Body Image Issues In Men

[PhuturePriest]

What do you all think of this article?

 

http://www.policymic.com/articles/69537/the-invisible-body-image-issue-that-millennial-men-need-to-know

 

To me it makes sense. All you see in pop culture for men are buff, tall, manly guys like Liam Hemsworth and Jean-Claude Van Damme. It only follows that men will begin to think they are supposed to automatically look like that, just as girls do when they see pictures of unrealistically skinny girls.

Edited December 3, 2013 by FuturePriest387

[CatherineM]

Dennis Quaid have a good interview about this topic.

[Ed Normile]

FP you are just a kid so I can see where you may think that. Being a man is not comparing your self to another, its being confident in what you are. Men can be strong, men can smart, but a real man is not one who has to invent himself to some preconceived ideal or notion. A man is a man, that's all. Now I am not sure of the metro-sexual generation but I never looked at another man or what he was wearing or how big he was, just whether or not he was a threat.

 

ed 

[PhuturePriest]

It also amazes me how little coverage this has for men. All you hear about when it comes to body image issues is how girls suffer with it, and I had never heard from the media about men suffering with it until I looked it up on Google.

[SaintOfVirtue]

I've never felt pressured to "look good" by the media, and I am far from the "Greek Porportions" physically (I'm short and very skinny).  I workout to keep fit, not because I'm measuring myself against some tv star.  I have used protein powders and creatine formulas at one point, but once again it wasn't because I wanted to "look better" it was because I needed gain weight as a condition of employment and natural "eating healthy" routines were not producing any results.  Also, I agree with Ed, whenever I look a guy up and down I'm making a threat assessment of his body language not an appearance comparison.

[Maggyie]

Hmmmm. I have to say I don't totally buy it. Two words: Leonardo DiCaprio. In half his movies dude has a concave chest. Tom Cruise is buff but 4'9". 110% of women consider Jean Claude Van Damme sexually repellant. I could go on.

[PhuturePriest]

Hmmmm. I have to say I don't totally buy it. Two words: Leonardo DiCaprio. In half his movies dude has a concave chest. Tom Cruise is buff but 4'9". 110% of women consider Jean Claude Van Damme sexually repellant. I could go on.

 

Tom Cruise is 5'7", not 4'9".

 

It's quite a stretch to say more women than actually exist find Jean-Claude Van Damme repellant. Just because he's not your type, it doesn't mean he's not other girls' type. And even then, it's not about what women actually think, it's about what the media portrays women to think. I don't think a girl who isn't the size of a toothpick and has normal things like armpit fat and cellulite is repulsive, but the media portrays men to think that way. If you've ever seen the movie, think of Couples Retreat: The wives have decent-looking husbands with acceptable body weights, but they all go nuts for the ridiculously chiseled yoga instructor. This gives a message that this is the ideal man girls have in mind, even if that's not what women actually think.

[Era Might]

FP you are just a kid so I can see where you may think that. Being a man is not comparing your self to another, its being confident in what you are. Men can be strong, men can smart, but a real man is not one who has to invent himself to some preconceived ideal or notion. A man is a man, that's all. Now I am not sure of the metro-sexual generation but I never looked at another man or what he was wearing or how big he was, just whether or not he was a threat.

 

ed 

 

I think feeling threatened is a type of body image. Even if it is just feeling threatened about your physical safety, the implication is that you are measuring yourself against their physical capabilities, in the possibility of a fight. Or, another way could be feeling threatened when another man enters your woman's attention...are you good enough to keep her attention? In other words, feeling threatened is by definition comparing yourself to another. And certainly, being a man does not just exist out of thin air...our conceptions of what it means to be men are inherited, from our fathers, from our mothers even, and I guess from media, though how one learns from media varies. In the old days men looked at John Wayne as some kind of icon of manhood...that's an example of male body image. I don't think there's any question that we learn how to be men from seeing other men...the real question is how true we are and how self-aware we are to be able to find ourselves within that influence.

Edited December 3, 2013 by Era Might

[Era Might]

Tom Cruise is 5'7", not 4'9".

 

So I'm taller than Tom Cruise...I could take him.

[Spem in alium]

Thanks for sharing this FP. I didn't realise how much of an issue body image and stereotyping can be for men (and how detrimental they can be) until my brother turned 16 (or thereabouts).

 

It's sad to think that there are lots of people around who believe images of women (and men) in magazines to be completely real. Boy, are they in for a rude awakening.

[GeorgiiMichael]

 Jean-Claude Van Damme? Really? That's who you use as an example? There are tons of more relevant celebrities that you could have used. 

[PhuturePriest]

Thanks for sharing this FP. I didn't realise how much of an issue body image and stereotyping can be for men (and how detrimental they can be) until my brother turned 16 (or thereabouts).

 

It's sad to think that there are lots of people around who believe images of women (and men) in magazines to be completely real. Boy, are they in for a rude awakening.

 

I've definitely always dealt with body image issues. Surprisingly, height isn't one of them (Though it was once). All my life, people have constantly told me how really good-looking I am and talked in detail about my amazing features. I like that people have complimented me, but doing so in the magnitude that they have and still do has three possible consequences:

1. Gives you a really big head if you allow it to (Which it did for a while).

2. Make you set a bar of attractiveness for yourself. You need to never allow yourself to get lower than this bar, or, if you begin exercising more (Or period) and get more attractive features, you have set a new bar of attractiveness, and you can never go back to the other one. The only direction in attractiveness you can allow yourself to go is up.

3. Makes you focus on your exterior to the point where it makes you very insecure about yourself, making you think you have perhaps gained weight when you haven't, or that you haven't gained weight but still think you aren't skinny enough (Even though everyone says you're as skinny as a rail).

 

My new motto is to tell people "Thank you for the compliments. But please do me a favor and be more sparing with them, otherwise my perfect facial features will be ruined by my head growing into the size of Pluto."

[PhuturePriest]

 Jean-Claude Van Damme? Really? That's who you use as an example? There are tons of more relevant celebrities that you could have used. 

 

My dad raised me on Van Damme movies. Sue me.

[Ed Normile]

I think feeling threatened is a type of body image. Even if it is just feeling threatened about your physical safety, the implication is that you are measuring yourself against their physical capabilities, in the possibility of a fight. Or, another way could be feeling threatened when another man enters your woman's attention...are you good enough to keep her attention? In other words, feeling threatened is by definition comparing yourself to another. And certainly, being a man does not just exist out of thin air...our conceptions of what it means to be men are inherited, from our fathers, from our mothers even, and I guess from media, though how one learns from media varies. In the old days men looked at John Wayne as some kind of icon of manhood...that's an example of male body image. I don't think there's any question that we learn how to be men from seeing other men...the real question is how true we are and how self-aware we are to be able to find ourselves within that influence.

 

Era, I have never actually felt threatened in my life, only a fool would not assess a stranger to see if they may pose a threat. That's said, when you walk down a dark street do you watch your surroundings and size up a possible adversary ? By the way , what kind of women do you keep company with that you have to worry about another man entering? her attention. Here is some unsolicited advice, if the woman you are in company with causes you to question your confidence, then she is no better for you than you are for yourself.

 

ed

[GeorgiiMichael]

You're a strange one, Ed. I don't know what to make of you.