SEX AND ADVERTISING
Media portrayals of the ideal man have changed overtime and are being marketed to men in increasingly exaggerated forms through magazines and TV (Hobza, Walker, Yakushko, & Peugh, 2007). We are currently seeing the ideal man being portrayed as muscular, wealthy, distinguished, and confident.
There has been an increasing trend of media portrayals of the ideal man becoming more muscular. It has been shown that the ideal male body marketed to men is more muscular than the ideal male body marketed to women (Fredick, Fessler, & Haselton, 2005). In 1996, we saw men’s fashion magazines moving towards portrayal of men as being healthy and physically fit, suggesting the emergence of the ideal male body in the media (Petrie, et al., 1996). This perception stems from beyond just traditional media. We are also seeing toy action figures become more muscular than they were 25 years ago.
MALE PERCEPTION
These have unsurprisingly results in the body esteem of young men decreasing as they played with such toys at a younger age (Pope, Olivardia, Gruber, & Borowiecki, 1999). This has therefore resulted in males feeling a need to conform to the pressure of media to “look muscular and built, especially from the waist up” (Ridgeway & Tylka, 2005). This pressure to conform could also be attributed to Social Comparison Theory that was termed by Festinger in 1954, which suggested that individuals gain information about themselves through personal comparisons to those they perceive as better than themselves.
In viewing same-gender photographic models, both men and women had their body-esteem scores fall (Grogan, Williams, & Conner, 1996). Furthermore, a recent study by Agliata and Tantleff-Dunn in 2004, saw that men who viewed ideal male images in TV advertisements reported higher levels of muscle dissatisfaction and depression following image exposure as compared to those who did not. Other studies have also indicated measurable body dissatisfaction in men who viewed advertisements with muscular men (Leit, Gray, & Pope, 2002).
Beyond just mere dissatisfaction, we are seeing men exhibit eating disorder, body dysmorphia, excessive exercise, and steroid use among men (Hobza, Walker, Yakushko, & Peugh, 2007). Media images has impacted eating habits in men as seen a report by O’Dea and Abraham in 2002 found that 20% of college men surveyed displayed disordered eating habits. With body dysmorphia, we see men becoming obsessive with their perceived defects of their physical appearance. This has resulted in obsessive-compulsive involvement with dieting, weightlifting, and related activities, resulting in impairment of social and occupational functioning (Pope, Gruber, Choi, Olivardia, & Phillips, 1999). Even with exercise, we are also seeing more men become excessive exercisers. Furthermore youths are beginning to use food supplements to build muscle and those who have been influenced by the media with ideal muscularity were more often to engage in muscle-building behaviours (Smolak, Murnen, & Thompson, 2005). Steroid use has also been found to be more frequently used among adolescent men and adult bodybuilders, which could largely be attributed to increased concerns with body image (Wright, Grogan, & Hunter, 2000).
Hence, people who are exposed to media and choose to compare themselves to ideal body types have led to negative consequences for both males and females.
