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Male Body Image

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Many researchers are discussing female body image disorders, but recently there is an increase of males distressed from body image disorders. Men are suffering from body concerns and recent studies indeed show that men are feel that certain body types, particularly a muscular body type, are more ideal and desirable. Media is only one of the factors affecting how men feel about their own body image and the most influencing factor would be social pressure. The recent rise of eating disorders and body image disorders among males is disturbing and the insufficient support for men suffering from these disorders is alarming. The public need to be informed about male body concerns in order to destigmatize the issue and eventually ease the social pressures put on men. Nowadays men are more concerned about their bodies. Men want to appear more masculine and the desire to have a muscular body have increased in an effort to preserve the concept of the male role. A researcher on male body image, Roberto Olivardia in his article Body Image and Muscularity, argues that a common concern with men today is having enough muscle; achieving the V-shape muscular body like Adonis the Greek half god appears to be ideal. This is commonly known as the “Adonis complex”, nevertheless this is not the only body concern of men(210). In addition, several studies by Roberta Honigman and David J. Castle, Gina Bottamini and Diane M. Ste-Marie, and Olivardia suggest men have concerns about hair loss and penis size. One of the participants in Bottamini and Ste-Marie´s study expressed himself regarding his worries about hair loss and size of genitalia “Hair loss was also a sign of getting older. Indeed, youthfulness and virility are often associated with a full head of hair´Penis size is what makes a man a center of the masculinity”(125). The men in the study all expressed concerns about not appearing masculine enough. Men are clearly having several concerns regarding their appearance and it seems as if the concerns even more common than before. Men are in denial about how media is affecting them. Media is bombarding men with images of muscular men with chiseled faces yet men claim that they are not affected. Honingman and Castle asserts that different ideals have always existed, however, the ideals have changed with time. During the late 1600th century wigs, facial powder and beauty spots were ideal, something we can notice in pictures from that era(33). In modern society we still have ideals and Bottamini and Ste-Marie assures that even in Hollywood men who do not fit into the ideal are presented as comical characters to be laughed at and that contributes to men wanting to be more like the ideal manly men the media present men like Jean Claude van Damme or Vin Disel(118). Men claim that they do not care, or feel affected by the media pressure of ideal body types. In a study conducted by Richard Elliot and Christine Elliot in “Idealized Images of the Male Body in Advertisment” men discussed how they felt about certain images, the men in the study all claimed that they were too clever to fall for media tricks, that it was something women might do but not men. For example, one of the participants said “Very camp.. Don´t like it all especially in the fetal position. Too skinny, not manly enough. I don´t aspire to be like that definitely wouldn’t buy the shoes because of the camp image”(11). Many men rejected the advertisement and claimed not to have interest in the products or the models. However, all the men in the same study, who previous

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