Bodybuilding is kinda sus

hot takes on White Lotus season 3

Many of you have been asking for more hot takes on White Lotus season 3. I have neither the time nor the energy to write a whole thing, so here are some notes (but feel free to send us a review if you wanna write one, we’re open to submissions).

• My overall take concurs with pretty much all the others. Unlike the first two seasons, this one sucked. It was sloppy and dull. There was too much overt anti-woke messaging, making it come off like reverse virtue signaling. Especially the whole bit with Mook wanting Gaitok to be more chadded. [You can hear my take on season 1 in our pod discussion with Abigail Favale, and on season 2 in my review in The American Spectator.]

• I already commented on the incest thing in another post. But I will say that the sexual tension between Lochlan and Saxon is a reminder of what I’ve been saying all along: there is something feminine about men bodybuilding for the sake of aesthetics, and there is something sus about men fawning over muscular men.

  We’re all for men being strong—as long as it’s for the sake of a) health and b) fulfilling their vocation (serving and protecting others). When it becomes about aesthetics, it become self-indulgent, pagan, and just sus af. Str8 men should not care about their appearance (that much). As John Berger said, “Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.”

  The idealization of a muscular aesthetic fetishizes masculinity and makes it into an idol in itself, rather than masculinity being a vessel for a higher ideal (fatherhood/generativity). The dudes who post progress pix on IG know what I’m talking about. Their comments and DMs are full of thirsty gays (and thirsty women). Sorry to be so blunt, but you know it’s true.

  It’s no wonder that Lochlan’s “worshipping” Saxon turned into “worshipping” Saxon.

  For more on this, check out:

  • Joe Enabnit
    on the different bodybuilder archetypes.

    The Man’s Man goes to the gym because he believes that a man ought to be strong. He knows that being strong will make him better at fulfilling his duties at home and elsewhere. He aspires to intimidate his daughters’ future boyfriends and to inspire his sons to be strong men. He only cares about his max bench press or deadlift because he wants to be stronger than his buddy from high school.

    The Aesthetic Samurai reads Mishima’s “Sun and Steel” between sets. When he reaches his peak form, he posts tastefully composed photos displaying his physique. He’s almost certainly gay, but sexual activities are completely out of his mind when he posts these photos–he wants to tap into the beautiful, not be sexy.

  • Me on how Aidan Ross’s relationship with Andrew Tate reflects that of Alcibiades and Socrates (hella sus).

    After losing five matches, he begs Tate to let him smoke one of his cigars, right before Tate starts bragging about the size of his genitals. He intends to prove to all of their viewers that his member is the “largest in the world,” only for Ross to beg him not to — out of the fear of getting banned for breaking Twitch’s censorship policy. Ross continues to shower Tate with compliments, reminding him that he flew halfway across the world just to see him, as Tate repeatedly hurls insults at him — which Ross seems to enjoy in a masochistic kind of way. Ross, who envies Tate’s physique (despite being, as some would argue, a butterface), begs Tate to teach him how to get a six-pack.

  • Me on how men who post thirst traps are a sign of the superfluity of men in our technocratic age.

    Today young men are constantly posting photos of themselves. Whether in the gym, on the beach, or waking up in bed, today’s dudes are always sensing a chance to arouse lust in whoever might be looking. At the same time as they are rushing to post erotic photos of themselves, they are mired in a culture in which their role and purpose is no longer obvious. Most men today are earning less than they did 40 years ago. Child-rearing is at historic lows. Those who are fathers “are not in a close relationship with their children” compared to earlier eras, according to sociologist Richard Reeves. Meanwhile, the culturally dominant ideal of manhood is that of the sensitive, neutralized male who never gives offense or makes anyone feel uncomfortable. One can argue this ideal has social benefits, but it’s hardly a call to the sort of heroism that men used to strive for.

  • Me on BAP, Mishima, and other homofascists’ erotic fetishization of masculinity.

    It is this devotion to “pure” and virile beauty, strength, and power that drew many—not in the least gay men—to authoritarian political ideologies that transgressed against liberal conventions. Nietzsche’s esteem for the pagan ethos in ancient Greece that created idols out of “ideal forms”—of strength and aesthetic perfection—spoke directly to gay men’s attraction to the bodily beauty and virility of the male form (as witnessed by the normalcy of same sex pederasty in ancient Greece).

• I’m probably gonna write more about this at some point, but the relationship between Piper and her parents is super loaded. The thing when you “make it” as an adult—you got a career, money, and stable, comfortable life…and rely on SSRIs to stave off depression and anxiety—and then your kid sees how empty it all is and becomes a religious freak. Very relatable.

  I wrote about my own experience of that here:

  It's true that "Weird Christianity" draws in many privileged, (upper-)middle class, mostly white, millennials, who — like me — grew up sheltered from the hardships and injustices that plague our society. But this bourgeois suburban setting proved to be a breeding ground for existential emptiness.

  The combination of feeling like you're entitled to things you've never earned, being told that you can be whatever you want to be, and that all it takes to be happy is to "be yourself" conceals a darker reality. Beneath this façade was a dull, ambiguous road that leads to nothing in particular. Who cares that I can do, have and be whatever I want? If there's no "real" point, no objective truth, can life have any real meaning?

  This also colored my experience of religion. Watered-down Christian liturgy and doctrine only reinforced this elitist bourgeois worldview. At my dad's Catholic parish, the drab liturgy and "Jesus wants you to be nice to people" homilies did little to shake up the complacency of the privileged parishioners. And while I was enamored by the liturgy at my mother's Greek Orthodox parish, I experienced its beauty to be mostly irrelevant to my everyday life.

  Even worse, the moral and spiritual landscape of suburbia didn't seem to take into account the deepest yearnings of the human heart. The infinite desires for beauty, justice, truth and love are repressed by this sedated, cozy suburban ideal. It never dared to shake up the social, moral and spiritual status quo that allowed us to live in a bubble of comfort. You can live a nice lifestyle, as long as you're "a good person." This "gospel of good will" never veered to extremes; it always seemed to stay put in the middle of the road.

  But the path in the middle of the road led to apathy and nihilism. This is why so many of my college classmates and I ran as far as we could from it and instead flocked to extremes. Most of my classmates opted for a political route, some to the left — taking on a socialist outlook centered on the rights of racial and sexual minorities — while others went right — fighting for the crumbling causes of national identity and moral values. Others ran down the Dionysian road of pleasure, seeking new sexual adventures every night, or experimenting with drugs and alcohol.

  None of these "alternate routes" held much traction for me. Instead, my foray into the realm of the traditional Catholic sensibility seemed to fill those cravings.

  This seems to be the experience of so many of my peers. Some (including Carlo Acutis) end up reverting their parents through their newfound faith. Others just become whiny (aspy) trads. Often, their turn back to religion is brought on not only by their parents’ lack of religious faith, but also by their loss of their ethnic flavor (assimilation) and move to the suburbs.

  Parents think the kind of life they are offering their kids is amazing—a real privilege and a step up from what they grew up with. They fail to realize that our experience of this kind of life is empty, hollow, and daunting—as it is devoid of substance, “enchantment,” and any sort of promise of lasting happiness. They are shocked when we have emotional breakdowns, sending us to paid professionals and hopping us up on pills, when all we really need is God, a walkable city full of third places and civic organizations, and ethnic festivals.

• Lastly, we love that Chelsea was reading Rumi (we’re big fans of [orthodox] sufism)…but not the Coleman Bark’s edition! He tried to turn his poetry into cringe, New Age slop! Very haram!