When you look in the mirror you see your imperfections. You see your perceived flaws; things that nobody else recognizes about you and you think that there has to be some way to change it. In today’s world, society places impossible standards on the way you’re supposed to look and recently young American males in their teen age years have become increasingly self-conscious about their physical appearance. In the article “The Troubled Life of Boys; The Bully in the Mirror” author Stephen Hall investigates the changes and causes of the increase in males becoming concerned with wanting to be more muscular.
Over the years even action figures have gotten larger muscles, so much so that they are to proportions physically impossible to obtain. Every time you turn the corner, your eyes are drawn to some advertisement that shows a man with his shirt off, muscular and defined. “There is no way to plug popular culture into an equation and see what effect it has on mass psychology, of course, but there is widespread sentiment that these provocative images of buff males have really upped the ant...
The article "Body Image in Boys: A Review of the Literature" by Geoffrey H. Cohane and Harrison G. Pope is an important starting piece to the problem of muscle dysmorphia. Cohane goes through a survey and questionnaire study of boys under the age of 18 and tests them to see the king of attitude and choice they will have toward body images. These results were compared to different boy groups as well as to the girl groups that were asked about body image. Different kinds of assessments were done, including body dissatisfaction scale, imagery and questionnaires evaluating attitudes toward body types. In most studies girls were always dissatisfied with their body weight wanting to be thinner, but according to Pope's reports on fourth grade boys "45% of the boys wanted to change their weight"(p.2). Coupled with other st...
Who cares what people think about my body? For years, these words were almost exclusively uttered by men and self-secure people alike. However, with increasing societal pressures and expectations, abdominal muscles seem to be getting more attention than ever and male models seem to be just as highly coveted as women in the modeling industry. It seems that, the rise in men’s desire for a more masculine, defined body, in conjunction with the women’s desire for a man that has comparable beauty to the men they see in advertisements, come together to create revolutionized shift in the male body image. All these things seem to be true due to the exposure they get from social media. However, this is mere exposure; while in actuality male modeling advertisements has not significantly changed since the 1990s nor has societies view of the male body.
We hear sayings everyday such as “Looks don’t matter; beauty is only skin-deep”, yet we live in a decade that contradicts this very notion. If looks don’t matter, then why are so many women harming themselves because they are not satisfied with how they look? If looks don’t matter, then why is the media using airbrushing to hide any flaws that one has? This is because with the media establishing unattainable standards for body perfection, American Women have taken drastic measures to live up to these impractical societal expectations. “The ‘body image’ construct tends to comprise a mixture of self-perceptions, ideas and feelings about one’s physical attributes. It is linked to self-esteem and to the individual’s emotional stability” (Wykes 2). As portrayed throughout all aspects of our media, whether it is through the television, Internet, or social media, we are exploited to a look that we wish we could have; a toned body, long legs, and nicely delineated six-pack abs. Our society promotes a body image that is “beautiful” and a far cry from the average woman’s size 12, not 2. The effects are overwhelming and we need to make more suitable changes as a way to help women not feel the need to live up to these unrealistic standards that have been self-imposed throughout our society.
The media plays a primary role in the mushrooming fascination between men and their body image. An article in the New York Times said, “G.I. Joes have morphed over the last three decades into muscle-bound hunks that can harm the self-esteem of boys...” (Santelmo). Kids are more likely to develop a hero from someone close to them or someone they know about. Why not look up to the 26.8 inch biceps of the G.I. Joe Extreme? There have also been an increasing number of sleek male magazines. Included are photos of male models wearing only boxers or briefs which have 6-pack abs and a broad chest. Similar to the latest G.I. Joe, extreme bodybuilders are also a popular commodity of the magazines, flexing and grinning with barbarian-sized muscles. The common male might say, “I want to look like that.” The concept of these images is not entertainment, but is influence towards a ridiculous ultimatum, like “I have to be in s...
Every culture around the globe stresses specific ideals for body image. In the United States and many other countries, the media plays a big role in how we view ourselves- it shows us what is "good" and what is "bad." In many ways our society infiltrates our concept of ideal body image by setting unrealistic expectations for both genders. At an early age we are instructed to pay special attention to our appearance. A...
The media plays a huge role influencing adolescent to adult males to believe that being more lean and muscular equals attractiveness. Whenever I am standing in line at the super market, every magazine cover I see has a model on it. When there is a male on the cover, he is usually flashing his rock hard abdominal muscles or flexing his bulging chest. As a young boy subjected to these images I became immediately envious; even to this day I admit I wish I had those features. Image what this is doing to the psy...
