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Monday 15 August 2016

Meet The Spornosexual: How A Weak Economy Sparked The Selfie-Generation

Zero Hedge

Poor economies impact countries in a number of detrimental ways including higher rates of poverty, unemployment and chronic disease. Now, a new study shows the bad economy is to blame for another unfortunate trend: the rise of the selfie generation and "spornosexuality."

As PlanetFreeWill.com's Joseph Jankowski reports, according to a new study from the University of East Anglia (UEA), young men are seeking value through their bodies rather than traditional value creation because of poor economic conditions.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, more men have been taking to social media to post images of their fit bodies, says the study’s author, Dr Jamie Hakim.

This trend has been labeled ‘spornosexuality’, a combination of ‘sports star’ and ‘porn star’. It was coined in July 2014 by media commentator Mark Simpson, in an article in The Daily Telegraph about the rise of men attending the gym primarily for reasons of appearance, rather than for health or fitness.
"One of the most interesting aspects of this development is the power-shift of a segment of society who have historically defined themselves through their mind, whilst at the same time defining those they have subordinated – women, gay and working-class people – through their bodies,” said Dr Jamie Hakim.

“The former group has historically been employed as high-paid decision-makers, whilst the latter have had to rely on their bodies for low- or no-pay work, such as manual and domestic labour, slavery and sex work.”
The study, titled ‘The Spornosexual’: the affective contradictions of male body-work in neoliberal digital culture’, was published on Thursday in the Journal of Gender Studies.

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