Images of
puffed-up bodybuilders made popular in 1950s publications
are alive and well as videos on the Internet. Only now
they’re creating a new connection between gay
and straight men.
Somewhere in
America, a fit, tan, hairless 19-year-old straight boy who
goes by the online name “Weatiez” demonstrates
calisthenics while standing in his bedroom with a
poster of a hot blond topless chick on the wall behind
him. He’s the kind of guy I’d furtively steal
glances at in my high school locker room, afraid of
getting beat up if I stared too long.
In most of
Weatiez’s videos, an aggressive rap song plays as he
faces the camera then starts flexing his biceps and
bouncing around, staring at me with an unsettling
mixture of hostility and desire. His appealing,
slightly disturbing performance of bodybuilder and rapper
poses is one of several Weatiez has posted on
YouTube.com, an online video clearinghouse where as
many as 43,000 viewers—mostly male—have
watched his impromptu shenanigans since he started
broadcasting them in April.
Weatiez is far
from alone. For whatever reason, young guys who list
themselves as straight have decided to display their
chiseled physiques on YouTube. They’re building
a very large gay male fan base while creating a new
forum for the ever-changing dialogue between gay and
straight men.
As recently as a
year ago, this kind of dynamic for exhibitionism and
voyeurism was unheard-of. But YouTube changed all that.
After the now-famous Saturday Night Live clip
“Lazy Sunday” appeared on the site last
December (in which an unknown male duo did a gangsta-rap
parody about “the
chronic—what!—cles of Narnia”), the
site skyrocketed in popularity, and soon people of all
ages and persuasions started posting videos of
themselves. When I contacted YouTube for this story, their
representative declined, citing an “unbelievable
amount of interest” in the company.
I discover
Weatiez while surfing YouTube and come across a video in
which he stands in what looks like a basement, his
brown skin contrasting against the white wall behind
him. A bare fluorescent bulb is affixed to the
ceiling. Wearing a white T-shirt, Weatiez suddenly rips it
off his body, WWE style.
Altogether,
Weatiez’s videos offer a surprisingly intimate
glimpse of the kind of rough-and-tumble jock many gay
men, myself included, obsessed over in high school.
And judging from the comments posted on this young
man’s YouTube profile, many gay men still hold that
adolescent fixation. “A ha cool video,”
writes “noffin1” about another Weatiez bedroom
creation. “Nice with the hat flying onto the
head…a bit risky having the pants so low they
are almost showing the ood stuff.”
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Rowan also writes for The New York Observer.