Style: Check Out This Inclusive Underwear Brand
If you’re a gay guy in this day and age, you probably won’t be faulted if your have a number of issues about your body. After all, you’re often surrounded by images of men with chiseled abs, muscular arms, and a luxurious head of hair.
A new underwear brand, however, is trying to widen the everybody’s definition of male beauty. Surge Underwear is a British underwear brand that recently put out a photo shoot featuring 11 “everyday” guys in a bid to represent men of all shapes and sizes.
Austin Armacost, a former Celebrity Big Brother contestant, is the company’s brand director, and he believes that the shoot can question the impossible beauty standards pushed by other underwear brands.
“We do not want to ostracize anyone. Men with muscles, skinny guys, larger guys we want them all to feel sexy and confident when wearing our brand. Every single person is beautiful and this needs to be celebrated more,” he said.
The company also conducted a survey that revealed that one in 10 men training in gyms in the United Kingdom have muscle dysmorphia. Muscle dysmorphia is an anxiety disorder where people see themselves as small, despite being big and muscular. Muscle dysmorphia can lead to depression, steroid abuse, and even suicide.
The National Eating Disorders Association says that in the United States alone, 10 million males will be affected by an eating disorder. They also point out that men are much less likely to seek treatment for their eating disorder. The association also says that unattainable images in the media lead to male body dissatisfaction.
What do you guys think about this new shoot? Do you think it helps normalize other body types? Is Surge Underwear something you’d like to try out? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
2 chubby guys and one “skinny” guy out of a group of otherwise “typical gay bodies” is nothing to get excited about.
Years ago, a muscle head buddy of mine asked if I had heard of Bigorexia [informal term for muscle dysmorphia], I hadn’t. It certainly is on full display now. Like the recent blog on ‘missed connections’ many of us are clueless to what other like about us. We don’t wear clothes that flatter our physique, or style that reaches the masses (and that’s cool because we do not have to…), however, I find it interesting because recently the guy who cuts my hair suggested I try something different than my regular high and tight 1980s doo, so I went along with his suggestion, and I got sooo many compliments! After that experience I realized that perhaps an outside eye knows what is more appealing than my own. I tend to find when I dress, I choose things my mom would have chosen when I was five, I choose colors I believe are good on me, and get compliments when I wear the odd, off my color schema shirt … and I always go for the button-down shirt, and I always roll my sleeves, LOL.
I guess what I am saying here is so many of you guys miss what is attractive about you. I have many attractive appeals: a good fit frame is awesome, but a well proportioned Bear is attractive too. There isn’t ONE thing beyond self-confidence that really catches my eye. Most of the guys I find attractive, I realize I have been around a while and it is MORE about how they carry themselves (their contents), then the outside (package, all puns intended). That said, Profiles here are becoming sad, most guys now sell themselves with one thing, just an AGE and then of course a shot of their penis or their gluteus maximus. I know it works for some, but a well written profile, that says something, or makes me ponder an idea or concept, REALLY catches my attention. A smart nerd will do me in, way faster than a hot body …
Back in the days, I had two rejections from guys that I met on Adam4Adam or the former Men4Now site when I arrived at their place. They took a look at me and said that they were not interested anymore. It was not because of my face since in both cases I had sent them my recent face photo by email (I did not put my face photo on the profile) and besides, most people found me attractive. I concluded that they rejected me because of the way that I was dressed which was my normal conservative casual way (nothing like the latest fashions and trends). Had they met me on way to or from work, they would definitely have had a different opinion.
There were two possible lessons to be learned from these rejections : 1) change the way I dress casually, or 2) just do not go to someone’s place if it’s the first time we were meeting, i.e. host them at my place. Since I was NOT going to change the way I dressed casually for anyone especially if it was just a hookup, I chose the second lesson. Because I had a well-toned body with superb pectoral muscles (chest) that I could “twerk” up and down at will, I decided to receive new on-line guests wearing only my sweat pants. When I opened my apartment door, NO ONE changed their mind or turned around after looking at me! By the way, with the casual shirts that I used to wear you could NOT tell that I had such well-developed pectoral muscles. Only the tight-fitting T-shirts would reveal them and I was definitely not interested in parading my chest on the streets wearing these things.
To summarize, I chose to use MY assets (superb pectoral muscles and attractive face) instead of the store-bought, superficial, and temporary improvement.
“A well written profile”, “smart- nerdy” ditto, buddy!
@FREESPIRIT: Ha ha, THEIR loss man, don’t change your game! I bet you are as smart as your pecs are well-formed and your face is handsome. Academics will out live aesthetics, so you are a win-winner 😉
@LAMAR: I consider myself lucky to make a friend like you; you make me think, give me great feedback, challenge me to be better! I used to read the blogs (4 yrs ago) and never respond, you were the first one to challenge others and always keep it CLASSY, you have my RESPECT
Inclusive???? Really????
How about disable guys who also use underwear????
How about very short guys and very tall guys who use underwear???
