Stand-up comedian Ruslan Bely spent 10 minutes looking at the asses of Spanish police officers - and this says more about his freedom than it seems

Slava Komissarenko's YouTube channel released an episode of the show "Let's Make Show #8 Together", which unexpectedly turned into a session of mass psychotherapy. Comedian Ruslan Bely admitted that he spent 10 minutes in Barcelona just contemplating the uniforms of local policemen.

Gay magazine "Doberman media" analyzes the monologue Ruslana Belya about the Barcelona Guards and explains why sincere admiration for someone else's aesthetics still causes tension in the male hetero company. Based on the data of sexology on the Kinsey scale and the difference between aesthetic and sexual attraction, we will try to show how Inner confidence allows you to break the archaic taboos of masculinity and calmly recognize the beauty of the human body without fear of losing status.

What exactly did Bely say?

While walking around Barcelona Ruslan Bely came across a La Guardia patrol. According to him, the police looked "incredible": Young, fit, with well-groomed beards and in a very tight shape. The comedian honestly admitted that, having free time, he just sat on a bench and watched for 10 minutes how the pants fit on them and what shape their buttocks are.

When his colleagues on the show (Slava Komissarenko and Sergey Detkov) began to make fun of him, Bely said that it was "aesthetic pleasure", and asked a direct question:

"Why is there any sexual connotation in the fact that it's just to enjoy the way people look?"

Why did his colleagues laugh so much? (Spoiler: this is internal censorship)

The reaction of Komissarenko and Detkov — the traditional "teenage cackling" for men's companies — clearly illustrates the boundaries of post-Soviet masculinity.

In classical patriarchal culture, the field of vision of a heterosexual man is divided into strictly delineated zones. There are objects for attraction (women) and there are objects for assessing competition, threat, or camaraderie (other men). Any exit from these flags is a reason for an immediate defensive reaction. That is why Bely's jokes immediately caused a stormy reaction from the audience and colleagues: Society still requires a man to have a reinforced concrete, demonstrative blindness to the beauty of his own kind.

You can only notice the car, the clock or, at least, the physical shape of the opponent in the rocking chair from the point of view of "how much he presses from the chest".

But the monologue from the Prague concert hits a different nerve. Bely did not admire strength or dominance in the spirit of an archaic masculine epic. He admired aesthetics. And in this sense, his behavior is an absolute norm for a person living in the open urban space of modern Europe, but an anomaly for the internal censorship of a post-Soviet man.

Is this even "normal" for a heterosexual? What the Science Says

Sociology and sexology have long destroyed the myth that sexuality is two strict folders: "hetero" and "homo".

Sociological studies of recent decades have stubbornly destroyed the myth of the binary nature of human sexuality. Back in the middle of the twentieth century, the famous work of the American biologist and sexologist Alfred Kinsey «Sexual Behavior in the Human Male» (1948) proved that human sexuality is not divided into strict "black and white" (exclusively hetero- or homosexuality), but represents a smooth spectrum. According to Kinsey's seven-point scale (from 0 to 6), a huge array of people are located in intermediate zones, combining to varying degrees elements of hetero- and homosexual attractions, thoughts, or fantasies.

The problem is that for a cisgender heterosexual man, acknowledging the aesthetic or even partial attractiveness of another man is still equated with a social taboo. The heteronormative matrix is designed in such a way that any doubt about the monolithic nature of orientation is punished by the loss of status.

The words of Ruslan Bely are a rare example of public loosening of a rigid framework. Men have been taught for years that their gaze should be sterile to everything except women. In practice, studies of human behavior show that hidden flexibility and assessment of the external attractiveness of people of the same sex are characteristic of a much larger part of the population than it is customary to admit aloud, people just suppress these impulses because of fear of internal shame and social condemnation.

The paradox of this situation is that the ability to openly admire the aesthetics of other men and joke about it does not at all undermine, but on the contrary, emphasizes the comedian's confidence in his own heterosexuality.

If people with fragile masculinity are panicked by any deviation from archaic rules and shy away from their own shadow, then psychological maturity allows them to completely throw away protective barriers.

It is this inner freedom and absolute self-confidence that give a person the right to simple human sincerity – when you can allow yourself to notice the beauty around you without fear of destroying the conventional image and proving your "correctness" to someone.

"Like a Tourist in a Museum": Ruslan Bely and the New Freedom

When Ruslan Bely speaks with sincere delight about the Catalan guards, he highlights the absurdity of the ban on this view. Why can you admire Gaudí's architecture openly and with admiration, and the aesthetics of the human body in Barcelona, for example, only with reservations and excuses?

"Why you can openly admire architecture... and the aesthetics of the human body – only with reservations?"

Ruslan Bely

He highlighted two key arguments in his favor. Firstly, looking at the fit forms of the guardsmen, he remembers them in the gym when he does not want to do squats. Secondly, at the age of 40, the comedian notes that he no longer "wants to show off" and hide his thoughts (let's call it "Age indifference").

Bely's monologue is a rare example of "loosening a rigid framework" in the public field. Despite Komissarenko's jokes that this fragment will end up in Solovyov's Telegram channel as evidence of "decay", the very fact of such a conversation is a step towards a world where a man can simply notice the beauty around him, whether it is a Spanish policeman or a sunset, without going into aggression or making excuses.

After all, the world becomes a little safer when a man on a bench can afford to notice the beauty around him — even if it's a Spanish policeman in a tight uniform, and not just another business success or a cryptocurrency course.

Kinsey Scale: A Classic Study by Alfred Kinsey Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and materials Kinsey Institute, which laid down the concept of the spectrality of sexual orientation.

Perception of male aesthetics: Scientific works on the criteria of attractiveness and perception of male corporeality in the male environment (for example, studies of the interaction of the male gaze and the assessment of physical parameters, covered in specialized sociological publications such as International Journal of Men’s Health / ResearchGate).

P.S. Doctors, dermatologists and hygiene specialists agree that you need to change your underwear at least once a day. The inguinal area of the human body constantly secretes sweat and secretion of the sebaceous glands. In the heat and darkness under dense tissue, microorganisms multiply at a tremendous rate. If you wear the same underpants for more than a day, the risk of developing dermatitis, irritation, itching, fungal infections (such as inguinal dermatomycosis or "jockey's itch") and inflammation increases many times over. Doctors recommend changing underwear more often (twice a day or immediately after exertion) in the heat, with increased sweating, after training or sports, as well as in the presence of medical problems or inflammatory processes. Leaving wet laundry after the gym or swimming pool is categorically not recommended - these are ideal conditions for infections.