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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (May 16, 2003)
16.2003 BOOKS ..............▼.............. ABBA-SOLUTELY EABULOUS! »♦ LIZ SMITH, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST Revenge of the nerd Peter McCusker goes From Dweeb to Adonis by ON sav * ! / «SJL- T«*. ■ • /.* , -, > jf , I V<- ' ■ <r * BENNY ANDERSSON & BJORN ULVAEUS’ THE SMASH HIT MUSICAL m £&>« A9BA* A m o th e r. A d a u g h te r. 3 p o s s ib le d a d s . A n d a trip d o w n th e a is le y o u ’ll n e v e r fo rg e t! JULY 1-13 KELLER AUDITORIUM • SW 3RD & CLAY (503) 790-ARTS or (503)241-1802 ticketmaster Mon-fri 9a-5p GROUPS O f 20 OR MORE SAVE! (503) 241-1407 www.broadwayacrossamerica.com BROADWAY, P ortland MAMMA MIA! ORK.INAI CAST RICORDINO AVAILABLE ON DECCA BROADWAY Tichrts subfetl lo agmty conv*nienrr charges /' :l.-i K1£3 ¡f t F loyd S klaver eter McCusker is a dweeb. Or at least he used to be and now is on a mission to defend men against dweeb-dom. The 48-year-old Medford resident has written a self- help hook called From Dweeb to Adonis, which announces it’s “unlike other self- help fxxiks because it tells you how to avoid the problems in the first place.” Broken into chap ters such as “Ex ternal Beauty,” “Physique,” “Rela tionships” and “Sexuality,” McCusker s book abounds with “tips and tidbits of advice men can use to better their life.” McCusker came to dweeb-dom naturally. The book explains he was a “shy, four-eyed, Peter McCusker says his new book will help guys achieve that “all-American bed-wetting (until wrestler’s look” age 20) only-child nerd bom to eighth-grade educated parents in idea of trying to look gtxxl as being shallow and an asexual Catholic environm ent.” outward.. .and in conflict with caring and compas By adulthixxJ, he was “exercising at various sion. But I don’t think they conflict...because gyms and trying to put on muscles," but he looking gixxJ makes us feel gcxxl.” wasn’t accomplishing the kind of results he According to McCusker, fairly or unfairly we wanted. From there he began an intensive judge and are judged by our appearance. So to learning process, reading anything he could help men develop his ideal of male beauty (“I find about body building and weight training. would call it the all-American wrestler’s look,” he In 1994, however, his kidneys began failing says, “exuding qualities of youth, virility and him and McCusker, who has AIDS, had to health"), he presents suggestions on hair length, give up body building. He also went on disabil skin care, forehead wrinkles and surgical implants. ity leave from his job as a postal clerk. “All men desire self-esteem, intellect, gixxJ “I’ll now never know how muscular I might kxiks, a healthy bixiy, romance and satisfying have been,” he laments. “Needless to say, I was sex,” the author says. “However, society does lit bitter and angry.” tle to teach us how to acquire these qualities, He began taking part in several m en’s dis and it often discourages us from trying our best." cussion groups about personal issues and His fxxik even offers advice for parents to learned that men often live with low self ensure they don’t contribute to a future dweeb. esteem, poor btxly image and unsatisfying rela “T he shape of a head is largely determined by tionships or loneliness. “Because of my health,” how an infant is placed when laying down,” he he says, “I, too, developed a ptx>r btxly image explains. “Parents should be aware of this...and and angrily wished I had known how to get alternate their positions.” buff when I was younger and healthier.” McCusker and his partner of 20 years, Mark But McCusker was determined “not to wal Macdougall, live in a log house in the foothills low in the resentment of my life’s bad luck,” south of Medford. He is a regular volunteer at and he threw his energies into writing his Ashland’s Abdill-Ellis Lambda Community book, which he says “not only let me vent my Center, the only queer community center in frustrations but also let me use the insights of Oregon. There, he runs a gay m en’s discussion my life as a teaching mechanism for others.” group that fix uses (not surprisingly) on rela It occurred to him “that many people prob tionships, intimacy, creativity and dating. “My ably miss out on doing the best in their lives own experiences in life,” he says, “have made because they don’t know how to do it.” There me an expert on these topics.” fore, much of From Dweeb “is what I didn’t Admitting that he has "no psychology know 20 or 30 years ago about how a person background” and that most of what he knows can look better, develop their physique, devel comes from reading and his own “keen insight op a relationship, express their sexuality." into human nature,” McCusker says his book is Perhaps most controversial is McCusker’s meant to “encourage people to think for them emphasis on physical appearance and what he selves and to develop insight into their own calls “lookism.” He explains: “People put down the wants and desires. - j n
