Ecce Homo

Would you buy a creatine supplement from this man?

There's a problem with using cropped gay porn images (which this isn't) for non-porn purposes. The problem is they still manage to look like gay porn, even without a trimmed public hair in sight.

The irony is that the many (probably most) of those who will buy the product are men who want to look good and buff...for other men. So I've got to find pictures of pornstars posing but not looking like they're in porn to sell something to men who want to look like pornstars.
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The above is one of the few images from alt.binaries.erotica.male.bodybuilder that shows a healthy, attractive, muscular man. As opposed to a dehydrated mutant with scarily prominant veins and a posing pouch.

Serious competative bodybuilders - the kind who imbibe dangerous amounts of steroids and diuretics (and experiment with worse things) - are in some strange way the opposite of sexy, and the opposite of healthy.

They are cartoons of health and sexiness, much as post-op male-to-female transsexuals are sometimes cartoons of women. As addicts of plastic surgery are caricatures of beauty, and as people with 'florida style' facelifts display a caricature of youth.

We recognise anorexia as a sickness, where something desirable like low body fat gets taken to absurd lengths. Gross overeating is recognised - at least by enlightened doctors - as an equal and opposite sickness to anorexia.

People with these conditions can get sympathy and treatment, but an out of control psychological dependance on weights, drugs and pain has somehow become a sport. Once it takes hold, it's encouraged by competition and the promise of cash prizes.

Not all bodybuilders - not even heavy drug users - are like that. I've known some muscle development enthusiasts, and they weren't in the least out of control. What I'm saying is, there's a blurred, indestinct rubicon territory that someone can cross without noticing, until they find they're spending hundreds on a cocktail of chemicals every month and don't know how to stop.

The line between enthusiasm and obsession, between dedication and sickness, is not clear. You only know you've crossed it when it's already far behind.
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I don't want to spent too long on this project - I want (again, still) to return to music making. Though my genre of synthpop is often aimed at...the same kind of man who wants to be buff for other men.