Aydian Dowling, you have our vote.
The US Men’s Health Ultimate Guy Search is in full swing, and the forerunner is a 27-year-old with the requisite rippling abs, perky pecs and killer guns, as well as a smattering of tatts and a three-day growth.
But one thing sets this guy apart: He used to be a woman.
Aydian Dowling, a transgender man from Oregon, is currently outstripping his closest competitor by a factor of more than three — and redefining what it means to be a man in the process. If he wins, which is looking pretty likely, he’ll be the first trans man to ever grace the cover of the men’s mag.
Dowling is a vlogger and transgender rights activist who has been documenting his transition for about five years.
“I think I would have laughed if someone said that in five years I was going to be in a competition to be on the cover of Men’s Health magazine,” Dowling told People.
“I would be like, ‘No way would you be putting me shirtless on a magazine!'”
Dowling used bodybuilding throughout his transition to “feel more masculine,” and now he’s, well, pretty smokin’ hot actually. But the competition is about more than muscle.
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I don't understand how this 'breaks stereotypes of what a man SHOULD be'. He's muscly, he's bearded, he's in a stable heterosexual relationship (as if that matters), he's involved in community work. Great. The fact that he has a 'platform' doesn't affect anything. He's a man. He USED to identify as something else but he's now a man (looks like, walks like, quacks like). So how is he breaking a stereotype (given that we're talking Men's Health here, not some in depth sociopolitical text)?
Saying he "use to be a woman" is an offensive discourse a better way to talk about transition would be to refer to the fact that he was assigned the female gender at birth or he was born biologically female.
It's still a fact though - I get so tired of people getting outraged and offended by people stating plain facts. For goodness sake! Get over yourself.
Umm. Whilst physically being born a female, he would never have felt right in his skin. The term woman is more a word used to describe a female, not only associated with gender but also adulthood. Female is more about the physical aspects of sex.
Didn't he used to be identified as a woman? Before his grasp on the matter wasn't he living life as a woman?