Forum poster: Muscular teens show more masculinity than past generations

Masculinity is no longer measured in liters but in bench press

There was a time when being a man in Spain was demonstrated, according to an angry analysis circulated in a forum, with a bottle of cheap whisky, a pack of cigarettes, and a party outside an ATM. That is, at least, the thesis held by the text's author, who has sparked a storm of replies. The text attacks previous generations, accusing them of turning masculinity into a parody: men who intoxicated themselves to feel tough, who measured their worth in liver-destroying brews, and who left their dignity on the parquet of any provincial disco.

In contrast to this portrait, the author sets today's kids. Any muscular teenager between 16 and 20 years old, he claims, surpasses 99.99% of men from all preceding generations in masculinity. He doesn't need to get drunk to feel like a man: his physical power is enough. The provocation is served.

The party scene as a failed initiation rite

The text's central accusation is that previous generations built their masculine identity on self-punishment. Drinking until vomiting, smoking since age twelve, making noise on the street with a beat-up car, painting a hatchback bright colors to set off fireworks. All of that, he says, was the liturgy of men who knew they were nothing and needed to intoxicate themselves to hide it.

The author doesn't limit himself to generic criticism. He recalls his own adolescence at school, when cultural standards were still those of that previous generation. The lost and stolen years, he calls them. Instead of breaking his back training, he let himself be carried away by what was there, because he knew nothing else.

The reply came quickly. Several messages point out that in the 90s there were also people who exercised and had healthy habits. Others go further and accuse the author of projecting his own resentment: masculinity lessons from a fag, summarizes one of the most voted messages, adding that today's kids don't drink brews, but steroids, and that leaves the testicles like marbles.

The gym as the new measure of masculinity

The core of the debate lies in whether the cult of the physique is a superior form of masculinity or simply another trend. For the original text's author, muscle is objective proof of male power. There's no trick: the body speaks for itself.

The counteroffensive is equally forceful. A highly voted message claims that being a macho today consists of being worried about showing off a six-pack on the beach, spending hours looking at clothes and shoes to get the perfect physique, and going to the trendy spot to order green tea with avocado. That is, today's masculinity is nothing more than a stylized version of old vanity, now disguised as nutrition and caloric deficit.

Another participant adds a professional nuance: those defined kids with perfect smiles are later, at work, useless incompetents who call in sick after breaking a fingernail. The association between muscle and professional competence is, at best, questioned.

The pot and liter generation under fire

The original text leaves no stone unturned. It describes men from previous decades as rats, fat bald flatulent blokes, and trash body-wreckage, with a terrible taste for dressing and styling, a null cultural background, and, frequently, deplorable human quality. The accumulation of insults is so exhaustive that it borders on the grotesque.

The most repeated response is that the author speaks from resentment. Several messages accuse him of having low testosterone and a blown hormonal axis, and of exploding in tantrums typical of a spoiled child. The irony about testosterone is especially recurrent: the one who shouts his masculinity the loudest is, according to this reading, the one who has the least.

A particularly voted message introduces a different argument: the husbands of today's feminists are precisely the men of the pot and liter generation. The criticism of the young, it implies, is a way for the older generation to shirk responsibility.

Alcohol as the scapegoat

One of the most curious offshoots of the debate is the author's fixation with alcohol. Several messages call him out on it: what an obsession against alcohol lately, one snaps, adding that someone who downed a bottle of whisky daily is not in a position to give lectures. The author responds that they should first ban alcoholic beverages and cigarettes, and then we'll see the rest.

The prohibition proposal is no minor detail. A message aligned with the author goes further and announces that when they have their platforms, the content of anaboltized kids will be completely and absolutely banned. The prohibitionist impulse runs from top to bottom, though in opposite directions.

Some try to raise the tone. One message claims that previous generations were zombies who intoxicated themselves to escape reality, unable to live it with intrepidity and fortitude. The conclusion, in that line, is that today's youth do not envy that lifestyle at all.

The startling statistic

The thread has accumulated numerous responses and remains alive. Most are crossed insults, but underneath lies a real discussion about what it means to be a man and whether the gym cult is an overcoming of old vices or simply another form of escape. What no one disputes is that the original author has a proven ability to generate visceral reactions. And that, in terms of audience, is exactly what he was looking for.