As I mentioned in my previous post, men are as much preoccupied about their looks as women, even if they do not seem like it. Men are also being attacked b
y ideal male figures in magazines, TV-shows, ads, action figures and even cartoons, they are as well either extremely difficult to achieve or impossible. In order for this figure to be achieved a person has to take illegal steroids, especially because men, as well as women have different body configurations and therefore possibilities sinceeach of them has a physiological limit to how much muscle they can gain (UCLA).
For example, try thinking off how your male friends look like body wise, how many of them look like they came out of an ad? If you pay a little bit more attention you will figure out that in 99% of the time the men portrayed are shaved, with an amazing body that includes a six or eight-pack, perfect biceps and triceps… The whole ideal looking package, but, turn around most men have hair on their chest and back, they have beer bellies or are really skinny and you cannot find a single muscle or abs.
Men figures vary, they are short, fat, skinny, some even have the so-called chicken legs and not the football legs that most portrayed men in the media have.‘Real men’, ‘common’ men also get depressed, also get eating disorders because they want to look like these idealized men which are showed at every corner. Even if this number may not be as big as the one in women it still exists and 1% of men have anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or binge eating disorder and all because of someone’s idealistic version of men (Teen Health and the Media).
Video about Males and Body Image:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gQtw-2xwvA
Very good article :) Usually it is women we talk about in connection with the media, and the effects the media have on woman's body and their minds.
ReplyDeleteI actually heard about disorder that is called Bigorexia. It is similar to Anorexia, but it affects mostly men. Men who suffer with Bigorexia are obsessed with the size of their muscles. I found this article about it: http://www.healthyplace.com/eating-disorders/main/typebigorexia/menu-id-58/ which says that in their study 50% of men are unhappy about their body and also 40% would consider chest implant! I think that is really big percentage of men, who would undergo such surgery...this also shows that not only women's perception of their bodies are influenced by the media.
I loved this post especially because of the approach to the topic which is much less academic than the one we hear at school. I agree that we should probably pay more attention to that specific problem with males because I think that their problem is much harder to recognize. Females have it in their nature - always willing to share their problems, but males are different and therefore should be taken for serious.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article, but i really disagree with the part about steroids. I dont know what you call the ideal male physique, but generaly this is understood to be something reminiscent of greek statues. I asure you that you do not neccesarily need steroids to achieve this look. You can get even bigger than that, yet still without steroids. Check your facts.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I personaly dont find the text offensive, but i think someone might. The tone you use is similar to saying most woman have sagging tits and cellulitis. You try to warn us against a certain phenomenon, yet you enforce it with the style of your writing.
Well, in my opinion, men are not as much preoccupied about their looks as women are. They certainly care about their appearance at least a little bit but are not very influenced by "perfect" men images in the ads. At least the majority of my male friends are not:) I also think that men can get a muscular body by a natural way and do not have to necessarily use the steroids.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, in most of it I do agree it is true that we -men- are being occupied by these stereotypes of having six-packs and so on and trust my it is not easy to keep them... but on the other side or the only thing I do not really agree it that; in my opinion women are being occupied by this ideal much more than men. There are many ads that show the real men and there is not that many of those with the average woman. But this might come from the believe that it is more pleasant for both sexes to look at women...
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