BEEFCAKE: gay men and the body beautiful (UCL)

Panel discussion on the historic roots of gym and muscle culture and steroid use amongst gay men and how gym culture has appeared in cultural representations.
(1:38) Professor Michael King - Head of UCL Mental Health Sciences
(3:48) Duncan Stephenson - Central YMCA, Head of PR & Public Affairs
(16:12) Mark Simpson - author, journalist and columnist for The Guardian
(30:53) Johan Andersson - University of Leeds, Research Fellow in Geography; writer on the post-AIDS identity and the projection of 'healthy' bodies
(42:19) Jonathan Kemp - Lecturer in Queer Studies at Birkbeck and author of fictional works including The London Triptych and 26
(52:15) Matthew Todd - Editor of Attitude Magazine

6 February, 2012
Venue: UCL, Cruciform Building, Lecture Theatre 1
Organised by Max Hill, Sarah Guise and Ben Campkin, UCL LGBT Equality Group and Out@UCL

http://www.facebook.com/pages/OutUCL/...
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/equalities

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• Category

  Education

[Chad P]

Thank you for uploading this! I am a gay man in my late 20's who has struggled with this issue.

[andrjsh]

This has been a very engaging presentation, but the core issue of the desire for the beautiful and the biologically immanence of the desire for the beautiful cannot be avoided. We cannot change what the deepest voices in our minds say. Also, gay men have few brakes, subculturally or practically, on their sexual practice. Additionally, gay culture (and modern secular culture) lacks any spirituality or transcendence, so that the culture is stuck in the body, sensation, the visual, etc.

[Husnain Raza]

very good discussion