Just like you can't go to a Melissa Etheridge concert without seeing an abundance of pit hair, these days you can't go to an indie rock concert without seeing... emaciated men? This season, anorexic is the new black for the skinny jeans and eyeliner-for-men set. In a profession where rock stars have typically looked drug-emaciated a la Steven Tyler and David Bowie, this new trend hasn't garnered a lot of attention. The difference now however is that rather than all the bony rib cages being a result of popping oxycontin like tic tacs, thinness is sought after as a goal in its own right. Blame American Apparel or Pete Wentz, but men in this particular hipster subculture are now being held up to the impossibly skinny standard -- and realizing firsthand how difficult it is to reach and how painful it is to always come up short.
Recently Caleb Followill of Kings of Leon admitted that he struggles with anorexia. In an interview with Q magazine he says, "I always thought I wasn't good enough. I'd do anything to keep my hands and mouth busy without eating." Adds Priya Elan of The Guardian, "He lived on black coffee and would go running in hot weather wearing a heavy tracksuit to sweat off as many pounds as possible in order to stay skinny. It isn't a huge surprise that the singer of one of indie rock's biggest bands was anorexic. What is surprising is that he's admitted it."
Followill might be the most honest of the group but he certainly isn't the only indie boy in this band. Other indie stars known for their bony frames and body issues include Kurt Cobain, Pete Wentz, Kaiser Chiefs' Ricky Wilson and Amos Lee. Seeing as I love all of their music (yeah, I just admitted to digging Fall Out Boy. I'm 12, I know.), it would be a shame to see any of them go the Karen Carpenter route -- barring Cobain as he's already playing his coffeehouse gig in the sky.
Kurt Cobain, still dead, now schills shoes for the living
Pete Wentz, belching the alphabet
Ricky Wilson gives new meaning to Hey, Mr. Tamborine Man
Amos Lee looks over his shoulder in an alley. Which I would be too if I were sitting on such a nice leather "free" chair.
Slowly but surely it's been percolating to the surface of our media-addled public consciousness that men struggle with body issues too, whether it be looking good in bike shorts at the gym or measuring up to David Beckham's, ahem, standard (is that what the kids are calling it these days?). I have even seen it filtering down to suburbia as evidenced by my literal tug of war with a pair of teenaged boys over a thrift-store pair of women's Chip and Pepper skinny cut jeans. (I won.) It may not be as prevalent or as pernicious as among women but give 'em twenty years to catch up; we had a head start.
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...but that's one of the things I like about Will Ferrell. Now there's a good body role model!
Whatever the reason for the look their is a particularly boyish quality to all these guys so I can't think of them as Men. They seem to be stuck in a perpetual adolescence and obsession with a skinny body image is part of it. Then there is the skateboarding obsession and that's pretty cool if you are a kid/ child not pushing 30 and dressing like you are a kid/child. There is a refusal to grow up (whatever that means) but I find this current generation particularly puerile.
They'd rather look like the "lean and hungry" rebel who defended the Republic than the "fat, sleek-headed" kind of men who helped put Caesar in power.
Shakespeare understood the dynamic of rebellion. The "lean and hungry look" of Cassius is associated with resistance to dictatorship for a good reason.
When you're all fired up with grandiose ideas of overturning the existing order, you're not going to sit around and cram junk food in your face.
You won't reach the junk food cramming stage until you've given up your rebellious fire.
And that was the kind of man Caesar preferred -- someone who had given up trying to change the world and resigned himself to good food and a comfortable chair after dinner.
Rock is the soundtrack of generational rebellion. It's not surprising to me that these guys all end up looking lean and hungry like Cassius.