Mr. Runner Up - Series on Male Body Image.1.

"Mr. Runner Up" is a series of images and short essays about male body image and male pageantry.

Image and Words By Alejandro Betancourt

The mattress was on the floor with pizza boxes and empty 2-liters of soda, ash trays, candy wrappers, little empty baggies and straws next to his bedside.

When he was skinny, he bought nice furniture and antique Japanese ox blood vases. Fresh flowers from the flower market filled them at 4 am, and a new orchid was added to his collection.

He used to take care of everything that he owned and polish up his body, his face, and his hair before he chose slim pants and a shirt that made him look like a stylish young man of distinction.

When he got fat, the poor guy just turned into a slob. He said he weighed around 230, but he looked heavier than that. At least 250. I never humiliated him by asking.

Even during our worst fights, I tried not to call him fat. Before that, I remember we had a mild argument, and when I did so, he quietly said, “Don’t call me that, it hurts my feelings.”

We were just kids and it didn’t work out. In the end I lost all respect for him and called him a fatass all the time.