Male body pressure becoming the same as women?
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sklarbodds
Posts: 608 Member
Interesting article claiming that today's body standards for men are equally as impossible and damaging as women's.
Your thoughts?
Male beauty standard
Interesting quote:
Your thoughts?
Male beauty standard
Interesting quote:
The objectification of men has followed the same path as the objectification of women. The “ideal” female body is a study in contradictions—athletic yet still soft, petite yet still curvy, thin (thigh gap, yo) yet still busty. And—most importantly—it’s supposed to look effortless. The work that women are expected to put into chasing the ideal is expected to be invisible. The “cool girl” rant from Gone Girl captures the dichotomy perfectly—they should be drinking beer and eating steaks, yet look like they exist exclusively on salad.
So it is with men. Men need to be muscular but lean, able to party hard and guzzle booze and beer like their bros on Jersey Shore or The Only Way Is Essex, but still maintain those perfect abs. And of course, it’s supposed to be natural. Yeah, you can post your CrossFit workout to Instagram with inspiring-yet-still-aggressive hashtags like #doyouevenlift, #brosdontletbrosskiplegday and #noexcuses, but talking about your diet? Well you better not get too specific, bro, because that gets too close to being a chick. Yeah, you can #eatclean and #gopaleo—manly ideals those—but too much talk about salad and you might as well be checking into a pilates class and handing your testicles to someone who can put them to better use.
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Replies
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Guys giving a crap about what other guys think is pretty stupid.0
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Not to mention manscaping.0
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Canonic ideals exist since .... Well, forever. Go study some ancient sculpture. It's not something Fight Club suddenly invented.
We no cur. Dude had to write about something.0 -
And these are different in different cultures, beauty standards exist for life, etc etc. Most people will wind up attracted to someone who looks similar to them anyways, so who cares.
But also none of these things seem contradictory to me, just sayin...
Gotta love the sexist/stereotypical ending to the quote, too.0 -
Funnily enough... I did my dissertation on exactly this subject about 7 years ago! About how men are beginning to have just as much of a rough time with the media as women are.
as always... lets just blame the media for everything. lol0 -
Pretty much this. You see this a lot here and it gets pretty frustrating. All you see are these headless ab guys bragging about how much they eat. "I'm 7% body fat and eat 7000 calories a day. Pizza, ice cream, and beer every night blah blah blah. I never do cardio either. I lift a little. That's it." It'd be great if people would at least be honest about what they did to get where they are. Most of them are probably lying.Men need to be muscular but lean, able to party hard and guzzle booze and beer like their bros on Jersey Shore or The Only Way Is Essex, but still maintain those perfect abs.
No one does this, and I don't even frequent the gaining forum that much. Men can eat more than women, and when bulking they eat even more. This is not bragging, this is simply what must be done to gain muscle. And NONE of them will say "I lift a little." Building muscle takes purposeful dedication and work, as does leaning out. Cardio is not necessary to lean out and is definitely not necessary while bulking. Pizza, ice cream, and beer can all be consumed while losing, maintaining, or gaining. No one eats ONLY this in their diet, because moderation.
You are clearly the one lying about things you've seen. I saw ONE thread once where a guy complained that he wasn't gaining on 6000 calories, and if he was tracking accurately then it most likely reflected his lean body mass plus his normal activity levels PLUS his exercise activity levels. I've seen plenty of people post asking for advice on how to manage eating so much while bulking.
Your post is just sad.-4 -
Funnily enough... I did my dissertation on exactly this subject about 7 years ago! About how men are beginning to have just as much of a rough time with the media as women are.
as always... lets just blame the media for everything. lol
I wonder what people 500+ years ago blamed it on. "Damn you, Titian, and your unrealistic expectations of women!" Although I would say that male expectations throughout art history have been way more OTT than they have been for women, because you know... Greek sculpture/painting and the like.0 -
Not every day you see a Titian reference on a MFP forumFunnily enough... I did my dissertation on exactly this subject about 7 years ago! About how men are beginning to have just as much of a rough time with the media as women are.
as always... lets just blame the media for everything. lol
I wonder what people 500+ years ago blamed it on. "Damn you, Titian, and your unrealistic expectations of women!" Although I would say that male expectations throughout art history have been way more OTT than they have been for women, because you know... Greek sculpture/painting and the like.
I personally think there's SOMETHING to it, but the author kind of implies that it's equal which I don't necessarily believe. Or should I say the standard may be equally impossible, but the pressure to obtain it isn't the same. Women can be shamed if they don't meet a certain standard (unfortunately) and from a society standpoint their worth is tied more to their looks than men.
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While objectification isn't necessarily harmful in many cases it can be. I think it has more likelihood of being problematic now than in the past because of they way we are constantly exposed to such content - it is pervasive and constant conditioning through numerous forms of communication.
I also think that if we had some meaningful counter narrative given as much airtime, such as it is the quality of your actions, your commitment to helping others and so on that determined your worth then this pushing of a hyper masculine "ideal" wouldn't be so worrying.
There's obviously not much wrong with wanting to strive for a physical ideal but when this gets conflated with ideas that it is a requirement to being authentic to something fundamental to identity it needs to be discussed and pushed against.
