16.2003
BOOKS
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ABBA-SOLUTELY EABULOUS!
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LIZ SMITH, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST
Revenge of the nerd
Peter McCusker goes From Dweeb to Adonis
by
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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