22 01
The cult of the body: I'm good, then I exist

Article

Iñaki Domínguez

Sylvester Stallone said in an interview with Larry King that when he began to go to the gym, in the 1960s, those places were a sordid location in which it was not uncommon to see gentlemen smoking a cigarette while lifting weights.The gym as an urban ecosystem was frequented by forced, street macarras and, in some cases, celebrities very aware of its image;This was, after all, its source of income.This tonic was the dominant, probably, until the mid -1980s, when the gym became a more prominent role in social life.Then the fitness fashion emerged, mostly dominated by Aerobic.

The emergence of this new phenomenon was closely linked to the reinvention of Jane Fonda as the protagonist of a whole catech of VHS videos in which he instructed in the art of sport to those consumers who could not - or did not want to leave his home for his home fordo exercise.Jane Fonda's new identity expressed a dialectical transition that moved from protests against the Vietnam War, Hippie Movement and radical policies, to a new reality in which former activists became great yuppies consumers.The actress, in this case, served as an example - as ancient leftist figure - for the promotion of a new consumption.Before its transfiguration, Fonda was also known as Hanói Jane for having visited the communist troops of Northern Vietnam in 1972, something that many Americans would never forgive him.

The seed of the current Metroxuality could also find it in the 1960s: Jay Sebring, hairdresser and ex -boyfriend of Sharon Tate - and murdered with her by the henchmen of Charles Manson -, was then a true revolutionary in the court for gentlemen.Sebring then offered a novel service to a part of the male audience that until then had only been able to resort to barbers.Sebring himself, in fact, cut his hair to Jim Morrison for the realization of his most iconic photograph, where he is peeled and with his arms extended.According to those present, Morrison, as soon as he appeared before the hairdresser, showed this the page torn from a history book that showed a painting of the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great.

The meter, generally imitates some of the identity features of women;And he does, precisely, with those who he finds exciting in it.Naively, the Metroxual considers that women are attracted in men exactly what they want in women, which does not always have to be like that: if the medical man feels attraction for the fact that the woman is shaved, she hasVery soft and brunette skin, this replicates these characteristics in your own body to create in women the same feeling of imperative desire that he feels when observing them (or, at least, that is what he aspires).This same mechanism was the one that Jim Morrison followed after observing his friend Ronnie Haran - Sunset Strip Alma, Los Angeles - who never wore under his blouses under his blouses.After feeling the stab of desire, the singer decided to emulate Haran: he did not put underpants under his tight leather pants in how long he had left.We can affirm that this basic strategy represents the essence of meter.

El culto al cuerpo: estoy bueno, luego existo

From a sociological perspective we can talk about a paradigm shift in the masculinity model: the idea of the revolution introduced by Jay Sebring did not simply consist of cutting his hair, but about obtaining an added degree of beauty and sophistication as a distinction.Before the 1960s, women's access to the workplace was unusual, but the subsequent mass incorporation of these to the labor market resulted in, among many other things, a rethinking of the male role in society.The newly conquered labor equality had two striking consequences in terms of roles: women adopted attitudes traditionally associated with man, and men adopted roles historically linked to women.

As a consequence, many men also aspired to be the object of desire, to be a "beautiful sex", which would form the subsequent function of the gym as a public space.If the man had had exclusively held a wide range of professions - something that defined him as a social subject - he had to seek new forms of recognition: "Being beautiful" was one of many resources at his disposal.This sociological tendency has been intensified over the years, and now both genres make the image itself a fundamental aspect of their identity, something due to the greatest nihilism, hedonism and narcissism of Western societies;Phenomena arising, in fact, because of the growing lack of spiritual and religious convictions.

Consequence of these changes is the unfortunate narcissism that dominates our society: each of us, today, lends itself to occupy the place of the traditional celebrity.We have technological devices thanks to which we are able to project a media image, something that was previously accessible to recognized artists.This is the product of a democratization of the use of technology, today available for any foot -on citizen.The relationship between such access to technology and the cultivation of physical exercise is more than palpable.People who did sports in past times could not share their practices with others, since they lacked technologies and platforms to become visible to others immediately.This narcissism has also been exacerbated by the markets themselves, which aspire to isolate the subject so that, indirectly, he is dissatisfied in his intimate, loving and filial life, being impelled to consume ad infinitum.From that void in the plane of the intimate, a need for recognition expressed in the number of likes that one receives from the environment springs.It is a vampire craving for recognition that, unfortunately, never satisfies;A crav that never works.Despite receiving such a frivolous recognition, one is quickly urged to receive new dos dopamine.

The cult of the body has several causes: one is the death of God, which offers preponderance to materiality, to biological life, the body;Another, the emergence of the Welfare Society: when one has many of its basic needs covered, new new ones linked to self -image arise.In addition, the emergence of new technologies for indiscriminate use makes the subject's media representation occupy a central place in social relations.All this leads us to meet at a particularly conducive moment to put ourselves in form.Of course, the primary objective of these efforts is to be recognized by others, in obtaining a distinction whose achievement demands a lot of effort in mass societies such as ours, where each subject represents an atom in an immeasurable environment.The narcissist demands the attention of others, but not to relate intimately to them, but to exclusively exercise the function of spectators of their self.The narcissist needs the other not only to obtain false self -esteem through the look of others, but to verify his very existence.Do I think later?No: I'm good, then I exist.