These images of these muscular guys can lead to consequences dealing with substance abuse among males trying to reach that desired image. Males might workout more to achieve the muscular look, and when that's still not good enough, might turn to steroids to finally look like the muscular men they're seeing in the ads. Whether it's a male or a female, the physical attributes that ads portray are just not realistic.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
The Men Aren't Real Either!
So in class the other day we were talking about lad magazines and how they are also sending a message for guys on how to look. The look for guys is to be more muscular and toned, "Male models featured in Playgirl centerfolds have become increasingly muscular over the past three decades" (Aubrey & Taylor, 2009, p. 29). Women are usually the ones to get the attention for the airbrushing and the unattainable bodies that are posted up on ads. Dove even made a video showing how easy it can be done and the type of transformation a woman makes with the magic of photoshop. With that being said, the bodies of men in ads are just as unattainable. Editors use photoshop to enlarge and tone areas of the male body , thus creating a modern day Greek God. I don't know about you, but I don't know a whole lot of Greek Gods walking around. Below is a clip of an evolution a male through the magic of photoshop.
Now that guy started out as a pretty normal guy. He barely had any muscle or body fat on him, but with photoshop they enlarged his shoulders, arms and his pecs while also cutting up his abs. I also found it crazy how they actually moved his nipple to give the appearance of a bigger pectoral muscle! Can't forget either about all the shading that was done to make different muscles stand out. These types of images don't help out us males self-esteem, "Male participants exposed to television commercials containing images of muscular men become more depressed and dissatisfied with their bodies" (Aubrey & Taylor, 2009, p. 30) and "Viewing photographs of physically fit muscular men decreases body satisfaction among males" (Letis et al., 2001).
These images of these muscular guys can lead to consequences dealing with substance abuse among males trying to reach that desired image. Males might workout more to achieve the muscular look, and when that's still not good enough, might turn to steroids to finally look like the muscular men they're seeing in the ads. Whether it's a male or a female, the physical attributes that ads portray are just not realistic.
These images of these muscular guys can lead to consequences dealing with substance abuse among males trying to reach that desired image. Males might workout more to achieve the muscular look, and when that's still not good enough, might turn to steroids to finally look like the muscular men they're seeing in the ads. Whether it's a male or a female, the physical attributes that ads portray are just not realistic.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I’m glad that you posted about this, and provided a video! - I knew there was some degree of photo-shopping with men, but not nearly as much as this clip shows. The fact that photo-shopping for men is not as openly known and criticized is very telling about the discourses surrounding men’s appearance versus women’s appearance. After talking about all this in class, I’m realizing that, in my opinion, men really have it really tough here.
ReplyDelete1) No one openly acknowledges how photo-shopped men are, whereas everyone knows the extreme nature of women’s photo-shopping. Women fight against photo-shopping and make it known that women’s bodies do not actually look that way. Men, on the other hand, do not have as much support for them and their “real bodies”. Therefore, people may think that the photo-shopped men they see are reality. If people think these photos are reality, then men are going to feel that much more pressure to look that way. It’s much easier for women to say… ‘oh, well, women never look like those models, everyone knows that, and therefore, I don’t need to try to look like them.’
2) Not only do men lack the advocacy for ‘real, healthy bodies’, they also deal with the stigma of being overly-concerned with their appearance. Aubrey, Taylor (2009) state the irony of the fact that men are socialized not to care, and they certainly cannot “whine” about how they look. Fashion? What’s fashion? …yet, every male model is dressed impeccably. Hair? I don’t care about my hair? …yet, every male model is perfectly groomed. This double-standard makes it all the more difficult for men to achieve the ideal appearance without looking like they’re trying. At least women can openly display their interest in their appearance.
It is definitely interesting to think about the differences between discourses on women’s and men’s appearance. I think this topic is worth talking a lot more about, in class, in society, in media, everywhere. While I by no means think that women have it easy, I can now acknowledge the equally as difficult strive for men’s perfection. So in that case, I’m sorry fellas! I feel your pain!
I totally agree with you, Allie. Obviously being a woman means I'm probably going to spend a lot of my efforts fighting the stereotype handed to women to be perfect, but looking into media studies has also made me realize how tough it is for men, too. Especially now, in the era of "metrosexuals," I really think that there's a huge expectation of how men should look, which encapsulates not only bodies but clothing as well. And, as some of my male coworkers were talking about on Sunday, they like reading GQ to get sex tips as well as "how to dress well" tips, but they complained how unrealistic GQ was telling them they needed to dress. One coworker said, "It's like this guys looks great and I'd love to copy his look, but then I look down and the magazine is like, 'Jeans, Armani, $4000. Leather bracelet, $500.' I'm like, who the hell can afford that?" I wrote it down as he said it because I wanted to mention it at some point in class. So the magazines aren't only implying that men have to be strong and dress well, but they suggest that they only way to do this is by having lots of money to blow on Armani jeans! And that's just crazy, realistically maybe 1% of the population can do that. What it seems that guys need, as well as ladies, is a magazine that can address realistic ways to get in shape, rather than to "get jacked" or "get huge," and provide more economic ways to dress the way they want to dress. A real magazine (or television show, or whatever) for real guys. It's tough being a girl, but it's also tough being a guy when every girl seems to want a slice of beefcake bedecked in $10,000 worth of clothing on her arm to take home and charm her parents.
ReplyDeleteThis is really creepy. When you think about it, this has t be really depressing and confidence shattering for the model. Models are praised for their bodies and looks yet after they finish a photoshoot, images of their face and bodies are altered to look "better". Models can't even live up to their own faces and bodies that are featured in magazines or advertisements! In a sense, it's harder for men to achieve the ideal presented. When watching blemishes on the model's face disappear with the help of Photoshop, a thought struck me. Men typically can't use makeup to cover up blemishes and pimples because makeup is not considered to be masculine. What do men do when they have a pimple?!?!? Do they go around obsessing over it and worry that it's all people are paying attention to like women sometimes do? Do some men secretly wear makeup? Or do men just get less pimples then women do (sometimes it seems like men have this flawless skin)?
ReplyDeleteAccording to Aubrey and Taylor (2009), viewing photographs of men who are physically fit can decrease body satisfaction among men and also leads to men comparing themselves to an ideal image and producing negative self evaluations. This can have dangerous effects for models whose jobs are to look attractive and be fit. If they believe they are constantly below their physical best- their own image altered and presented in magazines- they could possibly go to extremes to get the desired physical outcome. With the attractiveness of men being on muscles, a workout obsession could easily develop, which is scary.