The NY Times takes note of a disturbing trend towards ultra-thin models.
Why is this news? Well, the models in question are men.
Take a look. We’re not talking slender and trim here; after all, male models have never been known for enormous heft. But a certain amount of muscle, just to let you know the testosterone was flowing, used to be de rigueur.
Now we have these guys:
The designers say it’s just the way it is; they look good in clothes. Obviously, there’s more going on here than that. As one would-be but too highly-muscled model says:
My agency asked me to lose some muscle. I lost a little bit to help them, because I understand the designers are not looking for a male image anymore. They’re looking for some kind of androgyne.”
The androgynous look has long been close to the surface in fashion, for both men and women. Being skinny makes either sex lose the bulk (literally) of its secondary sexual characteristics: no more bulging arms and pecs for men, and forgot about swelling breasts and hips for women.
Of course, the industry has its share of gay men, and this may drive the whole thing a bit. But only a bit; gay men have long been heavily employed in the fashion industry, and sometimes a more muscular look has been considered very appealing. There’s nothing about gayness that dictates either the little boy or the little girl look—after all, some of Marilyn Monroe’s biggest fans are gay.
No, it’s something else. My guess? The first is the desire for novelty and change, always a huge driving force in fashion. If muscles were in last year, they must be out this year. The second is a generalized trend towards the younger and younger in popular culture, of which fashion is certainly a part (witness the popularity of films such as “Juno” which I wrote about yesterday, not to mention the extraordinary thinness of its female star).
I first noticed this trend for nearly-fetal male movie stars (”Fetal Attraction?”) back when the movie “Titanic” was all the rage, and Leonardo di Caprio the latest heartthrob. Did he even shave? The lovely Kate Winslett looked as though she could eat him for breakfast and still be hungry:
The story of Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up, is fiction. But it taps into a deep desire that’s becoming more and more prevalent these days.
Adulthood has its sorrows but it has its compensations as well. In any case, it’s unavoidable: we must grow up or die. Actually, we do both, hopefully in that order. Eternal skinniness brings the promise of eternal youth, but its contradiction is that, for most people, it can only be maintained at the cost of vigilant and purposeful starvation.
But then, who ever said fashion made sense?
Previously a lifelong Democrat, born in New York and living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself slowly but surely
February 7th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
This is “twink” culture. Pure and simple.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=twink
Fashionland’s eternal flirtation with hebephila.
February 7th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
And it is about gay culture, muscular sterotypes notwithstanding.
From the Urban Dictionary entry quoted above:
“The stereotypical twink is 18-22, slender with little or no body hair, often blonde, dresses in club wear even at 10:00 AM, and is not particularly intelligent. A twink is the gay answer to the blonde bimbo cheerleader.”
February 7th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Hah! No such problem in the manly Database Administration field!
February 7th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I know little about psychology, so I’ve no idea if this is correct, or b/s… but, I read once that teenaged girls often have initial attraction to boys who remind them of themselves, i.e. girly looking boys. The teenaged girls are actually very focused on themselves, et al and whatever, and thus: David Cassidy, Leif Garrett, and Leo DiCaprio.
February 7th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Only in America (the West) can refusing food be cool. No wonder “they” hate us.
February 7th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Gay culture is popular culture. It sees masculinity through a double lens. Both distort. The first lens is the gay man’s view of women, which is simultaneously over idealized and amoralized. Masculinity is then viewed from the standpoint of this amoral ideal.
Point the popular culture at a skinny, effeminate man and it projects a larger-than-life masculine ideal on trendy magenta drapes. Don’t have trendy, magenta drapes?
Breeder!
February 7th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Simple: the outcry about anorexic models forced the fashion industry to quit using women who look like underfed teenage boys. This forced the designers to start hiring _actual_ underfed teenage boys.
February 7th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
This is “twink” culture. Pure and simple.
You mean catamites?
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/catamite
February 7th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
It’s all about the feminization of the American male.
No kickball, no batteball, no phys. ed., no fighting, no horseplay, no roughhousing, anger management, Ritalin, suppress the male, drug the male, etc, etc.
What your left with is a bunch of wussified metrosexuals.
Compare the movie stars of the past with those of today:
Then nostly men:
John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Sean Connery
Today mostly girly men:
Leonardo di Caprio, Tom Cruise, George Clooney, Richard Gere, etc.
