I can totally relate to this Quinn Myers piece on millennials and our reticence toward getting naked at the gym. Growing up in the late 1990s, nudity in the locker room was so rare that even if you loved to show some skin, you covered up at the gym so as not to stand out among a sea of never-nudes.
But then I got older, and something changed my whole perspective: I discovered the urban oasis that is the Korean spa. And amazingly, going to a Korean spa is the exact opposite of the nudity rules I grew up with, i.e., it’s skin to win and it’s the never-nudes who stand out. So when I invited a good friend of mine to go with me — a former high school water-polo teammate who I had showered next to day after day in the locker room (never nude, of course) — we had to discuss the fact that soon, we’d be seeing each other naked. Long story short: It was totally fine. If anything, the experience helped ease me into the idea of being around the naked bodies of people I actually know.
So, uh, yeah — find out what all the hullabaloo is about around why millennial guys don’t like to go open kimono at the gym, as well as everything else you might have missed today, below.
Must Read
“Butterbean Hasn’t Gone Anywhere. You Just Haven’t Been Looking Hard Enough”
Eric Esch, the 5-foot-11, 400-pound boxer, wrestler, mixed martial artist and kickboxer affectionately known as “Butterbean” was seemingly everywhere during the 1990s and early aughts. He graced the cover of a video game; he kicked Johnny Knoxville’s ass in Jackass: The Movie; and he fought in everything from the WWE to Pride MMA. But since then, Butterbean has disappeared. Or has he? Oliver Lee Bateman spoke to Esch about his storied career, and why, if you want to come find him, you’re welcome to swing by Mr. Bean’s BBQ in Jasper, Alabama any damned day you’d like. READ MORE
Camming Done Right
Cam, the unnerving new psychological horror film coming to Netflix this Friday, might be the most honest look at the high-risk world of camming, and more generally, sex work — possibly because screenwriter Isa Mazzei was once a camgirl herself. Mazzei, along with childhood friend and director Daniel Goldhaber sat down with Tim Grierson to discuss her experiences camming, why she insisted that he had to cam before making the film and how their movie stands in opposition to decades of horror films in which the sexually active characters always die.
The Rise and Fall of Pabst Blue Ribbon
Millennials have been blamed for the demise of a lot of things, but none have hit Tracy Moore as hard as the hit-job on PBR. That’s because, as a formerly poor white Southerner now living in L.A., she’s seen first hand how the brand’s ironclad hipster-chic rep has eroded in the face of the craft brew onslaught — and how the once mighty PBR, currently in a legal fight for its life with its parent company, MillerCoors, has been reduced to that which it has always been: Cheap light beer for simple folk.
Pop a Squat
Miles Klee interviews She’s in Russia podcasters Smith Freeman and Olivia Capozzalo about the “gopnik phenomenon,” i.e., lower-class slavic men and the stereotypes they’ve become online — from their Adidas track suits and newsboy caps to their meme-worthy tendency to squat in nearly every photo.
You vs the guy she tells you not to worry about pic.twitter.com/uYOktEB8An
— Squatting Slavs (@SquattingSlavs) August 15, 2016
Dad Around the House
There are plenty of well-known benefits of paternity leave: Your kid bonds with you better, it helps decrease the stigma about being a caregiver dad and it makes your child smarter. But only recently have researchers discovered another positive benefit — what it does for your relationship with your partner.
Never Nude
Guys don’t get nekkid like they used to. Spend enough time in a men’s locker room and you’ll notice few men under the age of 50 are strutting around with their dongs out. It might be easy to pass this phenomenon off as dick insecurity, or fear of the dreaded “male gaze.” But the reasons younger generations don’t do public nudity are not nearly as cut-and-dry as they seem.
In Men’s Hygiene (Barf) News
Are you a manscaper? Do you share a razor with your wife or girlfriend? If you answered “yes” to either of these questions, and you’ve used your razor to shave your face, STOP NOW. Please, for the love of all that is good and fair and clean in this world, stop doing that. Because all types of scary shit are just itching to make a nasty home on your innocent mug.
We’ve Reached Peak Condom
Sex with a condom is like bad pizza: Still good — better when you’re drunk — but straight trash when compared to the real thing. And a lot of that comes down to sustained lubrication, or a lack thereof. Thankfully, some horny researchers from Boston University have created a new, self-lubricating condom. Which means that strange rubbery friction of the condom days of yore might be a thing of the past. Here’s how the whole “self-lubricating” thing works.
Dead, from a Broken Heart
Breaking up with someone is bad enough — the lack of appetite, the constant sobbing, the frequent sympathetic-yet-passive-aggressive phone calls from mom — but now we’ve gotta worry about dying, too? Evidently, the answer is yes, and it even has a name: Broken-heart syndrome.
And, yes, it definitely accounts as emotional abuse if you tell your girlfriend never to leave you or else you might *literally* die.
Jeff Gross
Jeff Gross is MEL’s senior editor for social media and content marketing. His daily ICYMI column, which chronicles all things meta on the site, is the quickest way to catch up on MEL, and the funniest thing you’ll read all day. Follow him on Twitter.