If one does not fit this ideal, then they are considered unappealing. Unfortunately, there is nothing one can do to truly change their body image other than think happier thoughts, obtain plastic surgery, or go to the gym to make themselves feel and potentially look better. Popular media is making it extremely difficult for one to maintain a positive body image. They have created the perfect human image that is almost unattainable to reach. The idea of a teenager’s body image is being destroyed by the standards of magazines, television shows, and society as a whole, making it to where it will never recover again. To better understand the effect popular media has on one’s body image, viewing psychology, medicine and health sciences, and cultural and ethnic studies will give a better understanding on the
...body was ideal for reasons such as running faster, swimming better, and excelling at sports such as football; All of the examples listed pertaining to physical performance. They also desired to be tall in order to gain independence from their parents, and be able to do more things on their own. The boys also claimed that being tall would be useful in dangerous situations; For example, some desired a big and tall body to fight and others wanted a skinny and tall body to be able to run away from the danger. Although there was a distinction between the bigger bodies desired, and the overweight bodies, to which they gave perceived negatively. This study helps to explain the key difference between boys and girls in reguards to body image; The girls wanted to be thin in order to be beautiful, yet the boys wanted to be big and tall for reasons related to physical ability.
As I was walking the campus of my high school before school, I was pretty much left alone by the other students. I entered the math building to go to my first class and was inundated by a flood of people meandering about. As I attempted to make my way through the crowd, they parted before me, providing unobstructed room to pass. I looked at the faces of hundreds of students as each of them avoided making eye contact, trying not to draw attention to themselves. The one person who looked me in the eye, quickly looked away, but it was too late; I had found my next victim. He was a half-back on the football team, weighing about 180 pounds and was over 6’ tall. None of this mattered to me; nobody could beat me in a fight, I have been doing this for a very long time. Brent Staples talks about intimidation and fear in his essay “Just Walk on By”, in which he states that “Many things go into the making of a young thug.” My childhood is a testament to this statement. My father deliberately trained me to be able to defend myself, both physically and mentally in an effort to prepare me from the harshness of life; my brothers taught me the joy of fighting, as well as intimidation tactics. Bullies are not spontaneously created out of thin air; they are the result of many years, sometimes generations, of abuse, whether physical, emotional, or psychological. Often, you can blame their upbringing, but ultimately, the final decision is theirs.
According to Beverly Ballaro, the combination of two trends, the technology-enabled media saturation of the American public, and the promotion by this media of highly unattainable body types, is largely responsible for an epidemic of body image pathologies afflicting American girls and women, as well as an increasing number of boys and men. She also mentions that the media has given certain images for each gender. Generally, for females the body image is extremely thin, and there is an emphasis on large breasts and for males, tall, slender, muscular and toned. For both genders, the most valued and appreciated appearance i...
America’s youth walk around constantly seeing images of what they should look like, but what they see in the mirror is completely different and this can be devastating to their fragile egos. For males they are constantly told to act tough, to be emotionally distant, and to not show any weakness, but suppressing those emotions can be devastating and can lead to unruly
Body image is among of the top reasons for developing psychological conditions in the country based upon the bias of what is shown through the screen. Since the nineteen-nineties an alarming trend has come to pass as a result in the growing epidemic of obesity in the United States, to oppose this the exact opposite became popular to become skeletal in appearance with bones showing naturally through the skin. Becoming an accepted notion to starve in order to attain this new angelic appearance, rising above the notion of overly plentiful food by not eating until the body became undernourished. Even the naturally thin models were not skinny enough trying to appeal to this new craze. The resulting effects became depression in this pursuit of perfection, with competition becoming higher among women with finding mates, with this idealized persona becoming the image to men of what women should
In this day and age, hundreds or thousands of women and men are having an ongoing battling against themselves to meet up to society 's standards on body image. Every day people are sacrificing their bodies to strive for the "perfect" figure that would make them feel like they belong in our society. Because of society 's pressure, it has given men and women the immense amount of pressure to achieve these unrealistic goals. Needless to say, women and men are grappling with their inner demons to reach their goal of having the ideal body. In today 's society, men and women both struggle with body issues by the profound impact of social media and a lack of self acceptance; however, it appears that men are struggling more due to having to shield
Social Issue Research Centre (2012). Mirror, Mirror- A Summary of Research Findings on Body Image. Retrieved from http://www.sirc.org/publik/mirror.html
Teenagers constantly worry about their body image. Magazines, newspapers, and television don’t exactly help to boost their confidence. The portrayal of stick thin woman and body building men forces teens to believe they need to achieve that “perfect” body and look. The biggest issue of these images being broadcasted to teens is the effects that the images have on them. Teenagers who obsess over their body image can experience stress due to trying to impress others, develop an eating disorder, and neglect, and even jeopardize, important aspects of their lives when they focus too much on their body image.