Images- of Ourselves?

[+ Lucky]

Reading the LA gay magazine Frontiers can be an enriching experience. That is, if you accept the image of gay men that it provides. There are always many full page ads for plastic surgery, including butt implants, dick enlargement, lifts and tucks. Yet the models in the ads look like they would never in their lives need to come close to a plastic surgeon unless he was a sugar daddy.

 

Even the ad meant to make meth look bad features a drawing of a hunky guy riding a crystal pipe. (Just sign up and we will provide you with emergency HIV meds if you seroconvert while smoking!)

 

Guys with HIV have never looked so good. One ad, spread over two full pages shows up close shots of two gorgeous men. Over one it says "I have HIV. I am cherished" Presumably by the cutie on the next page. (They don't need the dental ads with the perfect smiles as they already have them!) Another two page spread shows 3 good-looking guys, and on the next page is the mantra

"I am determined.

I am disciplined.

I am a new puppy owner.

I am HIV positive."

Don't forget to read "the important risk information" and the third page full of fine print about your diarrhea and other side effects.

 

Keep reading. Another two page spread: "Even with HIV, I am a driving force." This is for another AIDS drug which also has important safety information. Did I mention the cute guy in the photo? He doesn't need cosmetic surgery either, nor does he have wasting or lipoatrophy.

 

A few pages later we get a hint: Hormones Make the Difference. A real hunk without a head leans comfortably against a wall, the better to show off his muscles, injected weekly. And, if those hormones make you grow hair in odd places, there is a laser hair removal ad right next to it.

 

Arrested? Call for help! Know Your Rights Before You Apply! Aggressive Defense For You. Those are the lawyers.

 

Rock Hard Erections...in no time. That's for the Natural Divine Store, apparently not banned.

 

Then the usual pages of working guys and a multitude of porn sites. Men Meet Men RIGHT NOW!...CALL CRUISE CONTACT...Never Be Without A Man...then the various sex clubs.

 

All in all, (yes, I counted just for you) there are 42 medical related ads in this issue of Frontiers. After all, you want to be healthy and fit . You need lawyers and you need sex. Lots of it.

 

If it all gets to be too much, there are pages of ads extolling the fun of Palm Springs for a getaway. But then, it has been pouring down rain here all day, with temps in the 40's. Why else would I go to all the trouble of this post?

[EXPAT]

good one !!

[josephga]

I use to see all of those same kind of ads in Atlanta David and southern voice. I always wondered if the guys in those ads really had aids or if they were just models for the ads. Kinda like those commercials on tv for hemorrhoids or herpes. I figured they were just actors for the tv ads and didn't really have herpes or hemorrhoids

[+ ArVaGuy]

Let’s also keep in mind that the model images have been photoshopped to remove the blemishes, blotches, scars, and wrinkles.

[josephga]

Let’s also keep in mind that the model images have been photoshopped to remove the blemishes, blotches, scars, and wrinkles.

 

true

[KMEM]

"Hic ego cum veni futui, deinde redei domi."

 

Maybe in ancient Rome and maybe next year in the USA but not now.

 

Best regards,

KMEM

[NYTomcat]

After all, you want to be healthy and fit . You need lawyers and you need sex. Lots of it.

 

 

Really and I just thought everyone wanted the chance to screw a healthy and fit lawyer.

[+ Lucky]

I should be so lucky.

[NYTomcat]

I should be so lucky.

 

I guess you could always send your maker of culinary masterpieces back to law school. but could you live with the arguments after that.

[Guest greatness]

hmm

 

Lucky I think you will be a good editor in chief for a gay magazine. How about publishing a magazine of your own? If you think it is going to be too much work then you can just settle with submitting editorials for a fashion magazine like Vogue. You will be so good, however, you will eventually get rid of Anna Wintour and take her place.

 

You will be like Miranda Priestley in "The Devil Wears Prada". Your magazine will be so powerful and popular every gay man has to read it. Let's call it "Avant Garde" for now. DuchessIvanaKizznhugg will talk about hairstyles and jewelry every other month while MsGuy talks about how to look chic in a non-designer clothing bought within one's budget. I, NYTomcat and justaguy can write about shoes. In order for us to write about shoes you will give us a business account card for us to buy whatever shoes we want to write about. It would so fun..

 

We have to think about who would be your cute first assistant?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I should be so lucky.

[justaguy]

Exellent idea, Greatness. We're going to need a sizeable travel allowance. Milan and Paris on a regular basis at the very least.

