Dysmorphic Love

[Delta40]

http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h411/delta40/muscleman.jpg


He's my kind of man.
As if somebody melted Ken and let the mess re-set.
The bubbling plastic sort who can't fit into a shirt.
Veins bulge through his steroidal, dysmorphic muscles.
I long to wrap my arms round him and fail.
Yet his constipated, painful grin invites the love and worship
of distorted mankind.
He looks like a trophy for the public,
but when he sees me, he yearns for the simple life.
We giggle when I try to find his armpits to see if there is any hair.
He takes out the garbage and mows the lawn
while I hand wash his metallic g-string.
He oils himself in the backyard, then sizzles under the sun.
In all his grotesque beauty, he poses for me.
I clap and cheer loudly Bravo! Encore!
Curious neighbours peep over the fence.
They gasp at the freak show and think we're sick.
After, he rolls on the grass and plays with Binky the rabbit.
We string daisy chains together and name cloud shapes in the sky
He goes all soft and weepy on me when I make him macroni cheese.

[MorpheusSandman]

That is... very disturbing. Thanks for the nightmares, Delta!

[kittypaws]

Damn .... I wish my breast were as big as his!

sorry....

Delta ~ excellent write to the picture...liked the satire and the rabbit!

Gosh...I hope he isn't real.

kittypaws

[deryk]

The photo is very interesting, but maybe distracting. I'm surprised he has any hair on his head.

I like how you begin with the metaphor of artificiality. I also like how you transition that feeling to the public sphere, as though they approve on some level. "He looks like a trophy for the public", I thought was the fulcrum of the poem, balancing the desires of the personal against the grotesqueness of the public. He is both plaything and freakshow. When I experience him as both, I think is where the poem really sticks like epoxy. There's a sort of perturbed decadence in that moment. You have a talent for invoking empathy for such radical characters. I really enjoy it.

[MystyrMystyry]

I thought he was your blow-up doll - but then he's got a bit of digital enhancement occurring surely? I don't think steroids alone can turn someone into a complete balloon-baboon

The poem was cool - but such an image to accompany it? I'm worried about your Favorites folder Delta - I mean how are you going to scare me next?

Makes you wonder if he could lift 300 lbs - but I wonder if he could lift a book? If he could lift a library he probably wouldn't look like that - but I guess at least he isn't a boxer with a bruised brain like Cassius Clay

Big Arnie Schwarzenegger was one of these dudes for 6 Mr Universes - and look what happened to him: Athlete, Action Hero/Robot, and now politician -> Down Down Down (though he did say he was going back into movies at the end of his term, so there may be some redemption for him...

[Delta40]

http://www.google.com.au/search?um=1&hl=en&rlz=1R2ADFA_enAU425&biw=1324&bih=644&site=search&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=extreme+bodybuilders&aq=1&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=extreme+body

Man this stuff is disgusting. What I don't get is that these people can parade on stage for prize money but it would not be sanctioned for people with anorexia. What is the difference? Both have extreme distored views of their bodies and adjust them accordingly.

[deryk]

http://www.google.com.au/search?um=1&hl=en&rlz=1R2ADFA_enAU425&biw=1324&bih=644&site=search&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=extreme+bodybuilders&aq=1&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=extreme+body

Man this stuff is disgusting. What I don't get is that these people can parade on stage for prize money but it would not be sanctioned for people with anorexia. What is the difference? Both have extreme distored views of their bodies and adjust them accordingly.

I agree, but you could dig up far worse. There are subcultures where people take pride in things like self-mutilation that I won't bother linking. I might also be inclined to argue that anorexia does receive sanctions from certain media outlets. I think you're right in that they are equally disturbing.

[Varenne Rodin]

http://www.google.com.au/search?um=1&hl=en&rlz=1R2ADFA_enAU425&biw=1324&bih=644&site=search&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=extreme+bodybuilders&aq=1&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=extreme+body

Man this stuff is disgusting. What I don't get is that these people can parade on stage for prize money but it would not be sanctioned for people with anorexia. What is the difference? Both have extreme distored views of their bodies and adjust them accordingly.

Very very nasty. Is it even possible for those "women" to look that way naturally? I really hope that exercising and eating right doesn't eventually turn a normal woman into a disgusting hulk monster, with explosive veins and a Frankenstein head.

[Delta40]

I'm sure nature doesn't do that. They are all steroid addicts in a travelling freak show.

[MystyrMystyry]

Not necessarily steroids - if you ever see the movie 'Pumping Iron' it shows the effect of particular repetitive exercises - known as repetitions or simply 'reps' on specific muscle groups

All up it's a mindnumbingly tedious thing to do, but basically harmless, and when they're not flexing they just look fat - most of them are spurred on by the memory of being picked on for being too skinny when they were kids and the Charles Atlas ads in comic books

Edmund Hillary used to get criticised for having a weak chest by his gym instructor - that's who he thanked as his inspiration for climbing Everest

[Delta40]

I prefer the idea of a freak show....it's more entertaining!

[deryk]

Not necessarily steroids - if you ever see the movie 'Pumping Iron' it shows the effect of particular repetitive exercises - known as repetitions or simply 'reps' on specific muscle groups

All up it's a mindnumbingly tedious thing to do, but basically harmless, and when they're not flexing they just look fat - most of them are spurred on by the memory of being picked on for being too skinny when they were kids and the Charles Atlas ads in comic books

Edmund Hillary used to get criticised for having a weak chest by his gym instructor - that's who he thanked as his inspiration for climbing Everest

Not necessarily steroids, but some of those physiques aren't attainable by any amount of exercise. I'm sure plenty of them are prime examples of artificial synthesis as Delta suggested in her poem -especially the ones that don't look real, but are real. It really is a modern decadence in a morbid sense.

[MystyrMystyry]

Didn't say it wasn't a freakshow - I just tried to to put the steroids thing in perspective which abuse is more common in speed/stamina/strength athletics than bodybuilding

Whatever, the sad irony of being picked on throughout childhood and then picked on for opposite reasons throughout adulthood for trying to address the former - some folks are just badly fated I guess