Friday, March 23, 2012

Mr. Runner Up - Series on Male Body Image.4.

"Mr. Runner Up" is a series of images and short essays about male body image and male pageantry.
Image by Alejandro Betancourt
Words edited by Alejandro Betancourt from menstuff.org:

Excerpts from: Body Image Problems Not Just in Women

"Millions of boys and men today harbor a secret obsession about their looks and are endangering their health by engaging in excessive exercise, bingeing and purging rituals, steroid abuse, and overuse of nutritional and dietary [products]."

Those at particular risk: men who constantly seek instant results from workouts and frequently check their progress in mirrors or on scales.

 - Katherine A. Beals, PhD, Ball State University, RD; from March/April issue of ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal, published by the American College of Sports Medicine.


Therapists report seeing 50% more men for evaluation and treatment for eating disorders than they did in the 1990s.
And the root of this trend may be a new type of disorder -- an obsession for six-pack abs and bulging biceps that seems especially common in athletes and other fitness enthusiasts.

Though statistics show that about 10% of men suffer from the two best-known eating disorders -- anorexia and bulimia -- a growing body of evidence suggests that men may be especially vulnerable to muscle dysmorphia, a condition in which one obsesses about lacking muscle definition and mass, even with a muscular body.

-British Medical Journal


"As far as we know, all men are prone to these types of issues…The reasons why haven't been well studied, but one factor may be the availability of anabolic steroids, which are potentially dangerous but can make men become much more muscular than Mother Nature ever intended."

"Perhaps this is the one domain left where men can feel like men, since women can do everything that men can do, except they can't bench-press hundreds of pounds," Phillips tells WebMD.

"What has happened over the years is there's an increasing emphasis on men's appearance, and in particular on looking muscular, and it coincides very nicely with the increasing equality women have attained in society."

- Katharine Phillips, MD, director of the Body Image Program at Brown University's Butler Hospital and author of several books on men's body image problems, including The Adonis Complex: The Secret Crisis of Male Body Obsession.


Even boys and teens -- especially those who are overweight -- are suffering emotional trauma in their quest for bigger muscles, and setting themselves for possible future medical problems. "They may try to eat lot of protein but limit fat, and they often develop a fear of foods and an anxiety that results from restrictive eating," Loomis tells WebMD.

- Catherine Loomis, PhD, psychologist at the Eating Disorders Center at Rogers Memorial Hospital in Oconomowoc, Wis., one of the nation's few treatment centers that specifically treats men with eating disorder and body image problems.

Sources: By Sid Kirchheimer. ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal, March/April 2003. British Medical Journal, Nov. 3, 2001. Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders, Inc. Katharine Phillips, MD, director, Body Image Program, Butler Hospital; associate professor of psychiatry, Brown University, Providence, R.I. Catherine Loomis, PhD, psychologist, Eating Disorders Center, Rogers Memorial Hospital, Oconomowoc, Wis. Roberto Olivardia, PhD, clinical instructor of psychology, McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston. aolsvc.health.webmd.aol.com/content/article/62/71549.html



Monday, March 19, 2012

Mr. Runner Up - Series on Male Body Image.3.

"Mr. Runner Up" is a series of images and short essays about male body image and male pageantry.
Image and Words By Alejandro Betancourt

In the year 2007, I became a bachelor again and I decided to get real lean. I wanted to look like a Greyhound. I thought of the lean build of a Doberman Pincher.

I thought of those dogs in my mind every morning and woke up to a running course that included a track on the top of a hill. To get to the top I ran 150 uneven brick steps. At the track, I ran 5 laps and did 100 crunches. When I returned to the bottom of the hill I did it all over again.

It didn’t take long to change my body shape and not only look lean, but also feel mentally and physically faster. My diet consisted mostly of beer and bachelor snacks. My attitude became overly aggressive and careless of others.

I wanted to show myself off, like some show dog. I shaved my head and wore muscle shirts when I went out. My dates were young and cute. I got laid all the time.

In 2008, I modeled for Syracuse University’s art department and gained access to one of the best gyms I have ever been privileged to use. I began lifting weights and eating a lot. I became meaner looking and thought of Rottweilers. My arms got huge and I stopped messing with little dates.

Soon I set a goal to leave Syracuse and return to LA. That is where I am now.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

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

I used to tuck in my white uniform shirt into my fat husky gray chords and pull my belt tight at the waist, then pull my shirt out just right so it made me look boxy. I was a fat kid, but smart enough to try a stocky look.

Like an illusionist, the fat spare around my mid-section would disappear, but the tight belt was painful and left scarring. The pain was worth it as a 10-year-old boy who only began to learn the rules of the image game.

I began to gag myself after dinner and throw up in the toilet to lose weight. My mother worked as a maid and I worried that she would catch me, so I tried to keep it quiet and clean.

But one of my mother’s clients was bulimic, and she knew about places to clean that I did not. The splatter under the rim gave me away and I was busted.

Throughout my youth, I occasionally threw up when I felt fat until I discovered the gym and began to work out on my own. Sports were not always an option, but that was ok. I thought the sport of looking good had better rewards.


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.