Lily Cannon
In the chapter
“Size Matters: Male Body Panic and Third Wave ‘Crisis of Masculinity’” by Shari
L. Dworkin and Faye Linda Wachs they discuss males body obsession through the
media. Throughout these past couple weeks we have been learning and examining
females pressure to look a certain way and fit in society and this article
narrows it down to the male side with the comparison of females as well. Body
panic was used a lot in this chapter and how it is produced, “as a form of
diffuse moral panic through the relationship between what included and excluded
within media frames.” Dworkin and Wachs analyze how male bodies are presented
in magazines and the target spots in which men strive for and want to work on.
Usually the ideas on magazine covers are how to bulk up or gain weight in
muscle compared to females in which it usually talks about losing weight or
eating healthier. As a reader of People Magazine and other magazines like there
always seems to be certain times in the year when the theme of losing weight or
becoming fit is apparent. For example, in the wintertime there are always
articles or ideas on how to keep the “winter fat” off or when it comes time to
summer, how you get “bikini ready”. All of these reoccurring themes are also
presented in male magazines but instead of losing weight gaining muscle and
appearing more masculine. It states in
the article the “these magazines make it clear that masculinity is displayed
through strength and size”. Males target
more of their upper body while women want to work on and improve their lower
body. A chart in the article says that only 7.3% of women target only their abdominals,
which surprised me because usually when I go to the gym I mainly work on my abs
and never really lift for my upper or lower body because I don’t want to come
off as “masculine”.
In addition, this chapter also
suggests that NFL players and other male athletes are idealized and will do
anything to get that way putting themselves in danger. This can be related to
females and their strive for perfection. Some girls will do anything to look
the right way and fit in with society, which brings us to the other article
“Beyond Muscle and Fat: “Hair, Breasts, Genitals, and Other Body Obsessions” by
Harrison G. Pope. Reading this article brings up a lot of interesting and
surprising points that I never even imagined. In this article is discusses the
problems with men and their appearance and a condition called body dysmorphic
disorder (BDD). Pope brings up different
examples of men and there obsessions; hair, penis size, breasts, body hair, and
height. Obsession about ones breasts was shocking since I never really thought
of how men with larger breasts feel, “I feel like a freak, like I’m half man
and half woman. I got worried to the point where I went to a doctor. But he
told me I look fine. I still don’t believe him. How can I go out with a girl
looking the way I look?” This statement from Collin came off as a comment a
girl would say about herself but once reading it over I can understand where he
is coming from. The phrase “man boobs” is used a lot today and with those kinds
of comments it makes these men suffering BDD even more insecure. Not only did the part on breast size for men
stick out to me but also men and height. Being a tall female (5’9) I hate to
admit it but I don’t think I could date a man that is 5’5. This realization
makes it more understandable why men obsess over their image just as women do. I can remember a time where I was watching “Sex
and The City” and Samantha Jones was attracted to a very head strong male where
to soon find out he was half her height and quickly shut him down.
These two articles connect in the
fact that ultimately men have problems with their image as well. Although it is
not recognized as much as female and their body obsessions it still is present
and once again we need to find a way to cut the media out or stop trying to
compare yourselves to supermodels and NFL players.
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ReplyDeleteI think the comparison Lilly brings up between NFL players and supermodels is very interesting, because after all, those are the ones we admire, the ones we want to become. Yet, I've never noticed how men saw those people, those bodies, as the ideal look, I thought that was only a female struggle, it never occurred to me that men would be intimidated by such looks as well.
ReplyDelete-Aline
Lilly, I think that your discussion of the overarching roles that the media plays in how men and women see themselves is very interesting. For the "Size Matters" article, I thought it was interesting how you talked about the differences in magazines that target fitness when reading magazines for women audiences versus men audiences. I never thought of how both men's and women's magazines do target their fitness articles based on seasons, yet each gender-separate audience is focusing on different tasks--women staying fit and thin, and men staying buff and masculine. I, too, was surprised by the break down of body regions targeted for each gender. When I go to the gym I also spend a lot of time on my abs, and personally I feel like the media places a lot of emphasis on women having toned abs, especially when looking at any fitness magazine cover. Also, your comment about how you tend to not work out your upper body for fear of appearing too masculine made me wonder if men would feel uncomfortable working out their lower body for fear of appearing to feminine. In response to your discussion of "Beyond Muscle and Fat," I too was very surprised. I had no idea that so many men were plagued by their seemingly unnoticeable (or lack there of) imperfections. I was especially shocked by the statement about the man who tried to give himself a nose job with a hammer because he was so haunted by the fact that his nose wasn't attractive enough. Like the quote that you added in your post about the man who felt his breasts were too big, I thought that all of the testimonies in this article were both shocking and very sad.
