WHAT ABOUT BACK HAIR?:

Is the potbelly the new gay ideal?: Forget the six-pack. Instead, flaunt your paunch with pride (Paul Flynn, April 18, 2003, The Guardian)

A new gay silhouette is emerging that isn't on the Atkins' diet. The stomach is expanding. It is both out and, shockingly, proud. Keeping trim used to be the obsession of gay clubbers. But owing to its proximity to the Tottenham Court Road branch of McDonald's, young men and their fashion-student hangers-on are often seen in the queue for Nag Nag Nag - London's most celebrated gay night - eating chicken nuggets. Somehow it all fits neatly as part of their look. Eyeliner: check. Cheap hair rinse: check. Outsized silver Nike hi-tops: check. Potbelly: check. Chip wrapper: why not?

Larger boys have always been big with girls. I've choked on my pint when female friends have confessed to their deviant fantasies about Peter Kay, Ricky Gervais or even Johnny Vegas. The payoff line is always the same. Funny is sexy.

But for boys? And boys involved in same-sex sexual activity? Homosexual males are traditionally the most preening, pouting, moisturised, eye-gelled, self-critical, fitted, kitted and spun-dry gym bunnies on the block. Even the ugly ones are aware that Clinique is not French for hospital. They are the only men in the western world for whom Botox has become the stuff of birthday presents.

The rise of the potbelly is a dawn-of-destruction moment for the kind of gay man who prizes the body beautiful above all else. In certain gay cliques, the six-pack is still a Masonic handshake of both introduction and entry. For the topless gay massive that dominated the dreary night- time landscape for the best half of the last decade, it was not just a uniform - it was the only thing to get you into the club.

Thankfully, people are beginning to notice that this six-pack living is tedious. In the new issue of i-D magazine, sexually uninhibited fashion designer Jeremy Scott castigates his interviewer for his embarrassment at a potbelly. Scott, one of the few men who can claim to have done both full nude for the genius Dutch gay fashion/porn fanzine Butt and designed razzy evening wear for a Minogue, said: "I think potbellies are the sexiest. I always hated being skinny. It wasn't until I first came to New York that people were into my body, but you are what you are." [...]

The rise of the paunch should come as welcome news to everyone who likes a regular tipple and a handsome portion come dinnertime. As Jeremy Scott says, quite reasonably: "You should be happy with what you are." If you are a man coming to terms with the fact that all his trousers are too small and are destined for Oxfam, you are now not only a style icon, but a sex symbol. Tell your gay best friends of our general potbelly rule of thumb: a 36 inch waist is acceptable, 38 is just greedy.

This is one gay trend we heartily approve of: considering fat men to be sexy. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 20, 2003 6:18 AM