The mediocrity machine pumped out another inane piece of anti-achievement propaganda in The Age today. Presenting the same tired and sad “concerns” about men with body image “problems” - and despite obviously restrained and intelligent counter arguments from Andre Davids - the reader is again warned to be very wary of the ‘dangers’ of wanting to look good. Click here to read...
Here is my beef:
The biggest health problems facing Western society are the OPPOSITE of body dysmorphia! Most people in Western society will DIE from a disease related to nutritional ABUSE and physical NEGLECT! And yet some academics find it necessary to warn people AGAINST the exact lifestyle attributes and values that would solve MOST health problems in Western society? Why? Because a party-hard, recreational-drug-abusing idiot - who also happened to bodybuild - died in Thailand? Hmmm... really?
You do not need to look very far or hard to find idiots in their 20’s who do monumentally stupid, self-destructive things. In fact, pretty much everybody of any age could reveal a story about something that they did or do that is shockingly disturbing or bafflingly stupid. So to find a young, dumb, 20-something, who follows the disgracefully misdirected advice of nutritionally-untrained personal trainers (or his idiot mates) is no proof that training and dieting for a good body is an inherently problematic activity! Its just proof that some people are dicks!
This article, like so many others, brings up the “Zyzz” story. Again! Zyzz was a well known, drug abusing, party nut. The only difference between Zyzz and the thousands of drug-abusing party nuts who die each year is that Zyzz was popular and trained. Like most young guys he liked to take off his shirt to show off a good looking body at nightclubs, parties and festivals. In case you werent aware, good looking guys going to parties with drugs and booze to pick up girls by showing off is not a new thing! Neither is going to hospital or dying from related activities! It happens EVERY WEEK; mostly to non-bodybuilders and people who do not "suffer" body dysmorphia!
Admittedly, a LOT of bodybuilders are risking their lives with some horribly misdirected water and sodium advice. There IS a big problem with heart-failures, kidney damage and seizures in bodybuilding all stemming from unqualified, uneducated ‘fitness’ professionals operating well above their pay-grade to provide dangerously ignorant advice! But these problems have NOTHING to do with body dysmorphia, drugs, training or bodybuilding generally. The problem is entirely a product of morons giving bad advice based on just enough information to be really dangerous!
Obviously the real issue is that body dysmorphia is extremely reader friendly. The average fat, unfit slob reading mainstream news feels vindicated by the idea that trying to make yourself look good by exercising and eating well is a dangerous mental condition. And the “family values” tripe runs thick throughout these articles with the yardstick of deranged, unacceptably obsessive behaviour being anything that causes relationship breakups. Because, of course, relationships between young people are sacred and normally ever-lasting; so long as a socially unpopular activity like bodybuilding doesn’t “infect” anybody.
The “body dysmorphia” charge so irritates me because it is an issue of personal priorities masquerading as psychological science. Dr Psychologist recognises that a competitive bodybuilder requires a level of size and leanness to be competitive but claims a non-competitive bodybuilder must be mentally ill for wanting the same standard for themselves! I was treated with the same contemptible attitude when I tore my bicep off the bone. The surgeon said to me that unless I planned to compete in something - anything - that I shouldnt worry about it being reattached! It wasnt good enough that I didnt want to be disfigured for myself. But doing it for some meaningless game was valid justification.
Body dysmorphia is also a question of standards. I may not be as disgustingly fat and muscleless as Dr Psychologist but that doesnt mean I’m mentally ill because I want to be even bigger and leaner than I am! It simply means I have much higher standards than Dr Psychologist. I think Dr Psychologist is mentally ill for wanting to waste his life working in a university doing research on body dysmorphia! Surely he could've contributed something to society more useful than that? What is wrong with HIM? Even more worrying, Dr Psychologist should be ashamed of how disgusting his own body is because, at the very least, its statistically far more likely to kill him than anybody elses apparent “body dysmorphia”!
Really, if society is going to have concerns about men getting depressed that they cannot achieve the physique standards that they desire, the concern should be the gross misinformation being spewed out by the Fitness industry that is making people waste so much time on such ineffective training! Perhaps if a few more Personal Trainers defected from the Fitness Industry and joined the
ASCA and
ISSN to learn about ATHLETE development - not helping unfit people achieve mediocrity - then more men would have physiques they didnt need to be depressed about!
PS: If you have body dysmorphia, good on you! Come on over to Biologic Labs and soak up the friendly pro-dysmorphic environment. If you need, you'll find effective training and nutritional advice and coaching from properly qualified Recomp Specialists. We can even put you onstage in a bodybuilding contest looking the best you could possibly look without ever restricting sodium or water or eliminating carbohydrate or anything else that would make you lose muscle, lose your mind, lose the title and possibly lose your life! Or you can always see one of the other guys and do it the other way.
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