Gym Se Gym Tak: A History of Naked Men (With Abs)

Agents, it's a great morning because Part 1 of Ishq at the Museum  - AOI’s collaboration with CSMVS and Freestyle is here!

What shapes dominant notions of masculinity in different eras? Did six-pack abs always signal ‘alpha’ male? When we use words like “Greek God Bod” and “chiselled features”, are we making a historical connection without being aware of it?

Inspired by CSMVS’s ‘Ancient Sculptures Exhibit’, we trace the image of the nude masculine figure from the gyms of Ancient Greece across space and time to today’s Indian men sweating it out on treadmills and bench presses. Amidst these, we discover changing ideas of beauty, virility and gender.

A statue of Apollo from the CSMVS exhibit, ‘Ancient Sculptures’ and John Abraham in his iconic yellow shorts from Dostana point to each other.

Is there a rishta between Apollo at the CSMVS Ancient Sculptures exhibit…

And aaj ka macho man?

Janiye in

Gym Se Gym Tak:

A History of the Male Nude (With Abs)

The central image shows what the bio of an Ancient Greek man might have looked like on a dating app. The photo shows him in the nude, holding a pair of dumbells. The background has arched marble and other Greek statues. 

Say hi to our brother from another era

Greek Citizen, 20

3000 BC years away

Gym Bro. Partly by choice, partly social pressure All I need is my jism divine

In his time nude male scultpures lined the streets. Another place they were always found? The local gymnasiums, bole toh gyms.

Lekin kyon? Why so many & why everywhere?

There is a picture of the statue of Apollo from the CSMVS ‘Ancient Sculptures’ exhibit, as viewed from the rear. There’s a gate of sorts around it with Apollo’s face on the top. The entrance reads, ‘Greek God Bod Gym.’ There are other figures of Greeks from paintings – exercising, warring and running in battle.

These statues represented the aspirational male body for Greeks: sculpted, six-packed, hairless.

Most Greek gents had a mandatory gym membership. All the better to achieve that idealised bod

They exercised naked, like the statues #JustInforming

Why was gymming culture such a big deal?

Greece was a state always at war. That meant young men had to always be fit and battle-ready. The call Could come anytime. Duty call - not booty call! But meanwhile....

There are three Greek statues, taking selfies of themselves in different positions and saying different things which symbolize their strength and thirst to be the best.

Sporting events like the Olympics were a good place to show off all that hard body work. (They also contested naked #justinforming)

In Ancient Greece the ideal body = beauty, manliness, ‘high quality'

So, toning the body could make you Athens ka #1 influencer

Bole toh cultural capital baby!

“I just waxed, babay!”

“Aa dekhein zara, kisme kitna hai dum”

Fun fact - These statues were orginally vibrantly coloured!

The Romans conquered Greece in 31 BCE. But Greek ideals still epitomised 'class' for the Romans. Which the world later called Class-ical.....

At the top-left of the card, a Victorian woman stares heart-eyed at a statue of Hercules. At the bottom-right of the card, there is a pair of Greek sculptures sailing on a boat. One of them holds a telescope. 

Class-ical became a European obsession in the 1700s -1800s

Ancient Greek and Roman culture - their statues, sculptures and artefacts was the 'in' thing.

In fact, they called themselves The Neoclassical Age (cultural capital, baby!)

These sculptures went well with Neoclassical body ideals of flawlessness, and suprem-er...strength.

(Note: Helpful for starting a colonization project)

Guess who else became fanboys down the road?

There are three marbled statues – all from the Greco-Roman Classical tradition. One of them is Discobulus. There are three silhouetted supreme leaders who are gazing in adoration towards these statues and what they signify.

Supreme leaders everywhere!

“I'm chiselled and beautiful, I'm the best of the best”

“I'm white and tight and full of might”

“I'm flawless, I'm strong, I'm disciplined”

This dominant image of masculinity had a lot to do with domination.

This card has a tabular form to it to describe different kinds of masculinities. The images in the top three are of a rotund English gentleman, Sean Connery as James Bond with a hairy chest, and Tarzan. The bottom row has images of soldiers, an Indian wrestler and Dilip Kumar. 

Masculine ideals changed with eras and cultures

(From L to R - Row 1)

Gentleman Seth, Double Ohh Dude, Captaan America

(From L to R - Row 2)

Veer Yoddha, Brawn Brahmachari, Desh Deepak

The hairy body was always associated with rawness, brute force and virility.

