Are bodybuilders inherently shallow?

No, they marry clever woman and them get dumped because the shack up with the help, who becomes pregnant.

you arent very smart since you failed to include bod shots. dumbass

R2 Read description.

In your eyes it's "extreme" and you already made up your mind that it's "shallow" and "self absorbed". You want to "understand"? Get rid of your own predjudice towards bodybuilding and bodybuilders. Then you might have a chance to "understand".

Bodybuilders are known for self-objectification.

I don't think I am shallow but i like being the biggest, strongest, and most aggressive guy in the room. That makes us bodybuilders care about how our bodies look. And we like alot of sex so not shallow, just a basic guy.

Something is wrong with them because too much muscle is just as ugly as too much fat.

ww for r4

R4= Michael Blevins

It's a boring lifestyle spending so much time with weights and crunches, they are boring people.

Bodybuilders are not exaclty the strongest because it is not baout strength but repititve exercises until the muscle is exhausted. R6

They usually have some level of OCD.

What kind of obsessive compulsive disorder?

I remember a video of a female bodybuilder I watched a few months ago and she also said something similar that in order to be a bodybuilder you have to have some kind of obsession with the body or something like that.

It becomes an addiction for them.

Absolutely. Good lord. Have you seen the instagrams of these people? What will happen to them when they get old? It's going to be rough for them.

rough in what sense?

Their whole life is how they look. When they lose that -- it's over. It's hard for vain people to their looks.

Could we be stereotyping bodybuilders?

Small dicks

Many bodybuilders benefit from having the right genes. They're naturally muscular. They don't need to work out obsessively to get big. I see many guys at the gym who work out like crazy with big weights and they don't build much muscle.

R20 Steroids

R20, oh my. Are you naive?

There are miklions of threads, R18. Go to one of them. Or, better yet, start a "don't stereotype bodybuilders" thread.

We hate bodybuilders because they make us feel insecure about our physical appearance and we feel pressure to conform to a stereotypical masculine figure, right?

I think labeling all or most of any group of people as having some sort of shared trait like shallowness, laziness, etc is narrow minded. People tend to be diverse, unless you are talking about some group who is driven by some sort of hate like the KKK.

Are you talking about bodybuilders like Arnold who compete, or just muscle Mary's who don't seek to look like a bunch of walnuts in a condom but want to look like (and in many cases become) fitness models? The ones who end up on Sean Cody and Gay Hoopla and have infested Instagram. I have more time for the former; the latter are either narcissists or suffer serious inferiority complexes which they try to offset by becoming the masculine ideal. And the gay ones have a lot of internalised self-loathing.

On behalf on R18, purely in the spirit of inquiry, I would like to ask everyone if they've ever met an intelligent, thoughtful, well-informed bodybuilder.

Well?

I have met a few of the big ones, but not famous. One I had sex with was not a competitive bodybuilder, but had everything for the super heavyweight class. He liked to look big but never tried to impress me with his muscles; he was more focused on my mouth and my little butt. He uses his big muscles to attract guys, but he feels very shy to show or flex.

I have met others who like that of being watched by other people regardless of gender. Some heteros like the attention they receive from guys but they don't fantasise about sex with them, instead it lifts their egos.

And others who are always trying to justify bodybuilding as purely athletic because there is the stigma (for some of them) that it is a very sexualized activity and that people tend to objectify them sexually so some of them think that undermines bodybuilding.

By the way, what is a muscle mary? It sounds pejorative.

Muscle Mary.

It's a manifestation of a narcissistic disorder, in many cases, or a compensation for childhood abuse. It's a bad head space to be in, I think.

Bodybuilders for men are like top models for women, they both represent the pressure society exerts on people to look aesthetically desirable keeping the differences between men and women very well defined in terms of physical appearance.

[quote]By the way, what is a muscle mary?

A guy who looks all manly and muscular but is actually a flaming queen. There are a lot of gay guys who might look like he-man but a purse comes flying out when they start talking, thus the muscle mary grouping.

I don't like 'em with that many muscles.

What about muscle mames?

Well, not all hetero muscle men are the embodiment of stereotypical masculinity either. Not all men who bodybuild are desperate to be a walking stereotype of masculinity.

they're bunch of closeted fags

So, R31, what are your thoughts on female bodybuilders?

R37, I'm not R31, but I hate muscles on a woman. Nice toned body looks the best.

I never really thought about it, R37

Society doesn't force women to pursue a muscular body but one that is thin and delicate, one that projects stereotypical femininity. What I have noticed though is that women who engage in bodybuilding have been influenced by a positive male figure and in some way they want to emulate that and tend to reject stereotypical femininity.

I have seen a few heterosexual couples in which both are muscular and some of these women tend to embrace a more masculine personality.

Urs, that's very gay in my opinion R39.

*yes

They die so young.

You're conflating sexual orientation with gender expression R40 I

I'm starting to think it is bodybuilding fans who are the living portrayal of the worst stereotypes about bodybuilders and not so much bodybuilders themselves.

