From the type of drink that a guy orders at the bar; what he wears; to how much muscle he has and how it's distributed on his body, men face a lot of body image issues. Some of those are similar to those that women face, that we women can relate to.
In an article I read recently trying to get into a guys head on these issues had a really interesting points. The "ideal male body" is steadily growing more muscular. GI Joe is to boys what Barbie is to girls, and over the past 20 years GI Joe has grown more muscular and in more recent years, have sharper muscle definition. The GI Joe Extreme action figure, if brought to scale at a height of 5’10”, would have larger biceps than any bodybuilder in history.
From another perspective, A Playgirl centerfold model of 1976 would need to shed 12 lbs of fat and gain 27 lbs of muscle to be a centerfold of today. Now that is a lot of time at the gym.
After talking to some of the men in my life (Who were VERY co-opperative with answering all of my questions, thanks guys! Big hugs to you all!) I got a little bit of an idea on what did and didn't affect their idea of body image.
The answers varied depending on the person, but there were quite a few common points. Most of the guys I talked to do feel pressure from the media to look a certain way. Those Calvin Klein underwear ads; the super hero movies that get those close ups of the main characters pecs, steel cut abs and firm ass as he's getting into his sexy rubber costume; movies with actors with the likes of Channing Tatum, Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling... these are the expectations they believe that us women have of them. And I can only assume (I didn't think to ask it at the time) that it doesn't make them feel good if they aren't up to that standard just as we don't feel great when we see guys drooling over the "it" girl in ads or movies. One of my very funny friends had this to say on whether men were affected by the media: "Of course! Ain't a damn fool alive who would wear skinny jeans unless he thought it'd somehow work in getting him laid!"
How men feel in the work place varied on the environment:
One man I know, is almost hyper aware of his weight and body shape as he works in an environment where physical fitness is a requirement. If he lets himself go for a while, he feels more self concious about it until he loses a little bit of that belly.
A friend of mine stated that in his place of work, most of the men are dressed down, and as such, "they talk about their own bodies far more than anyone else talks about them" (I know, surprising, right?) "They'll complain about gaining weight or needing to work out. All of it is self-directed."
Another friend of mine said that how men carry themselves in the work place depended on how they see themselves. "I know that I carry myself taller, I don't have a problem feeling like someone can see my shape under my clothing (I don't wear baggy clothing/tug at it to keep it loose), and have completely different posture and attitude best discribed as confident. Whereas, when I'm not fit, I hunch my shoudlers and ruin my posture. My personality doesn't change, but how I carry myself totally does."
While yet another one of my fantastic guy pals had this to say: "It doesn't really bother me. I'm there to do a job, and if I'm sweating, it just means I'm pushing myself harder than they (the other guys) are."
While I was reading on male body image, one point that came up was that men tend to be concerned with "real body factors" more than women, such as sweat, body hair and body odor. One of my patient fellows said that men are just as sensitive about sweating as women are, but men have a tendancy to sweat more than women do and the difference between the two is that when women sweat, it often doesn't smell bad until it gets to a certain point, whereas a mans sweat smells bad no matter what.
All of the men I asked, said that they have never thought of body image in relations to their parents or home environment, while the home environment and relationships to parents did affect the body image of most of the women I spoke to.
Many men, like women, are prone to suffering from eating disorders as well as Body Dysmorphic Disorder (A type of mental illness, when a person is concerned with a perceived defect of their physical features). One study shows by the University of Toronto revealed that one in every six people diagnosed with anorexia is male. As time goes on, it seems guys are succumbing to the same pressures as we women. The rate of eating disorders and body image-related problems in men seems to be on the rise.
So what do we do to kind of put a halt to the pressure that we all feel about achieving the toned body? Here are a few of the things that I thought of off the top of my head:
- I think that having healthy models (As well as anyone else) and not weighing them solely on the Body Mass Index which can never be really 100% accurate.
- Supporting the fashion based companies that have decided that the models who are wearing and selling their clothes won't be photo manipulated to look a certain way.
- Setting a requirement for fashion ads in magazines and billboards to have a notice on whether or not the photo was manipulated (Or, in my humble opinion, not manipulating the models body in the photo at all)
- More discussion between parent and child thoughout different stages of developement and teen years to see what the child thinks healthy body image is.
- Classes in school about healthy bodies as well as discussion on what may or may not be accurate about body image in the media.
How do you see male body image? What steps do you think society can start taking to help everyone have healthier lifestyles?
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