Ted Spiker's How Men Really Feel About Their Body

Body image encompasses how we perceive our bodies, how we feel about our physical experience as well as how we think and talk about our bodies, our sense of how other people view our bodies, our sense of our bodies in physical space, and our level of connectedness to our bodies. Over the past three decades, while America has gotten heavier, the "ideal woman" presented in the media has become thinner. Teenagers are the heaviest users of mass media, and American women are taught at a young age to take desperate measures in the form of extreme dieting to control their

The article talks about how different ideal body types came to be and also how these standards affect male’s body image. The authors state that previous studies have shown the negative effects of perfect body exposure to women, therefore they try to do a similar experiment to men to see if it comes to the same conclusion. It comes to conclusion that men that exposed to ideal male images became significantly more depressed

Body image is an important concept in many adolescent and young adult minds. To have a positive body image is to know that you are beautiful. To be beautiful is to reach the standards of beauty in society. However, society is constantly changing those standards as time goes by. Many young men and women strive to reach the positive, even if it means their health, money, and mind. They have the media, such as magazines to thank for these wonderful standards.

The original purpose of the human body was to be capable of surviving; however, today the purpose is to be accepted by the views of society. In order to “make it” in this world you either have to be a strong man with a six pack or a size two woman with great hair. The need to be perfect has been etched into our brains since childhood. This perfection is found in magazines where women promise that eating healthy will give you this body rather than photoshop or plastic surgery, and men are promised a ripped body with the use of powdered protein and vitamins rather than illegal steroids. In the article “Believing is Seeing” by Judith Lorber, the idea that resonates is that men and women are more than just two categories. Petrocelli mentions in his article “Getting Huge, Getting Ripped: A Qualitative Exploration of Recreational Steroid Use” that men have many motivations to use steroids, some of which date back to childhood fantasies. Lorber brings up the idea that the perfect human is created by the views of society and Petrocelli shows that this is true by explaining how men will resort to any means to shape that body.

In “Feeding Hard Bodies: Food and Masculinities in Men’s Fitness Magazines” Fabio Parasecoli addresses the increasing popularity of men’s health and body image. Many magazines, including Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle and Fitness, are targeted toward men of all ages who wish to improve their physical appearance. The particular body ideal they reinforce is one of high muscle and low fat, a body that can be hard to achieve for the average man. Therefore, specific nutrition is the key in obtaining the ideal body. Men are now becoming more aware of their appearance, body image and body health. With the standards, dedications and effort put into obtaining the ideal body type, food industry is giving men easier ways to get and maintain

Today in modern society, we are driven by social forces. Not only do we strive for human approval and companionship, we also thrive on social media. The media plays such a pivotal role in what we buy, eat, wear, etc. that we are conditioning ourselves to fit the mold for the “perfect” or “ideal” body type. This social construct has been a pressing issue for many years regarding the female physique, but not as much has been said on behalf of men. When confronted with appearance based advertisements, men are more likely to experience muscle dissatisfaction, weight disparities, and anger and/or anxiety toward showing their body in public. This paper will address these facets of the media’s effect on male body image as well as presenting what has been done to address this quietly debilitating issue.

"Body image is the perception that a person has of their physical self and the thoughts and feelings that result from that perception.” The American society has been broadcasting a certain type of body,

Images of female bodies are everywhere. Women, and their bodies, sell everything from food to cars. Women's magazines are full of articles urging women to fit a certain mold. While standing in a grocery store line you can see all different magazines promoting fashion, weight loss, and the latest diet. Although the magazines differ, they all seemingly convey the same idea: if you have the perfect body image you can have it all…the perfect marriage, loving children, great sex, and a rewarding career. The media, whether TV, print, or Internet advertising, seems to play a huge role in influencing women of all ages; from adolescence and teens, to women in their twenties and thirties, as well as

Our society is physiologically focused. The standards for human physique are high. The shape and size of your body, as well as being glamorous, are overrated. Diets of all kinds are advertised as the quick fix to weight problems. We are continually told that we must be the picture of health and perfection. Celebrities are regularly scrutinized by the media as to what they are wearing or if they have gained a pound or two. The blueprint of physical excellence is presented to men. They are told constantly to act like a man. Women’s discussions involve a man’s performance in the bedroom and the size of his penis. (Chaudhuri, 2012)

Today 's society is constantly presented with misrepresentations of the ideal body image through the advertising of diet plans and supplements. Companies in the fitness industry scam people into buying useless products or services by advertising with individuals that have, what the mass media sees as, the 'perfect ' body composition. In addition to getting consumers to buy into a product or service, these companies also aid society with the spreading of this fake idea of what classifies as the perfect body. They portray a body image that is unattainable for most individuals in society, despite how many of those supplements being advertised they buy. The models used in these advertisements, are in most cases, starving themselves, enhanced via illegal substances, or are photo-shopped to the point where even they do not look like the model displayed in the ad. All this has led to many people wanting to strive for that perfect body, that in reality, is impossible to achieve. In order to show the affect these advertisements play in our society, I will be deconstructing multiple ads in the fitness industry, as well as multiple peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles centered around the impact media has on an individual 's self-image.

Preview of Main Points: I will begin by explaining how the perfect body image shown in the media is unrealistic, then, I will talk about how the unrealistic images lead to both men and women to have a low self-esteem and eating disorders that develop due to people wanting to look like the images shown in the media. Lastly, I’ll talk about a solution we can do to stop the portrayal of an unrealistic body image.

Often, people of all ages, race, and gender catch themselves gazing into mirrors for hours, blaming themselves for the way they look, not realizing that the media is actually the one to blame for many people’s body image. Body image is the way people see themselves, or how they assume other people see them. It is not likely to see a plus sized model in a magazine or a model on the runway with blemishes on her face. A person’s negative perception of their own body is not because they think it is wrong to look and be healthy; it is because the media is telling them that being a size 2 with flawless skin is healthy and beautiful.

The media displays the “average man” as being hairless and very well built which may negatively affect the male population. The public blames the media and celebrities for supporting the idea of the "ideal" body type. Both men and women want slim, fit bodies. But the media has turned both genders against each other making it a competition, which is negatively affecting the public ("Body image concerns more men than women, research finds"). “According to Chris Godsey, emphasis on male physical beauty in the media may contribute to negative body image in boys and young men. He contends that repeated images of perfectly sculpted, hairless male torsos

“If you think about the changes over the last 30 to 45 years in how men are depicted in Hollywood, cartoons, magazines and action toys, you’ll see that men’s bodies [today] appear much more muscular,” says Dr. Harrison Pope, director of the Biological Psychiatry Laboratory at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts. The media's use of airbrushed images have contributed to low body image satisfaction among men—usually just considered a problem for women. More than four in five men (80.7%) talk in ways that promote anxiety about their body image by referring to perceived flaws and imperfections, compared with 75% of women. Similarly, 38% of men would sacrifice at least a year of their life in exchange

In today’s society we let the media decide everything in our lives from what clothes we should wear, music we should listen to, and how we should look. One of the biggest problems that both men and women face is body shaming, because the media sets standards for young kids and young adults., they often times try and fit the description of “perfect” which leads these people to either be depressed because they do not look like people want them to look or harm themselves in order to achieve the desired look. The most common ways the media shames both men and women are by celebrities and how they are the “perfect” body, publishing magazines of what is the ideal man and woman, and by the people who believe being “too” fat is bad and being “too” skinny is bad.