Our editor-in-chief bares it all in a direct confrontation with body shame.
My body is a testament to high testosterone. I have a body type one sees a lot: male pattern baldness, plenty of body hair, builds both muscle and fat very easily. You see guys like me all the time, with our wide shoulders and wider beer guts. Burly sonsabitches, often rocking the shaved-head-and-beard combo. It is not, it’s fair to say, a body type that is highly lauded by media culture.
I didn’t always look like this. When I was a teenager, I was so skinny I won awards for dressing as Jack Skellington, which sounds like a joke and isn’t. When I was twenty, I dressed as Nightwing for a costume contest, and the woman MCing the show called me “the reason spandex was invented.”
That was a long time ago.
Nowadays, I’m technically considered obese.
Click to continue…NSFW images ahead
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About Noah Brand
Shameful…
@ Rallo Hallow:- Why “shameful”? Just an opinion??…………………
Are you kidding when you say “shameful?” This is fucking fantastic. This guy is my new hero.
My body is similar to yours, and seeing yours made me feel less gross. Like, “Hey, that guy looks like me. That’s… not repulsive. Huh.” Thank you.
http://jezebel.com/5916296/can-plus+size-male-models-and-nude-photo-shoots-help-mens-body-image
Okay I know its Jezebel so I shouldn’t expect much (there is even some “what about teh wimminz” type whining in the comment section, because nothing gets problems solved like bitching about how women have it worse right?) but I get the feeling that the writer may be missing the point. He seems to think that Noah’s efforts here are going to be “the moment” for overweight men to shine. What is missing that “the moment” doesn’t have to be a single photoshoot or even a single person. Honestly I’m almost thinking that the writer of the Jezebel piece is caught up with trying to find something about men and body image for the sake of writing about it rather than looking at how men are actually feeling over this.
In short he is looking for publicity and page views rather than trying to talk about a serious problem.
“I give absolutely zero shits if guys are struggling with their body image due to media et al.
You know why? Because women get it 50x worse. And it will never change.
I do not want anyone to ever feel bad about their bodies– that is a hell I know very personally and everyday is a struggle. However, until we get a real response to what women go through, I am not throwing my support behind the other gender’s problems anytime soon.”
Bawwww, my gender gets it worse!111!11. I like how that poster assumes women get it worse, when the reality could very well be that men just talk about their own body image issues less. Hell a recent survey showed men were slightly more likely to have body image issues than women….
It’s interesting the author talks about how women are shown near nude or nude, but men are still clothed generally in the plus size imagery.
“Because women get it 50x worse”
The “I/We get it worse” argument is pure BS.
It’s like saying to someone just punched in the face “Hey! You should not complain, because someone else have been beaten much worse than you. You should not even feel pain!”.
Total nonsense. Anybody’s pain is his own, and is not alleviated by comparisons.
Or… We could use the same strategy.
Every time a radical feminist camplain about something, we could say “Shut up. African (or Arab) women have it much worse”. Taste your own medicine!
Where did that “we’ve got it worse” post go?
“Lexikins”, first comment on the featured comment list for that jezebel article.
I have no patience for what about ‘teh wimminz’ or ‘teh menz’ reactions to pieces like this. It’s time to move beyond simple gender politics and tackle these issues together, because it’s about building a healthy society. While I don’t find Noah attractive, that’s not the point – he certainly doesn’t repulse me. I applaud him for doing this and tackling a problem with class, sincerity and courage.
While women certainly are more vocal about bearing the brunt of body issues, in my gym, I think it’s the men who are much more dysmorphic in their attitudes to their bodies. They are responding to huge social and popular pressure to have bodies that are a full time job to achieve – and are only achievable for some.
Can we all just realise that there are different body types, BMI is JUST a number, that doesn’t even take into account muscle mass, and so is your weight.
Personally, I find men like this very attractive…
Noah Brand didn’t use the word and may not be familiar with the concept, but he’s acting like a naturist. Nudists go around naked, but naturists do it with a philosophy that says there’s nothing shameful about those tiresomely obscene body parts that we have to hide, and also that there’s nothing shameful about bodies that don’t meet all the criteria for gorgeousness. We’re all products of nature (or of God, if you like that concept) and nobody needs to hide their body away.
Noah, get yourself down to Sauvie Island and get some rays on that lovely skin!
“a testament to high testosterone. … plenty of body hair, builds both muscle and fat very easily. … It is not, it’s fair to say, a body type that is highly lauded by media culture.”
Exactly. And also exactly the type that floats my red-blooded American Female hormones. Go ahead, try to find porn for this male body type. Hetero porn, that shows faces. Nuh-uh – I can find a lot of boys who look like my nephews… ick. There’s a reason my boyfriend’s nickname is The Stud. He’s all man, and he looks it. Thanks for posting this!
Seriously. Bald and beard? Strong and a little squishy? Get me some of that.
Kudos to you, confidence is SEXY!!!!
Absolutely attractive….finally men are starting to be at ease with there masculinity….David Suzuki must be very happy!
Both men and women are experiencing incredible pressure to look a certain way because of our consumerism driven culture. 99% do not look like models and yet our spouses think we are the hottest thing ever (thankfully!)
Take your clothes off.. cover yourself in mud and body paint, run through the forest, yell and howl (Confest in Australia).. then get on a bike with a pile of other folks and ride naked through your city (World naked bike ride). Life is way too short to think badly about the miracle of creation that each of us represents.
