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Men and Body Image: What do the Stats Say?
"Prospective Associations"). The interval of time is significant, since the years from 1999 to 2010 represent a period of increasing body-
Is body image exclusively a women 's issue? An affirmative answer to this question is generally commonplace; most people assume, based on the long and learned cultural experience of living in the United States, that body image does not affl;lct men . Even if the individual considering that culturally introspective question is indeed a man, his answer may still very likely be "no," whether out of indifference, ignorance, or simply the assumption that the culture he's grown up in is correct in its arbitrary judgments on what
image pressure on young adult men through advertising . This development is evident in other, more personal works like Quentin Vennie's Huffington Post article, "Why Men Never Discuss Body Image Issues." Vennie remembers that "growing up, I was always the short skinny kid . I like to think I was a popular child , but that didn't stop me from being singled out and castigated . Kids would jump in front of me in the line for recess and make fun of me because I was short" (Vennie, "Body Image Issues"). He makes
constitute masculine and feminine struggles. But a recent study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics in January 2014 and led by Alison E. Field reveals that men do suffer from the pressures of popular body image , but in different ways when compared to women. For instance, "high concerns with muscularity but no bulimic
frequent reference to exercise dependency and steroid use as rising problems among American male youth , a claim supported by the statistics of the JAMA Pediatrics study, which recorded 2.4% of its participants as using steroids or hormone supplements, a remarkable figure given the small sample size (Field et al.,
behaviors" were observed in "9.2% of respondents" out of a total of
Prospective Associations").
5,527, who were surveyed "from 1999 through 2010" (Field et al. ,
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Why Body Image Matters to Me: A Man's Perspective On a less formal and more personal note, body image as a
correspondent rise of objectification of the male body both in advertising and in popular culture, along with the increasingly widespread sexualizing of models of all types. And the worst part is that the rise of body-image concerns among young boys and young adult men is just making the problem worse. While the sexualizing of women remains common , the psychological injuries that can result
lauded ideal is something that affects all of us. Although women do
from such exploitation are only becoming more widespread through
bear the brunt of the scrutiny, to say that men have the privilege of
the more inclusive incorporation of men into this troubling picture. As
not being affected by it at all, in light of the evidence previously
a man , I've seen the effects of these new cultural developments in
discussed, would be ignorant in the extreme. Over the past decade,
my own life. A few years ago, my brother started taking hormone
the media's objectification of the masculine body has arguably
supplements on a very regular basis and developed an intense
become exponentially more prominent than it's ever been . Pick up a
obsession with working out that's now resulted in physical therapy
popular magazine, scroll through fashion and clothing websites, or
and knee braces for his strained and damaged kneecaps. To me, it's
walk through a nearby mall, and you're almost guaranteed to come
painfully clear that idealistic images of physical "perfection" are, for
across hairless six-packs, muscular arms, and a just barely
worse, expanding their gender audiences instead of reducing their
concealed crotch ; and often, these eroticized bodies even lack faces.
already heavy influence on women .
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Pages 2-5: "FastStats Body Measurements." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , 02 Nov. 2012 . Web. 11 Nov. 2014.
Frye, Marilyn . "Oppression ." The Feminist Philosophy Reader. Ed . Alison Bailey and Chris Cuomo. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. 41-49. Print.
Kolmar, Wendy K. , and Frances Bartkowski. Feminist Theory: A Reader. Boston : McGraw-Hill Higher Edupation, 2005. Print.
Pages 16-19: Conason, Alexis. "Challenging the Thin Ideal." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness Find a Therapist. Sussex Publishers, LLC, 7 Apr. 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
Piercy, Marge. "A Work of Artifice." 9. McGraw Hill, 1973. Web. 09 Nov. 2014.
hooks, bell. Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. Cambridge: South End, 2000. Print.
Pages 6-9: Field, Alison E. , et al. "Prospective Associations of Concerns About Physique and the Development of Obesity, Bing Drinking, and Drug Use Among Adolescent Boys and Young Adult Men." JAMA Pediatrics 168.1 (2014): 34-39 . Web. 15 Oct. 2014.
hooks, bell. Communion: The Female Search for Love. Women's, 2003. Print.
Vennie, Quentin. "Why Men Never Discuss Body Image Issues." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc., 20 Nov. 2013. Web . 15 Oct. 2014.
Pages 10-13: Patton, Tracey Owens. "Hey Girl, Am I More Than My Hair?: African American Women and Their Struggles with Beauty, Body Image, and Hair." NWSA Journal18.2 (2006) : 24-51. Web. 15 Nov. 2014. Pages 14-15: Chernik, Abra Fortune. "The Body Politic." Women: Images and Realities. Ed. Suzanne Kelly, Gowri Parameswaran, and Nancy Schniedewind . New York: McGraw Hill, 2012. 129133. Print. "Eating Disorders." National Institutes of Health. Nation Institute of Public Health, 2014. Web . 26 Nov. 2014 .
"Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders 1 National Eating Disorders Association." Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders 1 National Eating Disorders Association. NEDA. Web . 10 Nov. 2014.
Pages 20-21: Good, Shannon . "What Can $1,000,000,000 Buy?." Savvy Panda. Savvy Panda, 5 Aug . 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2014. "Interactive: What a Billion Dollars Buys You ." Forbes.com LLC. Forbes. Web. 26 Nov. 2014 . "Pots of Promise." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 24 May 2003. Web. 18 Oct. 2014. "TBC Beauty Facts, Figures, and Trends." The Beauty Company. The Beauty Company, June 2012. Web. 26 Nov. 2014. "Topic: Cosmetics Industry." Statista. Statistica: The Statistics Portal. Web . 18 Oct. 2014. Wynne, Alex. "The 2013 Beauty Inc Top 100." Women's Wear Daily. 8 Aug. 201 4 . Web. 18 Oct. 2014.