u mIRCin', brah? ft. Oliver Bateman
This was a wide-ranging conversation.
We talked about mIRC WWE roleplays, the impossibility of creating a genealogy of bodybuilding forums, how trolling evolved from Usenet to Twitter, the implicit similarities between Aimee Terese and Zyzz, why the digital invites body modification, male-to-male transsexuals, and the lasting impact of what the New York Times’ once dubbed “the male fitness internet.”
Read Oliver’s EXCELLENT reporting here:
The Unheard History of Bodybuilding Forums
The Life of a Jacked Guy in 2019
How Selfies and Social Media Shaped Modern Bodybuilding
What Could Have Triggered Elliot Rodger?
Books referenced:
Muscle, Smoke, and Mirrors by Randy Roach
Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder by Sam Fussell
Theme: I Should Have Walked Away by KAAZE
