Skinny? Weak? Flabby?
How to Make YOUR Body Bring You FAME instead of SHAME!
Does this look familiar? This is the first page of Flex Mentallo’s origin tale, as it appeared in Doom Patrol no. 42 (Mar. 1991, DC), written by Grant Morrison, with art by Mike Dringenberg and Doug Hazlewood.
Advertisements for boys cover different areas, but appeal to the same kind of susceptibility to juvenile hypochondriasis as those for girls. The concern of boys with growth and body build is exploited in advertisements illustrated with photographs of super muscular he-men (often with big genitals like some of the comic-book heroes). I have seen a number of cases of boys who were developing more slowly than some of their friends, who were only mildly concerned about it until comics ads made them feel downright ashamed. These advertisements go like this:
How to Make YOUR Body Bring You FAME instead of SHAME! Are You Skinny? Weak? Flabby? . . . I know what it means to have the kind of body that people pity! . . . I don't care how old or young you are or how ashamed of your present physical condition . . . I can shoot new strength into your old backbone . . . help you cram your body so full of pep, vigor and vitality that you won't feel there's even standing room left for weakness and that lazy feeling! . . .
A full-page advertisement illustrated with photos of muscular he-men says:
From a SKINNY WEAKLING to a MIGHTY MAN! . . .
I gained 53 lbs. of MIGHTY MUSCLE. 6 and a half inches on my CHEST; 3 inches on each ARM. You can do it in 10 minutes a day!
Presently the same advertisement appeared (December 1953) in a super-endorsed comic book with a public service page of the National Social Welfare Assembly. Now "Skinny" gains 70 lbs. of mighty muscle, his chest grows 7 inches and his arms 3 and a half inches each!
The large art photos of male nudes wearing only scanty trunks are a special comic-book feature. Of course, there are boys who look at them admiringly because they are interested in body development. But he must be an inexperienced psychologist indeed who does not know that these photos of supermales serve also other purposes. Boys with latent (and sometimes not so latent) homosexual tendencies collect these pictures, cut them out and use them for sexual stimulation. One of my patients started to cut out these photos at the age of eleven. One ordinary children's comic has no less than fifteen such photographs!
Many children get hurt in two ways by these he-man ads: They get disappointed when they do not get results, and they get homoerotic fantasies from the photographs. One ten-year-old boy was treated at the Clinic because he had prostituted himself to men. He looked a little too small for his age. He told us how he studied comic-book ads to correct this: "I have one of those books at home. It is no good. I got several. I started doing it for thirty-five days and nothing happened. I tried it for my arm - you know, 'mighty arms.' I thought I could be strong, but it didn't work. All I did was keep the pictures of the wrestlers and boxers and photographs of strong men and muscle men."
Comic-book advertisements give children the idea of scrutinizing themselves in a mirror, to look for anything they should worry about. One ad has a big balloon:
Hey SKINNY!
Yer ribs are Showing!
and continues farther down the page:
When you look in the mirror . . . practice in the privacy of your own room . . . just watch your scrawny chest and shoulder muscles begin to swell . . . those spindly arms and legs of yours bulge . . . !
Some of these advertisements hint at worries and guilt feelings based on the superstitiously supposed effects of masturbation.
BUNK! Nobody is just naturally skinny! Girls snickered at me behind my back. Are you always tired? Nervous? Lacking in confidence? Constipated? Suffering from bad breath? Do you want to gain weight?
Another ad advising you how to become "an all-around HE-MAN" says "Prove it to yourself in one night!"
Emphasis on the region of the "crotch" in some ads directs attention to a similar line of thought, as do "supporter" ads ($2.98) and remedies for "itching" which "may go . . . to the crotch of the legs." ($1.00). It is not only a fraudulent claim, but an invitation to sexual hypochondriasis when an ad says:
Do the best science knows for you to do to GROW MORE VIRILE HAIR IN 30 DAYS.
For all these artificially created or aggravated inferiority feelings, the comic-book ads offer one emotional outlet: overcompensation in brutality. Under the thin disguise of self-defense, full-page ads are permitted to tell millions of children:
I BROKE HIS HAND LIKE A MATCH!
It was easy! He was helpless. He howled with pain!
Method of Offensive Defense, based on natural, instinctive impulse-action . . . Smashing, crashing, bone-shattering, nerve-paralyzing method . . . 70 BONE-BREAKING SECRETS . . .
($1.00 - formerly sold at $5.00)