Men vs. Women body image...

Katherine_Nelson

No offense to all you men out there but why is it that if a guy is fat no one cares? but if a woman is fat, she is judged, made fun of, and automatically written off as disgusting and stupid.

im not terribly overweight by any means, but i get rude comments about being fat all the time. if there were a man with my exact body type people would think he is slender.

.... this just frustrates me.

anulle2009

I think it is just the way people are. Women are suppose to be like models or something. It drives me nuts too!

fteale

I think if men are really obese they get the same, but for women it seems if they are 8lbs overweight they are a target. Usually for men. Even when I had a BMI of 22 I occasionally had men shouting at me in the street I was a fat b****. I think some men just hate women and think commenting on their weight is a surefire way to offend. I have never had a woman be anything but flattering about my size and shape.

bmontgomery87

I was actually thinking we had it harder.

For a girl to be "attractive" she pretty much just has to be thin.

Guys have to balance bodyfat with muscle to look good. Skinny guys aren't attractive. So all in all I feel like we have to work a lot harder.

Onesnap

men also loose weight differently than women. There's the going joke that a man cuts out soda and loses 10 pounds by changing nothing else. I don't think overweight men are not made fun of. Go to the beach, you'll see what I mean and how cruel some people are.

Katherine_Nelson

I think if men are really obese they get the same, but for women it seems if they are 8lbs overweight they are a target. Usually for men. Even when I had a BMI of 22 I occasionally had men shouting at me in the street I was a fat b****. I think some men just hate women and think commenting on their weight is a surefire way to offend. I have never had a woman be anything but flattering about my size and shape.

thats exactly what i mean! men only get judged if they are significantly overweight and us girls are targeted for a mere ten pounds.

outersoul

That's not true at all. We get the same sort of ribbing, bullying, down talking as women do just in a different manner. You're the last to be picked for a sport. Women don't talk to you. You're self image can be really bad. You're expected to be funny.

It's the same across the board...being big is hard.

fteale

I don't think it's true that women JUST have to be thin. Even my husband has pointed out cellulite on thin girls before now. And thin, untoned girls get called bony or gaunt.

Also, I think some men (I get the impression more in the States than here in the UK), think women should be thinner than is actually healthy too. Most models and actresses are underweight. We shouldn't be aiming to look like them.

SaraTonin

I think what you're picking up on is that WOMEN don't pick on obese men nearly so much as other women. We're horrible to each other.

Men pick on men plenty. Plus they get the added bonus of needing to be strong and muscular.

cacrat

I was thinking the same thing as bmonty and outer. Men have it tough too. It might not be as publicly scrutinized, but it happens. Indeed, it is harder for us to attain that "ideal" body image that we see in mags. Women can stop eating and get a lot closer. Men have to have no body fat AND muscle.

mrb_9110

I was actually thinking we had it harder.

For a girl to be "attractive" she pretty much just has to be thin.

Guys have to balance bodyfat with muscle to look good. Skinny guys aren't attractive. So all in all I feel like we have to work a lot harder.

I personally don't find thin guys attractive, but I know a lot of girls who love that thin, skater look (eww).

I like my guys to have bulk to them, not necessarily all muscle, but they have to be big.

needs_to_look_good

http://tinyurl.com/3jjesmy

thats why

SarahofTwins

No offense to all you men out there but why is it that if a guy is fat no one cares? but if a woman is fat, she is judged, made fun of, and automatically written off as disgusting and stupid.

im not terribly overweight by any means, but i get rude comments about being fat all the time. if there were a man with my exact body type people would think he is slender.

.... this just frustrates me.

You're right it can be a double standard at times, it makes women more self concious about themselves too. I think its the way society portrays women to be these thin models whereas guys are just average or overweight. I know the rude comments can affect you but I look at it as fuel to my fire! Give them heat!

sweetheart03622

I was actually thinking we had it harder.

For a girl to be "attractive" she pretty much just has to be thin.

Guys have to balance bodyfat with muscle to look good. Skinny guys aren't attractive. So all in all I feel like we have to work a lot harder.

