TRASH -STRUT- TALKS : MASTER PRECIS

 

To show off big shots flex their muscles. Powerful men bulk up, trash talk and strut. Will a cage match be next? Call it the melee of the middle-aged men.

We already know the main event. That would be Elon Musk versus Mark Zuckerberg in Las Vegas, or maybe the Colosseum in Rome.

The rival tech billionaires are inching toward a cage match, brokered by Dana While, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

For some powerful men, this is a season for peacocking. No longer content to embody the masculine ideals of financial, professional and political achievement - or simply to optimize their fitness, as tech chief executives have long done -suddenly these honchos want us to see the achievements of their bodies.

Grappling, squeezing, flexing, dominating [ or being dominated ] : These are no longer tired metaphors for corporate or intellectual conquest. They are literal descriptions of America's big shots showing off as buff boys.

After being photographed shirtless last summer aboard a yacht [ and subsequently ridiculed for his physique]. Mr. Musk tweeted in October that he had been fasting and taking Wegovy, a prescription drug used to treat obesity.

And although Mr. Zuckerberg, who is 5 feet 7 inches tall, is in fact a committed athlete, he has for years worn the title of nerd king, which he inherited from Bill Gates.

[Recently, Mr. Zuckerberg has turned to training and competing in martial arts and posting mirror selfies of his progress on Instagram.]

So, what's with all these conspicious displays of machismo? To start, they're mostly just that -displays.

'' A lot of it is spectacle,'' said Andrew Reiner, a lecturer in men's studies at Towson University and the author of the book '' Better Boys, Better Men : The New Masculinity That Creates Greater Courage and Emotional Resiliency.''

The World Students Society thanks author Joseph Bernstein.