The Pectoral Problem
The sun beats down on a beautiful island. The cool sea air drifts off the surface of the waves as they gently fall on the white sand of a picture-perfect beach. A figure emerges from the water.
Such is the premise of many a tropical James Bond scene. It happens every few of movies, and is aimed at getting pulses racing as we watch beautifully bronzed flesh walking across the beach.
I had the pleasure to sit through the most recent of such scenes during a Secret Cinema performance of Casino Royale last week. As opposed to Halle Berry or Ursula Andreasâ characters, the filmâs creators decided this time it would be Bond emerging in such a way.
![Apparently he also grew wings for the role but the producers thought âitâs a bit much Danâ](https://assets-global.website-files.com/603e87aacb5f642338803e35/605b161377ae41183b2951ff_image-asset.jpeg)
Whistles and claps rang out in my cinema as his hulking figure, accompanied by those well-tight swimming shorts, was revealed.
I remember this movie well.
Daniel Craigâs Bond was grizzled, dark, and MASSIVE. This was a Bond that had clearly grown up with a Schwartznegger poster on his wall and spent his evenings slurping protein shakes while making undignified faces into the M16 gym mirrors.
I do want to shout out Craigâs expert use of his lips throughout the film. I assume the only way to make a man pout that much is have him grow a goatee and then attempt to kiss a long line of people without bristling them. Iâm going to attempt it one day.
![I commissioned an artist to illustrate how this might look⊠The Harry Potter additions are my own.](https://assets-global.website-files.com/603e87aacb5f642338803e35/605b16135a68bb572045db95_1_B05A5zvfBRMUoeY2dtuJrQ.jpeg)
The decision to bulk him up so much was a conscious one by the filmmakers. Have him be a relatively normal looking man, or make him a bleached Bruce Banner? They chose the latter; this screwed me up.
It set up a little light bulb in my shy, lacking-in-confidence brain that lit up later in my adolescence (still on-going), when confidence hit an all-time low.
This said: as a man, the way to make up for any personalities flaws you feel you have is to work on your body until it does the talking for you.
Big=strong. Big=in control.
But the truth of it is that in my experience, âgoing to the gymâ has accentuated many of my issues regarding physique and my self-worth. Rather than quench my thirst for external and internal love, as soon as I hit what I would have considered a finger-lickinâ body a few months prior, I was now pushed to further hit a new target. If I fell off the proverbial gym wagon, the self-attacks would start and continue until I got back on it.
Thereâs a word Iâm thinking of here that might define what this is. It starts with A and ends with N, and no itâs not Antman, Superhero fans. The Avengers ended and they all died. Get over it.
(Disclaimer: didnât see the movie)
I was, and am, an addict. Itâs silly isnât it, because if you looked at me in the street you wouldnât be like âwoah! Body dysmorphia Oâclockâ⊠But hey, they were out of t-shirts at the Dysmorphia Store. Next time.
After coming to terms with this, and getting a lot better and differentiating between going to the gym to look good and exercising in a healthy way that accentuates body positivity, a healthy lifestyle, and achievable challenges and goals that aid self-esteem, it left me thinking about why size has become such a massive part of masculine pop culture in recent years.
I mean, look at Sean Connery, look at movies stars pre-1980. Theyâre all averagely-sized men for their era. Yes, they may be sexy to look at, but theyâre not Greek adonises.
![Hit the gym Sean. I can basically see your skeleton.](https://assets-global.website-files.com/603e87aacb5f642338803e35/605b1614425ebe470a2ca701_1_DFiS0OLk9BWQ6hN1h-64Sw.jpeg)
What happened?
What does this change say about our culture?
And why wonât they commission my 50 year old hench Harry Potter script that I keep sending to Daniel Craig?
⊠Gonna be writing a follow up post to this very soon ;)
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