Can you help me with some research questions?

[Whispersecret]

I have a character who is sort of scrawny, but he wants to start buffing up (a la Kevin Spacey in American Beauty). What would be a normal challenging amount of weight for a him to bench press?

What does 40 degrees Celsius translate to in Fahrenheit (sp?)?

Were slaves in Ancient Rome naked? I don't know why I have that thought in my head, but I sort of remember something like that...

That's all for now, but I will have something I need translated to Latin later, once I decide on the exact words.

Thank you for your help!!

 

[Guest]

Sounds like quite a story you're writing there, Whispah. Can't help you at all with any of your queries.

Here's stuff that might add a bit of flavour though (from a thing about prostitution I wrote for a fanzine) -

"Roman men literally owned their wives, children and slaves and were legally at will to have any of them put to death if they so wished. The sexual depravity and decadence of ancient Rome is notorious and, although prostitution was widespread, the use of slaves as 'sex toys' was even greater.

"In spite of this oppression, Roman women actually had far more autonomy than the wives of ancient Greece - being free to wander about the city at will and to educate themselves if they so wished.

"But, as with the Greek 'hetairae' before them, the high-class whores of ancient Rome, known as the "delicata" and the "famosa", were often some of the most liberated women of the time. These beautiful, well-educated ladies were often from good families and regularly had famous poets or politicians as customers.

"Prostitution was still pretty much a stigma-free occupation and the lower classes of whores openly plied for trade by posing naked in their doorways, howling like wolves or selling cakes shaped like male or female genitals.

"The goddess Venus was the patroness and protector of prostitutes. The temples of this goddess were, according to Barbara Walker, 'schools of instruction in sexual techniques, under the tutelage of the venerii or harlot-priestesses' ('The Women's Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets')."

Most of the facts in that article were from a book about the History of Prostitution by Nicky Roberts (sorry - don't know the publisher).

I saw a programme recently that mentioned that, despite the general permissiveness, oral sex was a big taboo with the Romans. They thought that a woman giving a man head was stealing his power. Many of the houses in Pompei had erotic artwork on the walls - some of these showed oral sex, which would've been thought of as very humorous, because it was such a taboo.

Hope some of this helps in some way.

 

[Bob Waters]

Roman slaves were not kept naked, they were often stripped at the slave market so the prospective buyer could 'look under the hood' so to speak.

I may be wrong, but I would have to disagree with Roger's post on oral sex being frowned upon. Being the 'giver' was looked down upon but being the receiver did not seem to have as negative a connotation.

To call a man a Fellator was a serious insult, but calling someone an Irruminator was kind of a back-handed complement. One of the most celebrated hetairea of the period allegedly attained that status by being an accomplished fellatrix.

 

[Guest]

Hi, Lepeu. I just had another look at that programme - 'The Sectret History of Pornography', taped off British tv. I think we're both kind of right in a way.

It's an American historian, speaking. He's looking at wallpaintings recovered from Pompei:

"The male must penetrate only - you must insert a penis into the mouth, anus or vagina of another person. You never allow yourself to be penetrated.

"In this picture a woman is kneeling by the side of a bed and felating a man. Any self-respecting woman, even a poor woman, would never admit to ever doing this because it was the province of prostitutes - something you'd have to pay a prostitute to do.

"They have this fixation on the purity of the mouth. Discourses on 'the pure mouth' relate immediately to oratory. The mouth is the organ of speech and it's the way you end up communicating in the political common-wheel - where you make yourself a true citizen.

"The Romans thought of cunnilingus not as a man's tongue invading a woman's vagina but as her vagina 'penetrating' his mouth."

BTW - I read that 'Woman of Kleenex, Man of Steel' thing you mentioned in a British science fiction magazine years ago. I remember it was pretty funny. I'd forgotten all about that.

 

[Bigdog]

Whisper, can only help with one question:
40C=104F

 

[Weird Harold]

Originally posted by whispersecret:
I have a character who is sort of scrawny, but he wants to start buffing up (a la Kevin Spacey in American Beauty). What would be a normal challenging amount of weight for a him to bench press?

