Daniel Lombroso’s documentary Masculinity examines men’s struggles with self-worth and modern masculinity through the stories of patients seeking penis-enhancement procedures. At the center is Bill Moore, a Dallas televangelist for so-called “big dicks” who runs Advanced You, an anti-aging aesthetic clinic offering a procedure called PhalloFill.
A clinic built around “biohacking and wellness”
At Advanced You, a clinic Moore operates from a Dallas strip mall, he offers men personal remedies through PhalloFill. The procedure involves injecting a cyanide dermal filler to increase penile girth, but it does not increase length.
Masculinity, which opens in theaters this week, follows men on what the film presents as a desperate search for sexual confidence and a sense of propriety amid a broader crisis of self-worth and masculinity.
A few years ago, as headlines about male loneliness became more common, Lombroso felt the coverage was “kind of flimsy and maybe in-your-face.” He decided he wanted to tell more “propulsive stories” about what was happening to men in America. Around that time, he began hearing more about penis enhancement and speaking with practitioners who provide the procedures and men who undergo them. Moore eventually invited him to Texas.
Moore considers himself a cosmetics revolutionary. He was one of the first health professionals in Dallas to use platelet-rich plasma for hair replacement. In Masculinity, his goal remains unwavering: to make his patented penis-enlargement technology as common as Botox.
Following men seeking confidence
Lombroso, a former editorial producer at The Atlantic and The New Yorker, is interested in understanding subcultures. His first documentary, White Noise, followed white supremacist groups for three years, from President Donald Trump’s victory in 2016 through the end of his first term.
With Masculinity, Lombroso wanted to understand what drives men to seek surgical and cosmetic procedures. During visits to Moore’s clinic, he met patients with varied circumstances, including a Border Patrol agent and a man living with a brain tumor.
The film’s central characters include Moore, David, a 24-year-old gay man rejected by his religious mother who visits Advanced You after a botched procedure, and Reuben, an unemployed father of five who works part time as a stand-up comedian and listens to the Joe Rogan podcast.
“I thought it was really crazy that they were so eager to tell Bill what was going on in their lives and so eager to tell me,” Lombroso says.
He estimates that about 75 percent of the men who underwent the procedure were heterosexual. “People somehow assume that they won’t fall into that category, but it’s mostly straight men,” he says, adding that they “tend to be conservative.”
Source: www.wired.com