I kind of agree... I've also found that if you're a woman and someone gives you crap (makes a joke, comment, etc) and you throw it back in their face and stick up for yourself then you're better respected. Seems like men can't catch a break from that.... either way, we both have various struggles that the opposite sex isn't aware of...

Begood03

When I was fat, I heard about it all the time. From just about everyone.

jeffrodgers1

I don't think it matters whether you are a man or a woman.... Somebody calls you something uncomplimentary and it is gonna hurt.

I got called Fat#$$, Porky etc when I was obese... that's part of what drove me to lose weight and get fit.

I'm still afraid to go without a shirt... and I've lost almost 100 lbs and can run a half marathon.

Poor self image affects us all regardless of gender.

1FitMom326

I think that for women it is a smaller window between being the "ideal thin" and overweight due to media and men are given a little more flexibility between what is ideal and obese. I think women are also judged by not only men but other women when they are overweight or even when they have lost weight. It's sad but most women are very competitive with one another and look for flaws rather then the positive.

Spayrroe

I was actually thinking we had it harder.

For a girl to be "attractive" she pretty much just has to be thin.

Guys have to balance bodyfat with muscle to look good. Skinny guys aren't attractive. So all in all I feel like we have to work a lot harder.

I beg to differ. I the geeks, not so much into the overly built guys. In any case, I think it's all kind of in the eye of the beholder. Some people are just miserable and want to make everyone else feel miserable so they can feel better about themselves. Though I will say, i had a boss who was a partner at a firm I worked for. He was a highly successful man who made a very big income, and weighed over 400lbs. No one saw this as a problem, and in fact, most of the male partners looked like that. However, the very few women that were partners at that firm were all trim and thin. /shrug/ I found a guy to marry that doesn't care at all that i've put on over 100lbs since we got married. I'm losing the weight for me so that I can feel better about myself, and he supports my efforts to support me. If I said I was fine with the weight I was at, he wouldn't care either.

mkennedym

all fat people are judged.

ashahl

See I have the opposite problem to this. I am very thin, like ten pounds underweight and people are just awful to me sometimes. Mainly other girls but guys too. I've gotten facebook messages telling me that "I'm ****ing disgusting" or "hideous". It hurts so much. From where I am it only seems that guys like girls who have extra weight on them, big boobs and *kitten*. I am trying to gain weight mainly because of all the comments. So being skinny doesn't help much either. Everyone gets made fun of and picked on.

6Janelle13

I think it is our perspectives and honestly we women are nurturing. How many of us still love our teddy bear men or support our husband and love how they look despite how he sees himself. nothing makes me feel worse than when my skinny hubby stands there and pats his stomach (that has a baby six pack and little to no fat) and says he wants to be buffer and he is tired of his fat. Meanwhile next to him, i look and feel like santa claus.
We pick apart ourselves and what is hot in men's world tends to be a little fake in women's world. There are times I doubt I will ever live up to my husband's ideas of the perfect sexy wife unless I get a boob job and never have kids. Which isn't gonna happen.
He on the other hand also compares himself to other men and thinks he knows what i find sexy. funny thing is for me sexy is being sweet, kind, a good husband and father, etc.
men and women are just wired differently so trying to compare body image and sticks and stones isn't accurate or fair.

jeffrodgers1

I was actually thinking we had it harder.

For a girl to be "attractive" she pretty much just has to be thin.

Guys have to balance bodyfat with muscle to look good. Skinny guys aren't attractive. So all in all I feel like we have to work a lot harder.

I kind of agree... I've also found that if you're a woman and someone gives you crap (makes a joke, comment, etc) and you throw it back in their face and stick up for yourself then you're better respected. Seems like men can't catch a break from that.... either way, we both have various struggles that the opposite sex isn't aware of...

