My Body

So, I was sitting at home, surfing the web, and I saw this headline: “Near 50 Percent Would Sacrifice 1 Year ofTheir Lives For The Perfect Body...”   My first response was, ‘what kind of self-loathing shit is this?’  I quickly remembered a quote from a friend, “nothing is perfect, and the quest for perfection kills.”  This headline made it all clear to me. As a zaftig man of color and age, making my way through this racist, fat-hating world, is a lot already. Now add micro-navigating through the materialistic, youth-obsessed, gay population, and it is a veritable party for Kiki. No wonder this world is filled with all kinds of eating disorders and body image issues. Is it wrong that my primary rationale for trying to get fit again is to NOT have B-Roll footage of my torso for a TV news story on obesity? 

According to the article, 48% of gay men would sacrifice a year or more of their lives in exchange for a perfect body. The research also said 10% of gay men would agree to die more than 11 years earlier if they could have their ideal body now.  I guess that I should not be surprised.  Sad to say, there are some folks who would do worse for less.  I immediately wanted to know in what gyms, nightclubs, or saunas did they do their research? And as I kept reading, I discovered that the YMCA commissioned part of the study.  So that is 2 out of 3 places that must have been surveyed.  I’ll let you decide which one. Now get out there and love yourself.