A challenging weight to start at, or a challenging weight to work towards?

100# is a fairly mid range weight that most beginners would find manageable. Over the course of muscular development, one would go from ten 'reps' to maybe a hundred 'reps' at that sort of weight.

It's sort of analagous to the number of push-up expected on the first day of basic training versus the number expected on the last day.

I would say that 100 reps with a person's body weight was very fit, while the same number with twice the body weight is impressive.

Originally posted by whispersecret:
What does 40 degrees Celsius translate to in Fahrenheit (sp?)?

40x9 = 360
350/5 = 72
72+32 = 104

or F = 9/5C + 32

Originally posted by whispersecret:
Were slaves in Ancient Rome naked? I don't know why I have that thought in my head, but I sort of remember something like that...

I see a lot of references to "Slave Tunic" and "Slave Shift" as garb for slaves set in Roman or pseudo Roman settings. Usually referred to a being gray.

I get the impression of a knee-length sleeveless T-shirt with a rope belt for males and hanging straight for females.

I think the garb and treatment of slaves probably changed over the years. It would also vary with the wealth and position of both the owner and the slave.

Some slaves were fairly rich and well respected in their own right. Tutors and artists for example.



[This message has been edited by Weird Harold (edited 06-14-2000).]

 

[BeautyBabe]

The weight they would lift would depend primarily on their ability, but in order to build muscle, it would be a heavier weight - about 75 - 80% of their maximum lift - with fewer reps than if they wanted to tone up (about 20 - 40% <i think>, with a greater number of reps per session).

Don't know if that helps, but it's the best I can do.

 

[Jade]

standard for men is to be able to bench press their body weight
if they are really buff, then can do 10-20% or more than that

good luck!

~Jade

 

[Bob Waters]

Hi Roger,
Thanks. I love the title of that show you mention - The Secret History of Pronography - great title, although I can't picture seeing it on TV in the US lol.

Man of Steel stuck with me when I read it several years ago. I laughed so hard it brought tears to my eyes.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, there's quite a lot of sexual programming on British tv just now. There's a new station - Channel 5 (just a couple of years old) - which has a low budget but has cornered the market on sex-programmes - everything from trashy, lighthearted XXX video reviews to fairly serious documentaries about the international Porn Industry. (It also has 'Xena', 'Hercules', 'Charmed', a lot of B-Movies and World Championship Wrestling etcetera.)

I think it's led to the other channels 'sexing up' their schedules too (especially Channel 4, which had 'The Secret History of pornography' - a 7 or 8 part documentary).

At the same time, British Censorship laws are just as strict as ever, as far as films, videos, magazines etcetera.

What's American TV like? Do you not get many programmes like that? Is that 'cause the station sponsors don't like it, or is it the Networks that don't allow it?

 

[Whispersecret]

Thank you all for this information.

I want a weight that a guy would start at. I have no idea what "maximum lift" is, so 80% of that is still a hazy figure...

Give me a weight, people! <winks> 120?

See, he starts lifting weights to impress her, but things go awry and he starts berating himself because she seems to be attracted to some other guy. "I'm not a famous writer, I'm not rich. I'm just a lousy hotel manager who can't even lift ____ pounds."

 

[Bigdog]

I would have to agree with WH, 100lbs. would be a good starting weight since you said the character was scrawny and was berating himself. If the story has had him working out for at least a little while you could increase the weight to 120 or 130, not to exceed his own body weight. Anything past body weight and scrawny wouldn't be the appropriate adjective anymore.

Happy writing!

 

[Bob Waters]

American TV is very repressed. We get Charmed and the 'jiggle' shows, but you get very little in the way of overt discussion of sex - it's a very sophmoric attitude. Seeing a bum is a big deal. I suspect it's the advertisers as cable (pay tv) is much more liberal in what they show.