[seaboy4hire]

Ok in all seriousness Lucky brings up something that has been bothering me for quite some time esp with the HIV meds. I got into a tit for tat with my dr at the time (he's straight and specializes in hiv) about these ads being very misleading showing the wrong side of these meds. I flat out told him that the ads were basically false advertisement and someone needs to sue the big pharma to make them take them down. The guys that I've seen in the drs office don't look like they are about to sky dive off some cliff, aren't all pumped up etc. The ads (to my knowledge) do not state that one will need to not only take the hiv meds but also other meds for the side effects and maybe some hormone shots and what not to counter balance the side effects. Also with all these ads of plastic surgery they are I think encouraging gay men to be more self conscious about themselves then many already are. But I could also say the same about some of the conversations here on the board with comparing one guy against others. So I think that some of the conversations can be just as damaging as the ads in the Frontier and other gay mags.

 

Hugs,

Greg

[justaguy]

I hope my little stab at humor didn't offend. Your point is well made. Even with advances made in the last two decades, the reality of AIDS is at odds with the images Lucky describes. I agree with you. These ads should be removed simply because they suggest that AIDS is not as serious as it is.

[NYTomcat]

Ok in all seriousness Lucky brings up something that has been bothering me for quite some time esp with the HIV meds. I got into a tit for tat with my dr at the time (he's straight and specializes in hiv) about these ads being very misleading showing the wrong side of these meds. I flat out told him that the ads were basically false advertisement and someone needs to sue the big pharma to make them take them down. The guys that I've seen in the drs office don't look like they are about to sky dive off some cliff, aren't all pumped up etc. The ads (to my knowledge) do not state that one will need to not only take the hiv meds but also other meds for the side effects and maybe some hormone shots and what not to counter balance the side effects. Also with all these ads of plastic surgery they are I think encouraging gay men to be more self conscious about themselves then many already are. But I could also say the same about some of the conversations here on the board with comparing one guy against others. So I think that some of the conversations can be just as damaging as the ads in the Frontier and other gay mags.

 

Hugs,

Greg

 

I am in full agreement as to the AIDS meds ads what in the hell are they thinking. As to the plastic surgery and the like, please take a look at any and i mean any magazine. Vogue, Teen, GQ. they all focus on looks glamour and how to make ourselves what we are not. It is the very basic nature of advertising. Do you think young girls/women do not have these same complaints, or should. I agree the damaging effects of focusing on what the media claim are "imperfections" is unknown but definately felt by individuals. but I do not agree that we limit that to the gay community.

 

As to the conversations on this forum, well yes we are hyper-critical. But remember we are reviewing what I believe we all think of as the very pinnacle of male beauty, sex and well enough said. While we may often use this forum for much more than that (thank god) That is part and parcel of the nature of the forum. If we were reviewing everyday guys we meet I believe, or maybe hope, the conversation would turn on more than mere physical beauty. But since our encounters are fleeting in many instances, they are the only critiques we have. So our discussions often focus on them.

 

However, I do appreciate and find greater reward from the reviews and threads that discuss how an escort makes a client feel about themselves and the encounter. Not that a sensual play by play and critique of body parts doesn't have merit (see above) but the real magic of truly great escorts is how they make you feel when you are with them. At least that my measure.

[josephga]

Ok in all seriousness Lucky brings up something that has been bothering me for quite some time esp with the HIV meds. I got into a tit for tat with my dr at the time (he's straight and specializes in hiv) about these ads being very misleading showing the wrong side of these meds. I flat out told him that the ads were basically false advertisement and someone needs to sue the big pharma to make them take them down. The guys that I've seen in the drs office don't look like they are about to sky dive off some cliff, aren't all pumped up etc. The ads (to my knowledge) do not state that one will need to not only take the hiv meds but also other meds for the side effects and maybe some hormone shots and what not to counter balance the side effects. Also with all these ads of plastic surgery they are I think encouraging gay men to be more self conscious about themselves then many already are. But I could also say the same about some of the conversations here on the board with comparing one guy against others. So I think that some of the conversations can be just as damaging as the ads in the Frontier and other gay mags.

