I jest of course. The staff at Men’s Health wish they looked like that.
Even if I’m sure quite a few of them dance like that — when the readers can’t see them (Don’t Ask Don’t Tell may be about to be repealed in the US Armed Forces, but not any time soon at Men’s Health publisher Rodale Inc.).
The topless, somewhat top-heavy chaps miming to Kylie in the vid are actually models from a gay porn outfit. The clip is called ‘A Tribute to Kylie’ – but should probably be called ‘A Tribute to My Tits’.
Then again, lots of things today should probably be called that, including Men’s Health, Strictly Come Dancing, and Mikey Sorrentino’s wannabe narcissists’ self-help book, Here’s the Situation.
Get outta their way!
Especially now that narcissism is officially no longer a mental illness. Earlier this month it was announced that the next edition of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, the bible of therapists and psychiatrists, would no longer include narcissism in its list of personality disorders.
Great blog, Mark. I had no idea the new DSM is dropping NPD – well, of course, they’re nuts (as we psychotherapists say – yes, I’m one of THEM). To elaborate: the child’s wish for attention, admiration & validation from its parents is, as Freud saw, healthy narcissism (“Look what I can do, Mummy”) which if consistently met (“Oh what a lovely picture, darling” or “What a big boy you are, son”) lays the foundation for robust, solid self-confidence. If it’s put down, ignored or derided, the narcissism goes underground, only to re-emerge in adult life as NPD. Think status symbols, bodybuilders, designer-labelholics, opinionated, puffed-up, arrogant swaggerers. I come across narcissistic traits in many of my clients (gay and straight) – and who doesn’t check the mirror before venturing out into the metrosexualopolis? But in its extreme form, as NPD, it can be ruinous, as it was for Wilde. Freudians believed NPD was untreatable (note: Freud famously maintained that he was NOT a Freudian!). It was Heinz Kohut who first found a way to work with narcissists by emphasising empathy as a basic therapeutic tool. Prick a show-off’s bubble and you’ll lose your client. Softly, softly catchee monkey.
for free of course
Mark S. Photoshopping tits is how a earn a living… and i would love to do yours
No need to apologise for vanity publishing. Is not all writing an act of vanity?
When I lived in New York, in my dull bit of corporate Midtown, I took an apartment which overlooked East 46th Street.
Immediately opposite, in a nondescript sixties office block, sat the editorial offices of Rodale. They worked with the blinds open.
Up to a point, it was a visual feast for a gay chap. Corkboards groaning with shots of abs and pecs and insouciantly unshaven chins.
They would mock up a cover once a month, and eight weeks later I could buy it on the ground floor in the newsagent.
But like a kid in a candy store, or a twink in a sauna, I soon tired of it. After a while, they all look the same. Nice enough, but the same.
And really, do I want to read the articles just to get to the beef?
At least Playboy articles suggest that sex could be fun, rather than something which needs to be managed to a successful outcome.
Although this is like asking a magician to reveal how his tricks work,
Is there a source you have for the idea of everyone walking around like they were being photographed?
A 19th/20th century author?
I’m hoping maybe they can explain why people are narcissistic in some terms other than freudian parental complexes.
Mary Lynn: I’ll have to read a lot more issues of Men’s Health if I’m going to do that.
You MUST, you MUST, you MUST include your BUST!!!
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