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interesting. I will read it during downtime at work.0
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Not. Even. Close.
Most of the most vitriolic comments about women's bodies are from other women. Most men don't care.
Why in the hell do people want to be victims all the time?
Jesus Christ.0 -
sklarbodds wrote: »
Not every day you see a Titian reference on a MFP forumFunnily enough... I did my dissertation on exactly this subject about 7 years ago! About how men are beginning to have just as much of a rough time with the media as women are.
as always... lets just blame the media for everything. lol
I wonder what people 500+ years ago blamed it on. "Damn you, Titian, and your unrealistic expectations of women!" Although I would say that male expectations throughout art history have been way more OTT than they have been for women, because you know... Greek sculpture/painting and the like.
I personally think there's SOMETHING to it, but the author kind of implies that it's equal which I don't necessarily believe. Or should I say the standard may be equally impossible, but the pressure to obtain it isn't the same. Women can be shamed if they don't meet a certain standard (unfortunately) and from a society standpoint their worth is tied more to their looks than men.
That's true. I have no idea what it's like for men though. I know that for myself as a woman I don't actually want to be the "ideal." I want to lean out, yes, but I also want to do this so I can bulk afterwards and gain more muscle. And I'd be okay with being somewhat vascular and have no specific desire to be soft lol.0 -
And for some men it may not be that at all and they get psychologically broken by trying to live up to professional and physical standards which are unrealistic.
Men are different with varying levels of coping mechanisms to deal with these issues on an individual level.
We are not one homogeneous unit who react the same to the mantra "man up".0 -
Not. Even. Close.
Most of the most vitriolic comments about women's bodies are from other women. Most men don't care.
Why in the hell do people want to be victims all the time?
Jesus Christ.
I've honestly never had guys judge my body either, despite me judging my own. I'll complain my boobs are too small, they say they like them. Or one time I told a guy that my legs were jiggly and he was like "dude it's just water" lol. Women ARE super aware of others' appearance. It's lame.0 -
And for some men it may not be that at all and they get psychologically broken by trying to live up to professional and physical standards which are unrealistic.
Men are different with varying levels of coping mechanisms to deal with these issues on an individual level.
We are not one homogeneous unit who react the same to the mantra "man up".
When is the last time you see men come together to talk about their feelings?
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My thoughts?sklarbodds wrote: »Interesting article claiming that today's body standards for men are equally as impossible and damaging as women's.
Your thoughts?
Male beauty standard
Interesting quote:The objectification of men has followed the same path as the objectification of women. The “ideal” female body is a study in contradictions—athletic yet still soft, petite yet still curvy, thin (thigh gap, yo) yet still busty. And—most importantly—it’s supposed to look effortless. The work that women are expected to put into chasing the ideal is expected to be invisible. The “cool girl” rant from Gone Girl captures the dichotomy perfectly—they should be drinking beer and eating steaks, yet look like they exist exclusively on salad.
So it is with men. Men need to be muscular but lean, able to party hard and guzzle booze and beer like their bros on Jersey Shore or The Only Way Is Essex, but still maintain those perfect abs. And of course, it’s supposed to be natural. Yeah, you can post your CrossFit workout to Instagram with inspiring-yet-still-aggressive hashtags like #doyouevenlift, #brosdontletbrosskiplegday and #noexcuses, but talking about your diet? Well you better not get too specific, bro, because that gets too close to being a chick. Yeah, you can #eatclean and #gopaleo—manly ideals those—but too much talk about salad and you might as well be checking into a pilates class and handing your testicles to someone who can put them to better use.
Bull puckey. Then again, I think "damaging body standards for women" are equally bs statements/claims.
If women want to look good, they know what to do. If they don't want to look good, they know what to do. If men want to look good, they know what to do. If they don't want to look good, they know what to do. Unless they're complete sheep, there is no external pressure from "body standards," unless they choose to find some external pressures such as that.
PS - don't let your bros skip leg day. Symmetry is an important aesthetic to be aware of. #clencycle0 -
yopeeps025 wrote: »
And for some men it may not be that at all and they get psychologically broken by trying to live up to professional and physical standards which are unrealistic.
Men are different with varying levels of coping mechanisms to deal with these issues on an individual level.
We are not one homogeneous unit who react the same to the mantra "man up".
When is the last time you see men come together to talk about their feelings?
Well, there was the Superbowl and...
My point is perhaps we shouldn't allow men to be pigeon holed in this way.
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maybe we should.yopeeps025 wrote: »
And for some men it may not be that at all and they get psychologically broken by trying to live up to professional and physical standards which are unrealistic.
Men are different with varying levels of coping mechanisms to deal with these issues on an individual level.
We are not one homogeneous unit who react the same to the mantra "man up".
When is the last time you see men come together to talk about their feelings?
Well, there was the Superbowl and...
My point is perhaps we shouldn't allow men to be pigeon holed in this way.
Who really wants to see a bunch of flannel wearing lumbersexuals sitting in a cafe sipping their philz coffee and talking about their flawed concepts on feelings and their importance to society?
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