The masculine mystique What’s driving an insurgence of plastic surgery, beauty products, and high fashion for men in Maine? BY TONY GIAMPETRUZZI

" Things are definitely trending up and I don’t see this going away because people believe that they are entitled to feel and look the best way that they can, and that’s not going to change. It really has nothing to do with what other people say. And, people don’t come by this in a casual fashion, " says Weisberg. " By the time they come here, they have usually spent a lot of time at the gym or have done a lot of thinking about it. The fact is, as you get older, your skin sags, things start to shake. This of course begins when you’re born, but it really kicks in around 35. Things are easier for you if you’re in shape in the first place, though. "

Wagner, who works as an EMT, is definitely in shape and he has no plans for cosmetic surgery, but he says that, unlike men in the straight community, where the steps that are taken to look good might simply be an effort to physically feel good, body re-engineering in the gay world is sometimes driven by something else.

" I don’t really work out to look good, I personally think it’s a compensation thing. I have always worked as hard as I can to be as big as I can be and my goal has always been to have every straight guy in the gym look at me and want to have my physical size and to look like me and then to find out that I’m gay. I have always wanted to break that gay stereotype, the weak stereotype, and the opinion that people have of gay men, " Wagner explains. " When I go out with my firefighter shirt on, I have the gay macho image of today. It’s not beauty as much as it is image, that the gay community isn’t all effeminate queers. "

Randy Johns (not his real name), a 43-year-old gay Portlander who says that he has spent his share of time in the gay nightlife over the years, agrees: " The big difference is that back in the ’70s and ’80s when people were just starting to come out and be open, it was still okay to be effeminate. That was actually the norm. Drag queens were revered. I think what we’re seeing now is the demise of that culture. It once defined gay culture and now it’s as though we don’t want any of that as part of it. If you’re effeminate, you’re definitely fringe, " he says. " Now that it’s okay to be gay, it’s no longer okay to act gay and worse to look gay. As we become more and more accepted, our raison d’etre is to look better, be stronger, always have one up on straight men. Generally because we can. " And Johns adds that, as a man in his forties, the focus, particularly among gays, is on youth — not necessarily attempting to attract young guys, but to look like them, only bigger.

" What has changed over the past 10, even five years, is that the gay scene is much more youth-oriented. Men are taking a lot of steps to retain a youthful appearance, not because they want to, because they have to, " he says. " Today there is so much pressure to look young. If you walk into a club and you don’t look like you’re in your twenties or thirties, there’s no question that you are persona non grata, you’re completely shut out. "

" If you’ve got the body and your chest is shaved or waxed or whatever and you’re all muscled, people will overlook your real age, " Johns continues. " Today it’s all about how you look. It has nothing to do with your age and even just having a lot money is no longer attractive. " That’s why Johns is seriously considering a nip here and a tuck there — despite a well tuned body and a face that doesn’t come close to revealing his true age, Johns is convinced that it’s time for some small changes.

" It’s the things that make me look like I’m in my forties. Bags under my eyes, lines around my eyes. Those are the dead giveaways. It’s all in your face. You don’t want to look old and you sure as hell don’t want to be perceived as being old, " he says. " It’s an awful feeling, but I actually laugh about it. I used to go into the clubs and be cruised all night long, but now I feel like the aging starlet, the dowager queen. I mean, if you go out to a gay bar and nobody cruises you, that’s the final nail in the coffin and you know something needs to be done. "

That said, Johns doesn’t really even frequent the bars much anymore. He and his partner, who is nearly 20 years his junior, recently purchased a house in Portland and, says Johns, any cosmetic surgery that he gets will be solely for his own piece of mind. Curiously, his partner, attractive and often ogled, says that he is actually planning to eliminate a small gut with some liposuction.

Why? Because the extra fat makes him self-conscious, but, more tellingly, because there is less of a stigma attached to the procedure. Besides, by most calculations, it’s relatively inexpensive. In fact, Weisberg says that he can do some simple lipo for somewhere in the $1500 range, roughly the cost of a two-year gym membership or a mediocre Caribbean cruise.

But while Johns is beginning to enjoy some domestic solitude, he’s quick to note that he is actually thrilled to be out of a scene that has morphed into something he considers unhealthy and even a bit sinister. " There’s a big difference between what’s happening in the straight community and what’s happening in the gay community when it comes to body image. Straight men are working out for health reasons. They want to feel good and stay healthy. These gay men spend 16 hours at the gym each week to get huge, some of them pump their bodies full of steroids, and some are even getting implants so they can look perfect, and then they spend 16 hours on the weekend polluting their bodies with alcohol and drugs at circuit parties or some of the bigger clubs. That’s the paradox. It’s all about the display, not the long-term results that come from just getting yourself in shape, " he says, also placing some of the blame on the gay media that is very close to my paycheck.