February 7th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
“The lovely Kate Winslett looked as though she could eat him for breakfast and still be hungry”
That is what I always thought! Nobody I knew agreed with me, but I thought it was terrible casting. Leonardo di Caprio struck me as a snotty little twirp in the movie & I couldn’t believe Kate Winslett’s character would be attracted to him..ruined the whole thing for me.
February 7th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
What, me worry? So, who goes to fashion shows sporting male fashion models anyway? I haven’t glanced at the cover of GQ at 711 in a long time, but I bet there you still don’t find too many “twinks”. We don’t need to start worrying until they show up on pro-basketball and they can’t jump or shoot. Real men are 48 and look like they’re 6 months pregnant anyway…
February 7th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Hey, Tap, I agree! I thought di Caprio was completely inappropriate for that part! He was fine as a wispy young lover in Romeo and Juliet, but as a romantic hero in Titanic, especially one who’se supposed to be a wild Irish romantic and roustabout, he was ridiculous!
And, of course, it didn’t help that the script made him creepily repulsive. He teaches the heroine to spit (ugh!) and shows her pictures of a “beautiful prostitute” he drew in Paris (the way to any woman’s heart; show her pictures of a streetwalker.)
I was surprised the girl didn’t just push him into the Atlantic!
February 8th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Was that why McCain won, do you think? Because republicans didn’t want a twink?
February 8th, 2008 at 11:28 am
“I haven’t glanced at the cover of GQ at 711 in a long time, but I bet there you still don’t find too many “twinks”.”
I flipped through my stepson’s most recent copy, and the Prada and Gucci ads are quite twinkly. I’m glad to have a word for it, I was using “disturbing.”
February 8th, 2008 at 11:43 am
This is the look of tall boys after they’ve got their growth and before they have to shave.
My 17 (next month) year old son told me a couple of days ago that he weighs 135 pounds and he’s at least 6 feet tall. He really could play an extra in a holocaust movie. I told him it was normal to stretch out before he started bulking up.
It’s hard to find clothes that fit but 30-32’s hang down on his hips far enough that they’re long enough too. It’s next to impossible to find pants with a 28″ waist.
I told him he was built like a high fashion model.
He thought that was funny.
February 8th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
And my 17 year old son looks just like that. Last year he grew 10 cm higher, a head above my head, but still does not need to shave. My wife and me were shocked when a doctor called us and told that he has so low haemoglobine that it is “a catastrophe”. We always encourage him to eat more, but in vain.
February 8th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I hadn’t thought of that, but it could be why my son tires so quickly.
I wonder if his masculinity could survive one-a-day plus iron.
February 8th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Come back John Wayne, all is forgiven!
February 9th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Yet another in a seemingly infinite series of bad ideas from Europe.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:46 am
Men without chests are all the rage? CS Lewis saw that coming 50 years ago.
February 11th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Thanks for the Twinks!
(I recently saw “Prime” with Meryl Streep as a Jewish mother/ therapist with a close 37 year old Uma Thurma client, recently divorced, who became infatuated / in love with a much younger 23 year old guy.
“A career driven professional from Manhattan (Thurman) who is wooed by a young painter, who also happens to be the son of her psychoanalyst (Streep”
Bryan Greenberg is slender, NOT skinny. Good cast.
I thought quite “real” in many, many places, without being overdone. Including the guy looking like a sexy, cute, young, but definitely male B-ball playing guy.
February 12th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
I have a theory. I’ve been wondering if the sexualization of the immature is not the seed of pedophilia. It’s a scary thought but pedophilia certainly seems to be on the rise. I am definitely not a professional but I’ve been reading news stories since I was 9, I am now 71, and it seems to me that rape of both girls and boys is on the rise. There is definitely much more porn of that nature available, some of it in prominent catalogs.
February 12th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
People just like decadence when they don’t got anything useful to do.
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:08 am
I don’t understand why you’re making a big deal about Leonardo’s look?Maybe I’m imagining things but when The Beatles had girls screaming for them in the 60s,I remember them being lean,not muscular.Most of the great male rock stars(at least back in the day)that women were lusting for were skinny and androgynous looking. They didn’t have big arms and bulging pecs(which I find repulsive-looks like something that needs to go in a bra).
And I’m sick of FAT men with thick necks and big,square faces.
I don’t think a big body makes you more manly.That’s why we have soooo many fat men,most women don’t want a man who looks like the King Of Queens,whether they admit it or not.
I am a hetrosexual woman who is physically attracted to a man with a slim physique .Not apologizing for it!