The most negative aspects about bodybuilding in terms of personality are shown by them, the fans who seem obsessed with an idealistic image of masculinity, probably because they lack in masculinity themselves always showing some degree of grandeur delusion with their alpha vs beta rethoric. The bullying, the homophobia, sexism in general, most of these come from the fans more than from bodybuilders themselves.

Why can't bodybuilding fans be normal?

Nah, bodybuilders and fitness are just as homophobic R44, I see it every day, I read it every day (on social media). They're just as bad.

*fitness models

Interesting to read all of the amateur psychiatrists on this thread pathologize another activity that many gay men enjoy. More gay self-hatred?

OMG! SO shallow....

What prompts men to get into bodybuilding? What is the original desire?

Many reasons, from defending themselves from bullies, compensate for perceived physical flaws, not feeling masculine enough to enjoying that of being seen as kind of a sex symbol.

It gets them a ton of cock...

I got into it from about my senior year in high school until my junior year in college. I actually did it as just something to do.

When some scholars call bodybuilding a queer activity I wonder if they are simply acknowleding the fact that it's homoerotic or if they are actually pathologising it for it. They usually lump homoeroticism into the same category with narcissism, shallowness, etc. which sounds biased and homophobic to me.

"queer" theory is homophobic by design

As homoerotically sexy as bodybuilding is in nature I find it very unrealistic if bodybuilders have the expectation to make a living out of muscle exhibiton as a professional career because being paid for a few poses isn't actually a real job. It is like Miss Universer expecting to receive many just by standing in front of a crowd wherever she goes. That's lazy.

And bodybuilding will always be associated with sexuality because muscles are secondary sex traits (most bbers care about sex appeal even if they deny it) and whether or not people feel attracted to muscular bodies it is undeniable that the first natural thought when looking at a muscle man exhibiting his almost naked body is that there is inherently something erotic/sexual implied in such exhibition that simply is part of it all.

Why do muscle men always resort to jobs that exploit their bodies as sex tools?

The luckiest become models and are the covers of magazines or the face for a company that sells anything related to physicality. The not that lucky ones will usually go for G4P as they call it in any of its branches: muscle worship, webcam shows, stripping and even sex. Sometimes, the luckiest one also engage in G4P be it webcam shows for gays or stripping despite not being in a tight financial situation. Both have in common that they exploit their bodies in a sexual way.

A tiny minority actually pursues a career as personal trainers; the vast majority that works out goes for jobs that obectify their bodies.

They have to because they can't hold steady jobs.

Could you imagine Betty in accounting getting mouthy about who jammed the copier when one of them is on a roid rage?

In the end, bodybuilding preys on our nature-given predisposition to find muscles attractive/erotic. That's why bodybuilding, with the exception of personal training, can only offer job opportunities that are related to sexuality. You become a walking phallus.

Nice job

They are just objects of sexual desire. That’s it. Nothing more.

Even judges want em

Different people have different values and different goals in life. I work out, because I want to look my best, and I eat healthy to keep my immune system up. I read Men's Health to check out new developments in fitness. I avoid shortcuts like steroids, because they go against my wish to stay healthy (steroids having nasty and unhealthy side effects).

And I admit it, I silently judge overweight people for living an unhealthy lifestyle that very likely leads to all sorts of pain and illnesses. As a so-called health nut, I cannot see myself dating someone who doesn't share my values in terms of fitness and health (which is something I look for when dating another guy, he has to be a progressive Liberal as well). But I have friends and socialize with people who don't share my specific health and fitness values. We share other interests (like music, TV and movie enertainment, celebrity gossip, politics, career, home renovation, arts and crafts, etc.).

I guess, being shallow vs. having certain values depend on the individual's perception.

I tried working out seriously when I was about 33, just to gain some muscles for looks. I did it religiously for six months and then gave up. I gained a lot of respect for serious bodybuilders/weightlifters, because it takes a ton of willpower; you've really got have the mindset for it. By the end of six months, I was just thinking, "I'll have to do this forever and it will get worse and worse (as the weights get heavier and I do more reps)".

The one bodybuilder I knew biblically may have been shallow. But he was really deep.

[quote]"In" "your" "eyes" "it's" "extreme" "and" "you" "already" "made" "up" "your" "mind" "that" "it's" "shallow" "and" "self absorbed". "You" "want" "to" "understand"? "Get" "rid" "of" "your" "own" "predjudice" "towards" "bodybuilding" "and" "bodybuilders". "Then" "you" "might" "have" "a" "chance" "to" "understand".

FIFY.

I once had a best friend who BECAME a bodybuilder. Had a primo seat on the development of a bodybuilder. My observations and thoughts are the following: He claimed to have a very abusive childhood. (Hated his stepfather, shared some stories about abuse and other childhood trauma in detail) He did become more handsome and stood out (he resembled certain macho celebrities)--getting more attention by both males and females but was a total hetero. It inflated his confidence to the stratosphere Developed Narcissistic tendencies. Over time, he became less empathetic with others and more and more on how he looked. He was always looking at ways to improve himself, becoming more developed physically and mentally.

Today, the immense popularity and exaltation of muscular males on social media is the greatest incentive to become a bodybuilder or fitness model bro.