Monday, June 7, 2010

Welcome to my Brain. My odd odd brain.

So I walked into the gym the other day and saw a billboard style sign. Get arms like [some already-forgotten name here]. And I think WHY? Then I have to stop and check my memory to find out if I've said it aloud or if it's obvious to others what I'm talking about, because passing me, right then, is  a guy with arms like that. Arms nearly as large as me. OK, maybe not quite, I'm sort of large, but Holy Cow. Do people really think that's attractive?

I mean, arms larger than my arms is good on men. But then, just by being male most men have that made. I'm not a weight lifter so I don't have particularly large arms. Normal arms. But arms that look like their measurements might equal that of my ribcage?

I don't get it.

But then on the female side of things, there is that saying about not being able to be too rich, too thin or... something else I've forgotten and I know I've seen photos of women who are most certainly too thin. A set of twins maybe? And half of Hollywood in the thin years. I prefer the big-boob years of fashion because there are fewer protruding collarbones in those years. Fewer visible rib-cages and empty-bag breasts almost entirely visible in low cut gowns that would have been sexy if the women hadn't starved their figures away.

But what's wrong with people looking normal? Sure, feel free to go to the gym and get fit, but when you go often enough to have arms with a greater individual mass than the whole of my seven year old, that seems a little off to me. I think about it a little while creating characters. I haven't made any extra fit or extra tiny people in my stories so far, but when I create my people, how can I make them normal without seeming derogative? Without pointing out a lack of over-muscle-ization. (without creating new words for the occasion?)

I admire a bit of roundness on my men. I don't know why. For years after Lake Placid came out, Hubby got to be jealous of Oliver Platt. He is absolutely adorable. Also Jack Black, Kevin Smith, and Nathan Lane. And Hubby, of course.

But how do you describe them, or someone like them, in a world where six-pack abs is nearly a synonym for attractive? Without making it all about personality and overlooking the physical almost entirely? Without making it seem like a fetish-style attraction to flab or making the attraction happen despite the lack of the perfect model's body?

It is possible?

So that's where I am right now.

Thinking of descriptions and people and what attractive means and how to use it all to create characters I would enjoy having over -- if they were real. And wondering if I have a fetish for slightly rounded men.

Where are you?

3 comments:

  1. I'm with you. Even though my husband is over 6ft. tall, I really dig shorter men in stories and on film, especially if they're a bit muscle-y. Not freak muscle-y like the dude you saw. As for rounder people, I'd say something like, he had a bit extra around his middle, but he carried it well, or something. Maybe you should write a description of Oliver Platt and see what happens. ^_^

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  2. I'll have to try that. I was thinking a little more about it and I think a good bit of it may be personality. The two actors I really like that are closer to mainstream attractive are Nathan Fillion and Spike. (I'm not sure about James Marsters, himself, because he also does -very- well at the serious straight man in the crime dramas so I'm not sure which one he's closer to in real life).

    But I think a good bit of my interest is in the happy-go-lucky guy with a sharp edge.

    Another one is that guy in Fringe. Not the mad scientist, but the son, who has been everywhere and done all sorts of stuff, but usually wears either a smile or smirk. Not enough to look up his name and figure out what more he's been in yet, but he's good too.

    Short and muscle-y, hmmm. Were you a fan of .... can't .... think... of .... name.... that XXX guy -- the race movies, not porn. He's the guy I always think of for short and muscle-y. I had a friend that drooled over him, but dated tall and scrawny. I always found that interesting too.

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  3. Vin Diesel. And yes I am a fan. ^_^

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