My mother always said, “Don’t mix politics and graphic arts,” but since I ignored most of my mother’s other advice, I’m going to shine this tidbit as well. I began to doubt my mother’s wisdom about the time she made up those rubber-band-in-the-eye stories, and started chronicling the various fatal ailments you could get by drinking out of public water fountains.
It’s been several weeks since the gubernatorial-recall election here in California, and I’m only now coming out of a depressed state long enough to acknowledge what happened, and to begin the slow, painful recovery. I’m proud to be from one of the few counties in California where the majority voted against the new governor elect, but aside from some gloating rights, that doesn’t get me much sympathy. So rather than whine about it, I thought I’d embrace our new governor and once again look to the past to help explain the present.
My opinion of body builders has always been formed by the ads that appeared over the years in the back pages of men’s magazines. These reached a frenzy state in the late ’40s and early ’50s — a time when a man’s worth was calculated by the size of his biceps, or the size of his paycheck. Either way, young men were vulnerable to the lure of quick riches and the promise of a strongman’s physique (see Figure 1). I don’t know what was going on in Austria at the time, but I’m assuming Governor Schwarzenegger viewed and fell for similar ads. A he-man is a he-man in any language, even if the size and color of his Speedo varies.
Figure 1: The earliest ad I could find for muscle building was one from 1889 (top). In 1947 Joe Bonomo (bottom), was director of the Strong Men’s Club of America. Not sure if they accepted members from Austria.
Of course I know intellectually that there is nothing about being a body builder that precludes one from having the intelligence to run one of the largest states in the country with an annual budget greater than most of the world’s countries. But somehow, when I look at the ads from people like Charles Atlas and George Jowett, (see Figures 2 and 3), I have to question the mental, if not physical, fitness of anyone who takes being a he-man so seriously. It’s just not an image I relate to, 90-pound weakling that I am.
Figure 2: George Jowett was a major competitor to Charles Atlas, only his twist was to identify with the military — in this case the marines, in other ads he promised “commando-style” strength.
Figure 3: In now-famous ads, Charles Atlas played off every man’s fear of being humiliated in front of their girlfriend or spouse. Charles Atlas is still in business, selling fitness courses and licensing the Charles Atlas image and graphics.
Even more baffling to me are the women who find this image so appealing. From a report published in 1956 by Joe Weider (see Figure 4), I was able to discover, at least, that uninhibited sexual behavior is a critical component of masculinity. “To keep your mind the imaginative, creative, clear-thinking and well-controlled organ it should be,” says Weider, “you must learn how to live a healthy, normal, vital sex life free from frustration and the shackles of prudish convention.” I guess I didn’t realize that groping women in elevators falls under the banner of “prudish convention.” But then I’m no he-man.
Figure 4: Joe Weider tried to educate body builders to the subtleties of sex, but his main point was: “(sex) is largely responsible for the strength, power and the bigger-muscled, more vigorous male.”
Of course being a body builder is not necessarily a full-time career, so if you paid close attention to the ads in those days, you could also see that having a cushy government job was not a bad gig to accompany your outstanding physique (see Figure 5). That’s not to say that being governor of California is cushy, but I’ll bet you do get to smoke big cigars in private rooms and drive your Hummer on State nature preserves.
Figure 5: The promise of a lucrative government job was not lost on any young male.
Bodybuilders Have More Ruptures
One of the first aversions I had to being muscular, aside from the image thing, was the fact that accompanying those he-man ads were always several others warning men of the danger of “rupture,” or how to fix one (see Figure 6). I didn’t know then, and I’m not sure I know now, exactly what it means to rupture yourself, but I know it has something to do with a sensitive area of the body, and that none of my out-of-shape friends ever got one. That was good enough to convince me that strenuous sports (or any sports), and helping friends to move were not in my best interest.
Figure 6: Just when I thought I was figuring out what a rupture was, along comes this graphic, which puts ruptures in places I never could have imagined.
To this day I’ve never met anyone who needed one of these devices, but then I may have never met anyone who did any really heavy lifting. I tend to stay away from anyone who favors his body in that fashion, though I will admit to being pathologically modest. I admire a good physique, and I can even accept that it could demonstrate high self-esteem, which is a good attribute for a governor. But I’ll bet on average, Democrats have fewer ruptures than Republicans (see Figure 7).
Figure 7: I hope to never have to wear an “appliance,” and especially not a pneumatic one.
This article was last modified on May 19, 2023
This article was first published on October 30, 2003
Commenting is easier and faster when you're logged in!
