III

       Throughout my last posts, I have gone over the severe impact that advertisements have on young women. What I haven’t covered yet, is that they greatly affect men as well. Last week as I was in a convenient store with my boyfriend, he mentioned something about the celebrated “Swimsuit Edition” of Sports Illustrated. I am sure that I am not the only one who feels badly about their body after seeing these magazines at every gas station and grocery store I walk into. I know that no matter how much I diet and exercise, I will never have the same measurements as a swimsuit model, which is a serious knock to my self esteem.
       What I have never paid attention to, is that men can be just as self conscious as women when it comes to advertisements in media. While doing research, I stumbled across an article in Men’s Health on MSNBC.com. The article was titled, “Guys Have Body Issues, Too” and went into detail about how pictures of hunky guys in media have negative effects on men. In this article, the author tells that men suffer from negative body image, just not in the same way as women. They aren’t as concerned with weight and size, but more, their sweat, body hair, and body odor. Abercrombie and Fitch billboards are filled with men with extremely muscular, hairless bodies, and a study performed in the second article I read, “The Media Assault on Male Body Image,” found that when faced with images such as these, men don’t feel inadequate, but uncomfortable with their own bodies. Some feel as though they do not meet women’s standards for “the perfect man” who is muscular and without body hair.
       While both of these articles show that women aren’t the only ones whose self esteem is slightly damaged when faced with advertisements filled with perfect bodies, some of my questions are still unanswered. How, in our society, is it possible for men to look like a mess and still be well respected, while if it is a girl who is incredibly smart but is overweight, or looks like a mess, she will not “get people’s admiration?”
       Both of these articles addressed many excellent points, but overall I still believe it is young women who suffer most from the advertisements portraying women with bodies that are somewhat unachievable. While I believe this to be true, I am now aware that men feel self conscious as well when faced with advertisements filled with “hunky” guys. I will keep that in mind the next time I go to say something about how good Ryan Gosling looks in his new movie ad.

Image by: Google images: Abercrombie and Fitch