has desserts often. Yet an organization devoted exclusively to the management of blood sugars could maybe come up with something other than cake, chocolates and pop to serve. I pulled out the calculator near Theo's cake, and said, half-jokingly, "You're going to tell us the ca...
Read more