People speaking of shame are likely those that cast disparity between themselves and others. And hell if you don’t like your body shape you can always wake up and do an increasing set of pushups whilst cutting out processed food.. what you put in you get out.. whether mental, physical or verbal.
He has a beautiful body, and the courage to display it. We have to get away from those strict body images.
Rock on Noah! Enjoy the liberation!
Body-Shaming. It’s often talked about as a women’s issue: That women of non-ideal body types are shamed for nudity. But this certainly isn’t exclusive to women. There are very few cases in which a man’s nudity is accepted.
And this guy is my new hero.
Thank you Noah.
Noah, I think that you are brave! I am proud of you that you saw what you think was a good think and you did it–despite any negative consequences that may happen because you did this. I am glad that you showed your penis to us! I think men have so much negative pressure to not measuring up–whether we’re talking literally or metaphorically. I am a person who does not believe that naturism or nudism is possible because of practical reasons (just think about a chair in a public place…think about how many anuses would touch that chair if their clothes had not prevent their anuses from touching that chair…or think about junior high boys having erections in school without any way to hide them…or think about how awkward sports would be with a bunch of dicks and boobs flopping everywhere–that would be too distracting especially during wrestling matches or you might get dirt in your asshole while playing baseball/softball, etc.) and for moral reasons (all the temptations would be so much more intense, especially in this culture, when there are no clothing boundaries). All that being said, I think that we need to STILL CONTINUALLY AND ENTHUSIASTICALLY proclaim that the body is a good thing!!!! THE BODY IS A GOOD THING!!!! As a Christian, this is very easy for me because I know that GOD made male and female bodies and called them GOOD. We are good! SHAME HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE ENEMY, at least since the fall of Adam and Eve. We need moments such as the ones that Noah has provided to be able to study the human body (in this case the male human body) in a way that is not explicitly sexual, but that actually reveals WHO THE PERSON IS. Noah has a beautiful soul and body. We can see that. I think it is interesting that he mentioned that he wanted his LOVER to take pictures of him. To me, that says that he wants someone to see not just a random naked dude showing the world his penis and his hairy buns, but he wants to show people who he really is WITHOUT SHAME. On this side of heaven, I think these types of occurrences can only happy on certain rare occasions because humans now have a tendency to make what is beautiful into something ugly. Anyway, I am just absolutely shocked by the bravery that Noah Brand has in showing us his body, including his most intimate parts–his penis and scrotum. You are so brave, Noah, like what if your mom and dad see this, maybe they have…what if your future employer sees this, maybe they have. What if your friends from high school see this or the bullies from high school see this (if you had any bullies), maybe they have! But you have made yourself so vulnerable that anyone who googles your name is able to easily see your penis, your ass, your whole body stark naked. You have made yourself vulnerable to someone saying, “Look it, it’s Noah, he’s got an uncut dick!!!” But your have chosen to forget the shame and drop the fig leaf. You have charged other men with energy to do the same–either figuratively or literally. I think that is commendable regardless of whether or not someone takes issue with this article! THANK YOU, NOAH! As a young man, I look to you with great respect. Thank you!
Oh, look: a kitten!
“Deal with it.” Isn’t this the slogan of the “Self-esteemist Narcissistic Empowerment Front.” While the US culture collapses, our discourse turns increasingly “me, me, me; I want my way.”
That is truly the most ironic post I have ever seen, and that says something, for sure. Are there no other concerns on earth but what you personally find most compelling? “While the US culture collapses, our discourse turns increasingly ‘me, me, me; I want my way.’”
@Civil Liberties: “While the US culture collapses”
Yeah, sure. A man accepting (and/or exposing) his own body is what’s making the US collapsing…
What next? A nipple will make Wall Street explode?!?
Noah’s “deal with it” is about personal freedom and acceptance, not imposing his own way onto others.
It’s about “I have decided to feel ok in my own skin, and you can’t make me feel bad anymore”. What’s the problem in this? (unless you feel the need to judge and control everybody’s feelings…)
BTW, USA never had a “culture”. You just borrowed it from us europeans…
Pure, 100% courage, honesty and sharing. There should be neither controversy nor elevated tempers in the context of such rarely earned nouns. This is simply refreshing candor and I feel the world is just a tad bit better today because one more person is capable of it. Bravo.
I think you look very sexy. Good for you, Noah.
Last month I posted a photo on face book of my partner and myself, similar to this article making the point of how ashamed we are of our bodies, yet we all have penises, vaginas, breasts and that are bodies are different shapes, but never obscene. I am 56 and could loose a bit of weight, my partner 40 and is bulimic. I encouraged my FB friends to have similar courage and post their photos, none did.( I am a painter and a number of them happily pose naked in front of my easle) But I got alot of possitive comments and many “likes”. Socially I had a few snide comments about penis size, to which I responded that my penis was larger than their brains
.In GermanyScandinavian countries they ridicule Anglo Saxons and Americans for our inhibited attitudes.
Why is it that so many religeous people, who believe that God made man in his own image find the naked body offensive, do they think that God was a pornographer?
Great questions! I wonder who will step up to try and refute your points???!!!…
@Anthony Tewfik: “I had a few snide comments about penis size, to which I responded that my penis was larger than their brains”
Loved this!
Regarding religious people, their beliefs are often so absurd and contradictory (see your example), they have to live in denial to avoid noticing it.
Very hot, love it
Go Noah!! 
))