Fun Fact: Ancient Greece mein bhi, "natural" hairy bodies belonged to the cult of Dionysius, god of booze, sex and reckless abandon

So, how did the sleek Greek body become the globally prized body?

Shah Rukh Khan as in Om Shanti Om – with an unbuttoned shirt and with six-pack abs steps out of a television. There is a globe of the world placed close to him. Salman Khan gazes in the distance with sunglasses on the cover of a magazine.

Well, Globalization

(Naam toh suna hi hoga!)

Tagging along the new 'global body ideal' hairless, lean, muscular.

Uniform muscular 'international' body VS Assorted 'desi', soft, hairy bodies

Young Greeks had to prepare for actual battle. Aaj ka mard had to compete in the wars of the market and entertainment industry for...

You guessed it - Cultural capital baby!

G(YM)Q Man of the Year

Ab Workouts for Aspiring Actors

The same entrance as on Card 3 is present here. The Statue of David and John Abraham form the two pillars of the entrance, mirroring each other. There is a treadmill at the bottom of the card with Indian heroes lined up – like John Abraham and Hrithik Roshan. They say ‘Main bhi influencer.’

In post globalisation India,

Six packs were the new weapon. Waxed chests were the new masculine beauty and social acceptability...

Gyms were the new business - like ye olde Greece, with its ye olde Greek 'gods'.

Just that in wanting to look like that statue... they all started to look like each other.

But was there a price to pay for this 'equality'?

Gym membership ab voluntary nahi, mandatory

Aamir Khan’s face is juxtaposed against a Greek statue wearing a toga. The same sculpture of Apollo as photographed from the rear is present on this card too.

So now you know where the terms 'sculpted body' 'chiselled features' and 'Greek God looks' come from.

"Musculence ka peecha karo, success jhak maarke peeche aa jaayegi"

History reveals all secrets, though society may be hush-hush :)

Visit CSMVS to uncover many more.

Don't forget to admire the swell of Dionysus' bicep or Apollo's perfectly toned butt while you're there!

Batchelor, Robert. "Thinking About the Gym: Greek Ideals, Newtonian Bodies and Exercise in Early Eighteenth‐Century Britain." Journal for Eighteenth‐Century Studies 35, no. 2 (2012): 185-197.

Cheever, David William. “The Gymnasium.” The Atlantic. May, 1859.

Discobulus of Myron. On Art and Aesthetics. April 12, 2016

Goldhill, Simon. Love, Sex & Tragedy: How the Ancient World Shapes Our Lives. New York: University of Chicago Press. 2004

J. Paul Getty Museum. In The Flesh: Body Fat in Ancient Art. Google Arts and Culture. 

Karoglou, Kiki. July 1, 2016 “Ancient and Modern Colossal Statues: From Athena Parthenos to the Statue of Liberty” Metropolitan Museum of Art.

July 1, 2016.

Kirchhof, Mark, and Neil Kitson. "Trends in body hair removal as depicted through art." Journal of The American Academy of Dermatology 68, no. 4 (2013) : P6886

O’Mahony, Mike. “In the Shadow of Myron: The Impact of the Discobolus on Representations of Olympic Sport from Victorian Britain to Contemporary China.” The International Journal of the History of Sport 30, no. 7 (2012): 693–718

Papaioannou, Christina & Lykesas, Georgios. “The role and significance of dance in the Dionysian Mysteries.” Studies in Physical Culture and Tourism. No 19 (2012) 68-72. 

Scanlon, Thomas F. Eros and Greek Athletics. London: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Sooke, Alastaire. “The Discobolus: Greeks, Nazis and the body beautiful.” BBC. March 24, 2015. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20150324-hitlers-idea-of-the-perfect-body

The Discobulus. Hidden History. March 28, 2017.

Vohra, Paromita. “Automatic Bodies.” The Indian Quarterly (Oct-Dec Issue, 2016)

Statue of a youth (Diadoumenos) ca.100 B.C - Image by George E. Koronaios

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_of_a_youth_(Diadoumenos)_ca.100_B.C._in_the_National_Archaeological_Museum_of_Athens_on_30_August_2018.jpg 

Statue known as the Diadoumenos. Marble figure of an athlete tying a victor's ribbon around his head. After an original in bronze by the sculptor Polykleitos. Image by The Trustees of the British Museum

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/1167974001 

“Greet the 1970s with the new victories of revolution and production” BG C15/748 - Image from chineseposters.net, IISH collection

All other images used belong to the public domain.