BEEFCAKE: gay men and the body beautiful

Organized By Out@UCL

Location: Sir David Davies Lecture Theatre, Roberts Building, UCL

Torrington Place (43.356753, -71.030328)

Details

What are the historical roots of mainstream gay gym culture? Why are record numbers of gay men taking steroids? How healthy or unhealthy are aspirations towards the "perfect" muscular physique? What role do the media and popular culture play in representing and enforcing certain ideal body types amongst gay men? How have other LGBT counter cultures responded to the pressure to pump iron? As part of LGBT History Month's Sport-themed programme for 2012, UCL LGBT Equality Group and Out@UCL present BEEFCAKE, a panel debate about gay men and muscle culture. The panel will be chaired by PROFESSOR MICHAEL KING, Head of UCL Mental Health Sciences. Contributors will include: - JONATHAN KEMP, Lecturer in Queer Studies at Birkbeck and award winning author of The London Triptych and Twentysix http://birkbeck.academia.edu/JonathanKemp - JOHAN ANDERSSON, Research Fellow in Geography at the University of Leeds, radical queer geographer who has written on post-AIDS identity and the projection of ‘healthy’ bodies http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/people/jandersson.html - EMMA HALLIWELL, Centre for Appearance Research, University of the West of England (TBC) http://hls.uwe.ac.uk/profiles/Profile.aspx?id=2151122 - MATTHEW TODD, Editor of Attitude Magazine, award winning journalist, playwright, comedian and author of Blowing Whistles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Todd - MARK SIMPSON, journalist, columnist for the Guardian, blogger, author and editor of numerous books including Metrosexy and Antigay http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Simpson_(journalist) Organised by Max Hill, Sarah Guise and Ben Campkin, UCL LGBT Equality Group. This event is free and open to all UCL staff, students and the general public. Spaces are limited and YOU MUST REGISTER TO ATTEND here: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/equalities/events/equality_events_2012.php A map to the venue can be found here: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/equalities/training/body.php Further details: Sonal Bharadva Email: [email protected]