 

Hugs,

Greg

 

 

 

I agree with the ads. I remember being 14 years old seeing documentary's on tv about aids and ads in mags at the time the guys in the ads and docs suffered from facial wasting , sores on their face and body, and weight loss. seeing those ads put the fear in me and others And I knew then when i was older and started having sex it would always be safe and i never wanted too feel or suffer like that. now they have all the climbing the mountain ads, skiing down the slops. hot buffed guys in the ads saying just take this pill everyday and aids will be no big deal and you too can look this hot.. They need to have the guys i saw in my teens in the ads and put the fear in those teens and 20 something's where aids in on the rise..

[Luv2play]

Lucky, I remember on visits to South Florida in the early to mid nineties that the local gay rags had pages of ads for viatical settlements. They invariably showed gorgeous young guys doing things like rock climbing and saying how much they enjoyed the money they had to deal with their illness! Then they discovered effective drug regimes that converted HIV from a death sentence to a manageable disease like diabetes. The viatical ads disappeared (and presumably so did a large part of the industry).

 

But of course we know where they went. Real estate. In the early 2000's, all the gay rags in South Florida were full of ads about making investments in real estate. The gays piled into the field with much enthusiasm. I remember condos going up an average of 50 to 100 percent annually in the years after 2001 through 2006.

 

Some of my friends from Europe thought that the $350,000 condos in Ft. Lauderdale (which were not on the ocean) were a good investment.

 

Then the crash came. Today you can buy very attractive properties in the area for a fraction of their price three years ago.

 

And so it goes, east coast, west coast, same madness.

[+ Lucky]

I'd forgotten those viatical settlement ads. A gruesome way to make money for the investor.

[+ ArVaGuy]

I'd forgotten those viatical settlement ads. A gruesome way to make money for the investor.

 

They are not too gruesome for Warren Buffet. As recent as 2004 Berkshire Hathaway was invested in several funds involved in this practice.

[MsGuy]

They are not too gruesome for Warren Buffet. As recent as 2004 Berkshire Hathaway was invested in several funds involved in this practice.

 

Pecunia non olet.

[Guest DuchessIvanaKizznhugg]

Pecunia non olet.

 

Gesundheit

[+ ArVaGuy]

Pecunia non olet.

 

It certainly doesn't. LOL

[Lookin]

For my fellow non-speakers of Latin . . .

 

Hic ego cum veni futui, deinde redei domi.

 

Pecunia non olet.

 

As we seem to be reaching a heightened level of erudition here on the Message Center, I figure we ought to try our best to keep up. So I'm just off the phone with the Vatican, where I was able to tease out the following working translations:

 

Hic ego cum veni futui, deinde redei domi. - I came, fucked, and then went home. - Graffiti on house in Pompeii, 2000 years old

 

Pecunia non olet. - Money does not smell. - The phrase originally related to the urine tax levied by the Roman emperors Nero and Vespasian in the 1st century upon the collection of urine. . . . The Urine Tax (Latin: vectigal urinae) was a tax levied by the Roman emperor Nero in the 1st century upon the distribution of urine. The lower classes of Roman society urinated into pots which were emptied into cesspools. The liquid was then collected from public latrines, where it was sold and served as the valuable raw material for a number of chemical processes: it was used in tanning, and also by launderers as a source of ammonia to clean and whiten woollen togas. The buyers of the urine paid the tax. . . . The tax was eventually discontinued, but it was re-enacted by Nero's successor Vespasian and applied to all public toilets within Rome's now famous Cloaca Maxima (great sewer) system. The Roman historians Suetonius and Dio Cassius report that when Vespasian's son Titus complained to him about the disgusting nature of the tax, his father held up a gold coin and told him, "Non olet! ("It doesn't stink!"). (Dio Cassius, Roman History, Book 65, chapter 14.) This phrase is still used today to show that the value of money is not tainted by its origins. Vespasian's name still attaches to public urinals in France (vespasiennes), Italy (vespasiani), and Romania (vespasiene). - Wikipedia

 

At first I read the phrase as "Petunia non olet.", which led me down a different path entirely.

 

http://images1.makefive.com/images/200835/4f57de02ff817763.gif

[+ Lucky]

I studied Latin for five years (Catholic) but I haven't the slightest idea where my thread went! Last I knew I was starting up a magazine...

[MsGuy]

Sorry. Back on topic, when's the deadline for my column on bargain chic? I'm thinking Brett Farve in his Wranglers would start things off with a bang. Do I get my own intern?

 

http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/cgo/lowres/cgon65l.jpg

[NYTomcat]

Boots... im doing boots. models in nothing but... cowboy boots in or out... who wants to be at the photoshoot?