Sarah Wills
The Body Panic
The Article, The
Body Panic, discusses the growing trend of the importance of the male
physique. It is no question that women’s bodies are extremely scrutinized and
objectified by the media. However, according to the article, the media is also
starting to shift gears by focusing on the male body as well. The article
articulates that men are supposed to be big and women are supposed to be small.
An example of this is the advertisement picture on page 76 from a Men’s Fitness article. The man in the photograph has enormous upper
body strength and towers over the woman. The woman is small and toned, and is
being held by the strong grasp of the man. This picture perfectly exemplifies
the ideal male and female bodies. Just as the article states, most male
workouts zero in on upper body strength. These workouts focus mostly on weight
lifting and strength building exercises. Unlike female-targeted workouts, male
workouts have little emphasis on cardio. Cardio is supposed to help burn fat
and make you smaller, this is not what men want to achieve. Men want to appear
bigger and gain muscle weight. One thing very interesting that the article
points out is the way that advertisements word their campaigns geared towards
men. Male ads use “denigrating” words to encourage men to workout, similar to a
coach or military commander. For example, “beer belly buster”, “love handle
handler” and “inner tube deflator” are names of male aba exercises.
Another interesting point that The body Panic picks up on is the representation of the male body.
According to the article, the male physique represents the strength and power
of the nation. For example, the Olympics focus on the athletic ability of
different countries. In part, this can determine a country’s importance and
power. The male physique is also related to army strength. The article
mentioned that when the war was being described, an article only discussed the
appearance of one of the soldiers. The war in essence is based on manhood and
strength. It didn’t discuss any progress being made or other relevant issues.
The male body is not just skin deep, it represents strength, power, and
authority.
Beyond Muscle and Fat
This
article, Beyond Muscle and Fat is
very eye opening to me. I have read articles on women with eating disorders,
but I have never heard of men having body issues too. The men that are
described in this article have debilitating eating disorders. They cannot
function normally due to insecurities about this appearance. Many of the men
describe have gone to dangerous and harmful measures to alter their appearance.
For example, one man tied a rope around his calves because he thought they were
too big, which resulted in a lack of blood circulation to his legs. This same
man put a clothespin around his nose at night in hopes that is would become
smaller. This sounds ridiculous to an outsider, but it is evident that this man
has serious anxieties about his body that cause him to harm himself in order to
cope.
A
very prevalent issue in this article is hair loss. Part of the aging process
for men is losing hair. It is uncontrollable and it just happens. However, some
men cannot accept baldness as their fate. One man in the article worried that
cars driving behind him would be able to see his bald spot. This is a
completely irrational fear. This man is bound to his hair insecurities and is
always worrying about how people perceive his baldness. Hair growth products
are a huge industry. They promote the idea that baldness is not socially
acceptable. This could be part of the cause of men not accepting their
appearance.
Sarah effectively pointed out the enormous gap between female and male ideals of beauty, and even strength. So going along with what she brought up, I think it would be interesting to notice the focus on men's upper body workouts and women's lower body workouts only, and how men are afraid to have female workouts, because that would make them less of a man.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think it would be interesting to point out the similarities, for example the fear on both male and female about love handles, or abdominal fat, I mean according to the article 17% of all workouts on these magazines are abs workouts.
- Aline
After reading Sarah's post I also analyzed the picture shown on page 76 in "Size Matters". She has pointed out the obvious size and muscle differences between the male and female yet I think that the female also looks very muscular. In the article it talked about how female exercises are mainly focused on lower body and abs. This women does have picture perfect abs but her lower body is not shown. This is true for the other pictures of women in this article. All of the women are small but they still possess some form of upper body strength. In magazines, lower body strength in women is stressed but their workouts do not match the women in these pictures. To gain this "perfect" body each of these women would of had to tone and strengthen their upper body. The arm muscles that they show are not natural. Although, upper body is portrayed as more of a masculine focus, it is still important for females to do if they want to tone their entire body. This is the same for men who want to lose weight. Men cannot become skinnier if they do not do some form of a cardio workout. The media seems to be putting gender labels on workouts which is influencing the way men and women work out. They both tend to avoid certain workouts because of their masculinity or femininity yet the real purposes of these workouts (i.e. losing weight, gaining strength...etc.) are ignored. People will change their workout routines just because of the labels given to the exercises which is ultimately unsuccessful in circumstances where people want to achieve a certain body type.
ReplyDeleteJill Dahrooge
I also found it interesting how the article pointed out the ways in which the media advertises campaigns that exhibit ideal male body image. The words they use encourage men to feel the need to workout and build muscle so as to become a representation of masculinity through they way their body looks. It’s interesting to compare this to advertisements that target women. They may employ slightly different tactics, yet both target the same emotions and yield the same result: body image issues and body panic. It is clear the media is playing a major role in these issues.
ReplyDeleteSammy Secrist
Sarah's post was excellent in developing the idea that men and women have entirely different ideas of what is beauty and how to achieve it. i know personally when i look at male products and see commercials for male specific beauty supplies; what registers to me is not the the product has certain materials in it, or is more natural, but rather how is it presented. is it deodorant that is being presented by terry crews on a horse with a woman, or even a dove for men commercial in which the "ideal life" ( beautiful wife, kids, grow a sweet beard, being in shape, and simply enjoying life) of a man is presented to you if you use this product. these are aspects in which i believe most men look at rather then the small details.
ReplyDeletebobby
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