GREAT GOALS in your Signature! Disney and Chicago are both supposed to be fantastic marathons... I have friends who've run both... and loved them... One even did the Goofy Challenge (Half Marathon Saturday, Full Marathon Sunday)

Keep it up!

tmjb999

I agree with outersoul. Im 5'2" and i used to weigh 190 and i was made aware of it plenty by kids at school. No girls wanted anything from me and my self-image was really low. as a result, now that im not as big as i used to and girls now find me more attractive I dont have the confidence to go up to one and start a conversation. Being big left me with low self-esteem and im still trying to overcome that. males and females receive the same amount of ridicule for being overweight, they just get ridiculed in different ways.

kjensen15

See I have the opposite problem to this. I am very thin, like ten pounds underweight and people are just awful to me sometimes. Mainly other girls but guys too. I've gotten facebook messages telling me that "I'm ****ing disgusting" or "hideous". It hurts so much. From where I am it only seems that guys like girls who have extra weight on them, big boobs and *kitten*. I am trying to gain weight mainly because of all the comments. So being skinny doesn't help much either. Everyone gets made fun of and picked on.

I can tell you in high school i was very thin. Graduated weighing 112 lbs at 5'7.5"... I was very, very active and ate like a grown man! Still there were all kinds of rumors going around that I was anorexic and I was starving myself b/c my bf and I had broken up... None of which were true at all!! So yes I can completely agree with you that even skinny girls can get picked on!

Still_Sossy

I think there is a double standard for women. Commercial advertising does place a lot of images of what societies image of women "should" look like. And I think both men and women hold women to high standards. It does not help either when you go shopping and the sizes go from a double 0 to a 9 and you get stressed hoping you can get into something. What ever happened to a size 6 being a normal size?

TonyTrinch

I think it's an artifact of the past to believe there's different pressure on men and women to maintain a certain body type. I think the difference is in what body type the pressure is out there to maintain, that part I believe is true, but I don't think it's true anymore that men are "allowed" to get away with the Archie Bunker body type and still be considered attractive.

I do; however, think this is a more recent development and that women have had to maintain a thin and toned body type far longer than has been expected of from men, but at least since the 80's the expectation from a male to maintain a cut, low fat body type has been the reality.

An interesting little fact, and sorry, no, I don't have a link handy to any studies on this, but here are tons you can find online, male anorexia and bulemia are most definately on the rise over the last ten years.

Someone else posted a topic about more men needing to post shirtless pics on their profiles and more women needed bikini pics and I can definately tell you, as a male, ain't gonna be no shirtless pics from this guy until I'm right at my goal weight and have done some toning up on my stomach, and that's definately due to my body image issues.

N_BEAST_MODE_24_7

No offense to all you men out there but why is it that if a guy is fat no one cares? but if a woman is fat, she is judged, made fun of, and automatically written off as disgusting and stupid.

im not terribly overweight by any means, but i get rude comments about being fat all the time. if there were a man with my exact body type people would think he is slender.

.... this just frustrates me.

That's just your opinion...females on my job call out some guys and tell them they are fat, and we military! Females just always have a problem with weight, its all in your head. I can meet a very attractive female that's slim and ask her weight and get the funny face like..you know I can't tell you that.....my recommendation is for you to do something about it, and when you do and you at the weight you enjoy...how are you going to feel when someone else says something about your weight???? Be happy with yourself and stop worrying about what someone else says or think about you, you are not going to plz everyone, but you can plz yourself!

ShaneT99

all fat people are judged.

This.

♥MyCrazyBeautifulLife

You make a very valid point!Look at the men in Hollywood they can be a heavy and have successful careers but women?how many heavy actresses have a good career?few,very few.
It's not fair.
Unfortunately,that's the world we live in.

kyodi

Growing up overweight and being overweight still I can speak from personal experience. I'm a male that has been made fun of by both sexes. I have to agree with others; the same sex comments are the worst. My wife and female friends have said that girls are way harsh on each other, and again from personal experience guys are real !@#&s some times.

Katherine_Nelson

I don't think it matters whether you are a man or a woman.... Somebody calls you something uncomplimentary and it is gonna hurt.

I got called Fat#$$, Porky etc when I was obese... that's part of what drove me to lose weight and get fit.

I'm still afraid to go without a shirt... and I've lost almost 100 lbs and can run a half marathon.

Poor self image affects us all regardless of gender.

I think my point is being missed here. I know guys get picked on too. But not for being slightly overwieght like girls do