Is there a difference between a guy going skimpy versus a gal?

[rkitek]

Bodybuilders wear the suites they do in order to display the muscles they have worked so hard to develop.  The sport would be useless if the women were wearing burkinis and the men wore board shorts.  To those who judge these athletes I say this; perversion is in the eye and heart of the pervert.

[SeekingChange]

@rkitek, one does not have to be a pervert to see it anything different than absolutely appropriate. If one gets turned on by that much skin or body, doesn't make them a pervert. If one deems it inappropriate doesn't make it a perversion either. If it is contrary to what we see glorifying God, that is perversion.

[rkitek]

Your last sentence is where it get's sticky.  You said "what we see".  In other words, it becomes a judgement call by us.  It's what we see and how we interpret someone else's actions. One can say the suits in questions are too skimpy, and that may be the case.  But there is no suit worn by the average woman that would not have been seen as sinful just a century ago, let alone in Biblical times.  Hence the problem when we attempt to apply "Biblical modesty" to what we consider acceptable today.  If someone gets turned on by excessive skin, the problem is not in the skin, but the heart of the one that can't control themselves.  Forever the church has blamed women for men not controlling themselves.  Instead of dealing with the heart of men, the church puts the blame on the dress of women.

[neilEthere]

Seeking,

rkitek does raise what I believe is a good point.  I know this is a barrow I have pushed for a long while but Christian Missionaries have been wandering into jungles for years and converting tribes to Jesus as a white upwardly mobile middle class version of God.  And the real Jesus was a grubby little Arab who would scare most people sitting beside him on a plane today.  Maybe this is just a tribe that gets together in their tribal outfit and does its tribal thing?

On a different note, the other thought I had was that if musclyeighteen is the man of God that you believe him to be and he hasn't been convicted by the Holy Spirit that his attire in competition is inappropriate perhaps God doesn't see it as a problem either?

[SeekingChange]

This is actually a petpeeve of mine, often seen in movies portraying the Israelites, they weren't dirty people, Jesus wasn't grubby, Jews had a very high cleanliness standard, set by God....but that's beside the point ;)

Beyond the apparal, I see a strong spirit of pride in it. Maybe that's not how most or all are, I have never been around the scene, but from what I am glimpsing, I see it. Pride is not glorifying God.

My son is a youth, growing into a man of God. His flesh often beats out the spirit, I wouldn't go off of his feelings. I have pretty good spiritual discernment and there is no peace here yet, so the Spirit is stirring something. Believe it or not, I am actually okay with my kids learning the hard way if that's what it takes. I am actually a mother who prays for God to be merciful, but to break her children, and I know what being broken entails (often being handed over to sin)....I also know what's on the other side :)

[neilEthere]

There is a difference between 'dirty' and 'grubby' - although that was a reference to his colour as much as his cleanliness.  Life without mains pressure hot water in that environment/climate would have been sorely testing.  I see it today where I live.  Ah, but the blessed relief from 'washing the feet' of someone who has a days worth of walking dust up to their knees must have been lavish.  When we go camping I have a bucket of water every night for my wife to wash her legs off before she climbs into bed because she can't stand that dusty feeling.

On a different note - again - you mention pride as a motivating factor in these competitions (and I agree to an extent).  How do you feel about - say - a Church based basketball team wanting to win a competition?

ETA: Grubby vs dirty.  I wear grubby or stained but washed clean shirts when I am working around our house so that I don't stain my social shirts.  At the end of the day I wash it and it is now clean, but still stained.  I only shave when it occurs to me so I am normally stubbled to some extent.  My wife would say I look 'grubby' much as Jesus would have.  We are divided by a common language.

[DaveW]

I have a son who has been into body building for a couple of years. Right now he is in the midst of doing some training, in hopes to actually be part of a competition.  Have you seen what these bodybuilders wear at those competitions?   

Well, at least he is not on a high school swim team in the early to mid 1950s. At various places around the country (mostly upper midwest, but other places too) due to wool swim suits off-shedding fibers which clogged the pool filters, swim practices and competitions were done in the nude. I have seen a few pics (sometimes it was even published in local newspapers) of nude guys lined up to swim, or in the middle of a high dive. And yes, you could see all of their manhood. Apparently it was also at the YMCA.

It changed with the invention of the lycra swim trunks circa 1960. Both Quora and Reddit have lots of stories of those nude swimmers.

[Mike smith]

I think there is an element of this issue that may not have been addressed. Generally speaking (and I realize there are exceptions to every generalization) the female body is considered erotic where the male, not so much. I suspect that if you showed 100 males a picture do a nude female, there would be very few that did not find it erotic, on the other hand, if you showed 100 females a picture I’d a nude male, far fewer females would find it erotic. The scriptures abound in admonishments for females to be modest in dress, men….?
The purpose of minimal covering for body builders is to show their accomplishments, not to be erotic.
This from the perspective of a male, …females, am I wrong?

[Plumpurple]

I think there is an element of this issue that may not have been addressed. Generally speaking (and I realize there are exceptions to every generalization) the female body is considered erotic where the male, not so much. I suspect that if you showed 100 males a picture do a nude female, there would be very few that did not find it erotic, on the other hand, if you showed 100 females a picture I’d a nude male, far fewer females would find it erotic. The scriptures abound in admonishments for females to be modest in dress, men….?
The purpose of minimal covering for body builders is to show their accomplishments, not to be erotic.
This from the perspective of a male, …females, am I wrong?

If you ever passed Hollister in the mall, or go to any teen store, you may see women are quite obviously interested in men's bodies I shared a room with my older sister and she practically used the shopping bags as wallpaper (they usually featured the naked torso of men with abs and wearing very low-rise jeans). Other aspects are just often *more* important and we aren't captivated to the same degree by the physical portion (though I dont speak for all women on that). Also if you see a guy in a Speedo even at the beach it's hard not to look when it just feels like it's glaring at you, there just may be a difference in where the observation takes women's minds as opposed to what men do more naturally with the image. Again though, depends on the person. Personally I would find being surrounded by a bunch of men wearing speedos equally as uncomfortable as a bunch of women wearing very small bikinis. I think there are a lot of situational factors that play into making the judgment call of propriety or not though when it comes to dress.

Excessive nakedness makes most people at least a bit uncomfortable whether it's men or women, it's just a matter of how that discomfort carries on in our minds. There's never harm in being *not* excessively undressed though. I don't see much difference in women going to a bikini contest and men at a body building contest though, regardless of what they're wearing. Both of them are displaying your body and how you've shaped it to be admired and applauded. I don't think people are morally wrong inherently for participating, but it does seem they both have the same goal to me.

[MrEden]

Assuming nothing harmful (hormones or implants) is being done to his body, I don't see a problem here. How is developing your God-given body to be the best it can be fundamentally different than developing intellect or musical ability?

With body-building, like many sports, it is necessary or at least acceptable to showcase our bodies. We are sexual beings, and there is a sexual element to this. Appreciation of masculine or feminine beauty or the opposite sex is not adultery of the heart.