Ulitimate fighting, gym monkeys and the new 'gay' generation.

ooh, Friday night and I am home alone blogging.

This long distance relationship thing sucks.

Hmmm, well, there's always the distraction of mixed martial arts (Pride, UFC, IFL to name three of them) - basic cable swims in soft-core homo-erotica. Long time readers will know my appreciation for UFC as a celebration of blurring male sexualities. Is it straight or gay content? Who knows? Seriously, dear readers, it doesn't take but 15 minutes of watching any of the mixed martial arts shows to see that the target audience of these shows is men and those who like them. The commentary and the associated adverts promote toughness and ideals of masculinity. Interstingly enough, these ideals of masculinity include hours of watching buff men burying their faces into other men's chests and armpits while grappling on the floor sweating with arms and legs intertwined. Then, there's hugging and kissing at the end. The ancient Greeks would have been very familiar with these activities. The uncanny thing about these lads of the new mixed martial arts generation is that they are almost all pretty boys - not the usual denizens of traditional boxing gyms, let alone the questionable circles that started no-rules fighting. The old days of glorified bum-fights in bars have been eclipsed by highly staged (however authentic the fighting may be) events that highlight these very well groomed and very suspiciously attractive young men. Take a look if you don't believe me.

As an aside, there are also the (almost as) homoerotic biblical retellings on evangelical tv channels. Right now, for example, between MMA commercials i stumbled across a presentation of the biblical Joseph in Egypt after being sold by his brothers. There was a long scene of Joseph showering (SLOWLY!), the director choosing to emphasize the lad's very tanned, very smooth, very muscular young body. His body was also clearly oiled up like he was heading out to a Venice Beach muscle show. Who knew that the early Hebrews in Egypt were actually refugees from the Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue? Not sure how the Hebrews sprung out of the midwest, but I guess that's what good Christian dogma dictates these days.

M'eh, I'll switch over to the woofy bear goodness of Canada's Les Stroud (a.k.a. Survivorman on Discovery Channel) in his undies as he negotiates a rain forest. Gotta love the nipple-cam shots that he seems to be fond of when filming himself. Sweet Jebus on a pogo stick, there is a lot of male flesh on television these days.

But, speaking of the drawbacks of a long distance relationship, I have been working out my frustrations by hitting the gym. It's been a very long time since I've been on a campus gym. The recreational center where I go to is fascinating. The behavior of undergraduates in gyms is very different from people in public gyms elsewhere. Don't get me wrong, dear reader, I ain't leering at the twinks. 8 years of teaching the 20 somethings has made them completely non-interesting to me. What DOES interest me though, is the un-selfconscious preening and visual masturbations that many young men are so fond of doing.

For example, a couple of days ago there was one young fella who was making gawd-awful noises as he was lifting 100 lb weights for tricep lifts. Certainly a desparate cry for attention rather than uncontrolled groans of exertion. But it was between sets where the Jane Goodall/Diane Fossey in me perked up. The lad dropped his weight more dramatically than any drag queen could drop her purse before diving for that last pair of size 12 factory outlet Jimmy Choos. He then strutted over to a mirror and did an approving inspection of his arms. Then he lifted his tank top, pinning it under his chin, while he swayed back and forth staring at and running his fingers up and down his abs.

Fascinating.

I can't say I ever saw that at my undergraduate and graduate school gyms. It was like he was having a very public self-sexual moment in a space filled with several other guys participating in similar activities. It was kinda odd to be in this room filled with people participating in an orgy of mutual masurbation where no one looked at each other directly, but were all connected through the reflections on the mirror covered walls.

I figure that all the mixed martial arts on TV along with the rest of the packaging of the male body on TV is yet another marker of recent shifts in American sexuality. The hypersexualization of youth (even to the mass hysteria surrounding anything that might smack of pedophilia) has crossed the gender divide. It appears that the youngins nowadays are being socialized to now think of men as sexual objects, even onto themselves. Aside from the evils of objectification of people, this shift could result in good things if the concrete walls between straight and gay male sexuality become much more porous. The optimist in me hopes so; the deconstruction of these artificial sexualities that have allowed for so much discrimination and marginalization would bring about real change in the world. The pessimist in me worries that we'll see the incorporation of gay men into the hierarchy of straight male sexual gratification. Just as lesbians have been appropriated into the circle of heteromale fantasy, so too could gay men become objects for gratification. Mind you, that's not too different from how gay men treat each other now.

Ah well, at least the dating pool will increase...