But the holding back of actual sex makes for a steeping, spicy brew. As a teen, I never fit in with male athletic culture. Like many sissy-boys in high school, I feigned illness to avoid going to the gym and the dreaded locker room. I wish I had discovered these magazines when I was a young man grappling with my attraction to and fear of men. I think Gym would have helped me work out my sexual thoughts and feelings, as others might have done on the sporting field or in the locker room.
People seem to be either gripped with desire or they are revolted.
The point is that it is rare to see anybody who is simply disinterested. Narcissim tells us a lot. It is a deeply homoerotic phenomenon. It implies that, deep down, men really do know how to appreciate men. In this case it seems that narcissism is a love not only for oneself but for one's ideal self as pictured in the pages of the magazines.