" The media is huge. Just pick up in newsweekly or OUT or the Advocate or even People for Christ’s sake. The men that are portrayed are always beautiful and their bodies are, for the casual gym rat, unachievable, and that creates some serious self-image issues for some people. "

Johns says that wasn’t the case 20 years ago and anyone who has had the opportunity or the inclination to look at some early gay porn or old GQ issues will attest to the fact that big muscles and body waxing were never a priority in the past. But you’ll be hard pressed to find any so-called actors or models these days who don’t fit the Adonis image. Johns says that’s a byproduct of the mainstreaming of gay society.

" Twenty years ago, people were just so thrilled to be going out, no one worried what they looked like at all. Even in the ’80s nobody cared at all, " he recalls. " It was such a novelty and there was usually only one bar or club in town anyhow, so everybody went to the same place. Now, there are bars everywhere and everybody is out and there is much, much more competition. They are also very skewed. The young guys go to one place, the older guys go to another. It never used to be that way. "

Like Johns, Wagner rarely goes to the bars, but he and his boyfriend are frequent partiers on the circuit. From Miami to New York to Montreal to Fort Lauderdale, they see and experience these little gay meccas that now dot the globe. " The way things are now makes me think twice about going. I don’t want to be one of those people, " says Wagner of the growing number of men who he says are obsessively retooling their bodies only so that they can look perfect for the party. " They are not healthy people. Some of the time I just think to myself ‘where are the real men?’ "

Even some DJs, the demi-gods of the scene, are noticing that an obsessive attitude towards body image is becoming as big a problem as drugs in the gay party scene. DJ Robbie Leslie, an international superstar on the circuit who is taking a break this summer to spin at The Club in Ogunquit, says that circuit parties are actually starting to get a little dicey. " Of course, GHB [a popular but deadly hallucinogen] is a real issue and people have been really irresponsible and that reflects poorly on the circuit at large. But also the emphasis on physical appearance. Guys have become quite obsessive about starving themselves for two days before a party so there’s no fat on their abs. "

Wagner says that he won’t starve himself before a party, but that he certainly keeps tabs on his intake. " I’m very careful with my diet. Two weeks before I go to a party it kicks in and I watch everything I eat. Not necessarily to lose any weight, but just so that I have that extra little edge, so that I can wear a tight shirt or no shirt. I don’t want to be attractive as much as I want to look fit and young, " he says. " As far as starving myself, I don’t do it personally, I don’t have that kind of addiction but do people starve themselves? Absolutely. "

For Wagner, the parties are just a natural extension of his persona. He admits that his intention isn’t necessarily to attract other men, but certainly to be attractive to other men, and the circuit scene is his stage. Even walking through Portland, he is conscious of his appearance. " If I’m all sweaty and not dressed up or something like that, I’ll think twice about going to the mall or walking down the street. A premium has been placed on looking good, and I guess I’m a victim of that. "

For the most part, though, Wagner wants to simply feel good — he feels entitled to it, but realizes that, for him, the gym is the only option. " I find ways to get out of work to go to the gym. That’s my church. I actually think it’s the gay man’s church in general. I go at least six days a week. Even when I’m on vacation I go to the gym, I’m 16 years into it at this point and if I don’t go on a particular day, I don’t have any fun, I’m all moody. It’s a genuine addiction. "

Addiction or not, healthy or unhealthy it’s likely that male beauty is here to stay. Call it vanity, blame it on the media, or bemoan the expense, men aren’t necessarily complaining about the pressure that is being placed on them to look good. In fact, some in the beauty industry hypothesize that, for years, men have been wanting to pamper themselves but that the beauty industry was so female-centric that to do so would bring into question one’s very masculinity. In the end, though, Maine men can most likely breathe easier than their counterparts in Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or even Boston. We’re not likely to see Outright youth parading down Congress Street stretching out $200 Dolce and Gabbana tank tops with their implanted pecs, and there’s no way in hell that the Underground is soon to become an all-nighter like Fort Lauderdale’s Copa where most of the clientele is on par with the go-go boys and hustlers that look about as good as they feel when 4 a.m. rolls around.

One thing’s for sure, though: A hairy back, dirty fingernails and a mullet aren’t gonna get you many dates in the new millennium.

Tony Giampetruzzi can be reached at amg207@earthlink.net