ReplyDelete-Annie Husted
I think Lily does a great job of explaining the differences between the way men and women work out. Today, men focus on bulkiness while women focus on skinniness. I notice this when I'm in the gym because, as a ice hockey player, I have to focus on gaining muscle strength, which most girls at the gym are not doing. I am usually the only female using the weights and I constantly have people staring at me. I have also noticed when working out in a school gym that boys always make comments about girls lifting. They try to act impress by how much we can lift but their look of disgust and judgment is very evident. When I see girls benching I still become surprised, even though benching is a main part of my workout, because it seems so masculine. To be honest I sometimes skip workouts (don't tell my coaches) because I have a fear of becoming too muscular. People have told me that benching makes your boobs smaller and I feel that from lifting so much I have gotten "man shoulders". Because of media pressures, this is exactly not what I want to look like and I can be very self conscious about my athletic body. In "Size Matters" it mentions that "strength gains for women is not an appropriate goal" which is why I struggle with being in correct shape for my coaches and correct shape for society; these are not the same.
ReplyDeleteJill Dahrooge
One thing that stuck out to me in Lily’s blog post was when she mentioned that at 5’9 she would not date a guy who was 5’5. As bad as that sounds, I agree with her. I’m also 5’9 and when I went to prom and my date was 5’11, I was very cautious about what shoes I wore because I didn’t want to take pictures and be taller than him. Power and strength are two things that are often related to height, so this shows that men are still seen as the more powerful of the two sexes. I don’t find it unusual when a man is a stay-at-home dad and the woman works, and I don’t think it’s a big deal when a woman makes more at work than her husband does, so why am I, and so many other people, unable to look past a woman being taller than her boyfriend and husband? Ideally it would be something that would be easy to get over, but personally, I agree with Lily that I couldn’t date anyone shorter than me.
ReplyDeleteJane Vinocur
I also thought the parallel between the NFL players and supermodels was interesting. Though aspiring for different looks, both involve attempting to reach unattainable standards created by the media and often put the body at risk. Up to this point, we’ve been focusing on the pressure on women to look a certain way and it was very interesting to read about male body obsessions. You don’t hear as much about issues of male body image as you do with female body image, but these articles show men do have problems with there bodies and are just as exposed to damaging media-created images that cause them to measure themselves to these standards and feel the pressure to look and present themselves a certain way.
ReplyDeleteSammy Secrist
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ReplyDeleteLilly’s comments on BDD focus on the anxieties men feel over their breast size and height, and just as she never gave breast size much thought I didn’t either. I never realized how large breasts could make a man feel like a woman; I always thought that men wanted to increase the size of their pecks so that they could look like The Rock or Arnold Schwarzenegger. I also agree with her refusal to date anyone shorter than her, I wouldn’t either. When reading the article, however, what struck me most was the fact that 57% of men reported a preoccupation with their hair. Just like breast size I never gave this much thought, I just assumed that men didn’t really care about what their hair looked like unless they were balding in odd patterns, for example. Tom worries so much about his receding hairline that he “spend[s] extra time combing it each morning, trying to cover up the thinner areas” (Pope 155). I am really glad these articles were assigned to us, because it made me realize that men really do care about their appearances and it made me realize that I should stop making jokes about my friends’ balding heads.
ReplyDelete-Zeina Jabali
Lilys post was very interesting expecially in which she shows the comparison that is brought up about the relationship between NFL players and Supermodels. for men including me, i look at these players as some of the most physically in shape men who have worked to get to where they are. i too would love to have a body of some of these players but i know that these are men of elite physical shape. i workout often in order tokeep my self in shape and to get bigger and stronger, i personaly do not workout to look like on of the NFL players but i know many people who always say, i want to look like ______ and _________. for men these players are best known as super model figures.
ReplyDeletebobby
DeleteLily, One of the things that I thought was interesting about this article was how you said you couldn't date a guy who was 5'5" because you are 5'9". I think in a lot of the same ways that girls are pressured to be skinny and feminine, men feel a similar pressure that goes unnoticed to a certain extent. Even though there is definitely not as much pressure on men to be physically fit and skinny, there is pressure for them to be masculine and muscular. This may be a healthy push, but that depends on whether or not they take healthy means to achieve that look: eating well and exercise, instead of starving themselves and steroids.
ReplyDeleteZael
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