These boys are being reviered as some sort of contemporary saints, de sacrifice their lives and health so that we have something to look up to, perhaps jerk-off to (depending on your preferences) - they push their bodies to the very limit so that we can feel a moments rush. Some people manage to accomplish these pillars of perfection, long enough for us to like and share.

To be a man is traditionally about being an acting subject. The lean and muscular body is a sign of will and action, because man’s agency is directed inward towards his own body and outward the mirror image and all the gazes and clicks on screens. By combining hunger, testoterone, and training, the man shows total control and power. Just long enough for pictures to be taken, fingers to click or stroke, and for the viewer’s genitals to get reflex reactions.
It’s hard to direct all your agency inward at your own body. You get social payoff, in the attention econmy, and maybe in money. But it’s a job you can’t leave, a permanent position you’re stuck in, a shift job with no days off, a job where one tiny flaw in others’ eyes can demote the worker faster than fingers can click onward to the next picture. A tiny mistake and an endless fall awaits. A couple precentage more body fat, cm smaller muscle measurements around the chest, thighs and arms and the focus shifts from you to someone better.

Gather the capital, do the work, focus, it can all be over soon.

Text by Curator and Writer - Bjørn Hatterud