How about transgender males who use underwear???
How about old men who use underwear????
Inclusive???? REALY!???????
Looks pretty inclusive to me… in the picture there is an older gentleman and also a FtM transgender and just because you do not physically see a deformity doesn’t mean any of those men aren’t disabled. Also myself being a male of 5’6” see nothing wrong with the hieght of the guys here… the shortest guy on here could easily be my height. And since it’s a newer company from what I can tell by their social media accounts for a small photo shoot they hit the nail on the head.
Yeah…..i would love to try out a few pair of Surge underwear. I enjoy wearing sexy underwear…..makes me feel good
Checking to Surge site, $15 underwear and young, pretty, white, models. A nice campaign idea, but …
Underwear for every size. Bullshit. all the big sizes are sold out. don’t advertise you have something when you can’t pay for marketing to make sure you have enough in stock. inclusive my fat white hoary hairy ass. This is just more propaganda to make bigger men feel inclusive. not having enough in stock before coming on to the biggest gay hook up site on the planet is beyond cruel and offensive. boycott this brand, it is the farthest from inclusive. wait for andrew christian to come out with plus size jocks. who the hell cares about this no name brand if you sell out in one day on one website. small time hooey.
proud big bear daddy.
It would be great to have an Asian guy or two included also. Otherwise, I think looks great!
What is with people that feel the need to constantly lie to others? No, not every type of body is beautiful. And no, you’re not a better person for saying the opposite. My body’s not perfect. Should I whine about how ‘society’ needs to change to find me just as attractive as a model? Or should I accept that I’m not sexy enough to be on a billboard? Or better yet, should I try to improve myself?
I agree that you should NOT “whine about how ‘society’ needs to change to find me just as attractive as a model” although I question why one would want to look like a “model” in the first place.
However, since I am in my late 50s, I have seen how body shapes/types have changed especially in the gay/bisexual men communities. From the mid-1970s when I became sexually active with men until the mid-1990s, there was no specific body shape/type that was more sought after than the other ones; one could have a skinny, average, thick, or muscular body, or be short, medium height, or tall. In fact, the percentage of muscular men was relatively low. During the weekends, one could go to a bath house filled with at least 100 men and at most 8 of them would be muscular (i.e. men who were actually going to the gyms to build up muscles unlike those who had a naturally-built body)! Truly. The muscular trend started in the late 1990s and has never stopped since. Before that, people were interested in other things such as your facial look (they used to use the term “pretty boy” back then).
Did I whine about the new “muscular” trend in the late 1990s? No, I did not. I joined the gym in 1997 and, as a result, I obtained, not a “beefcake muscular” body, but a toned body with well-developed pectoral muscles (chest) to which top and versatile top men were instantly attracted (they enjoyed touching, caressing, and “suckling” them before they got to my wet, and velvety hole). Why did I follow the trend? Because that is what I HAD to do to compete with the other gym-going bottoms and stay afloat in the bottomless ocean of bottoms.
Since I became disabled in December 2008, I am mostly not into sexual encounters so there is no longer a need for me to exercise or go to the gym.
Interesting observation. I was at the gym today working out for health reasons. I am beyond building my body up with hope that someone will find my body attractive. I laugh when I see the well chisel body type looking at me. In my mind I am saying grow up man, I don’t need your body and you don;t need my, now let’s get beyond the body and connect in the soul and spirit then perhaps something of substance can kick off, until then keep on looking and walking.
Two chubby guys and one “skinny” guy in a group of otherwise typically “gay men’s bodies” is nothing to get excited about.
Nop, there’s transgenders as well, but this you can only notice if you read the article.
can’t really tell – do you think any of the model are over 35? (daddies wear underwear too)
It’s obvious there is not a single gay man in that photo: not a single six-pack. Really!
I’m just not that critical of whatever type, I’m in the stratosphere of height, well over 6 1/2ft and lean. I’ve seen some of mostly every type that have their attributes. I’m looking closely as I can, is there an Indigenous-Native American or as mentioned Asian? Well, I guess the round-up was difficult enough as it was, I give them credit for trying. Again, not being so critical of the attempt. Average or nerdy, dad-bod, intelligent with an edgy look, yeah.
At the cost of sounding like my parents and grand parents always complaining about the prices of everything rising… Up to 2 decades ago, we could all go out, buy a package of 3-5, run of the mill, Fruit of the Loom, Hanes, or Champion for around $7-9, and if you wanted designer brands, we’d buy CK’s or Jockey’s at Macy’s for about $20 for 3-4. About 2-3 decades ago when 2ixst showed up on the scene, it set the precedence, and each underwear for men started at around $20, and nowadays with Andrew Christian and other major designers, you have to mortgage your house, so your dinglings and mangina are protected!
I just checked Surge’s website and each undy starts at around £16.99 (or $22!!). I’ve started buying the 6pack of Champion spandex boxers at Costco for around $12 and they’re great. Does it mean, I’ve committed blasphemy and my gay membership will be revoked?