I was checking my mail on hotmail, and then the article came up on the front page called "How Men Really Feel About Their Bodies: Surprise! Men Have Body Image Problems Too!"
Really? Well gee willikers I had no idea! You mean its just women who get bombarded with unrealistic standards of beauty and are told that they never look good the way they are?
The title made me laugh, but the article made me a little peeved. I looked into the article and they listed five reasons as to why men have body image problems. The highlights are as follows:
3. We're worried about our bodies because we're competing for you and against you.
4. We're not just checking you out.
Soooo basically because women look so good and because they are now out of the kitchen and into the workplace so they are financially stable enough to choose their own partner, they are making men feel inadequate.
Damn those feminists for wanting equal rights! Don't they realize that they're making men feel fat!
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"Damn those feminists for wanting equal rights! Don't they realize that they're making men feel fat!"
Those are the BEST two sentences I've seen all day. I laughed incredibly hard. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you so much for posting that.
Those hotmail articles are always fluff pieces. total garbage.
Really.
From some of the articles I've read lately, you'd think men's egos were made of cotton candy, or something. Does it really just take an independent woman to completely destroy a man's confidence? I mean, jeez.
Of course, the whole thing comes with the implication that women need to be attractive. Men like to look at women, women can use their attractiveness to get ahead, he's competing against other men for (attractive) women. Not to mention the generalizations: Some women actually do want a guy who cares about how he looks! No one wants someone who is "vain" but that's like saying "no one wants a right wing nutjob" when you mean "no one wants a Republican".
Grow up and realize that women who, like you, like Taco Bell are not defective, and you don't have to aspire for the woman with skinny genes or the woman who loves the gym. Maybe the attractive guys are winning the competition because they treat women as partners, not prizes. And they don't have huge persecution complexes over something nearly everyone experiences.
FWIW, this article focused on heterosexual men and their body image. Gay men have a hard time with body image and are getting eating disorders at increasing rates. I remember using the bathroom at a gay friend's house when he was having a party and he had taped up on the wall over the scale a chart with the date, his calories consumed and his weight. It made me feel sad and not just because he weighed less than I did.
Obnoxious Hotmail articles aside, men suffer from body image issues too. They are constantly pressured to have the body of David Beckham, a huge dick (pity and sneers if you don't), and all around be attractive enough for women to live up at your door. Problem is most men don't live up to all standards 'set' for them. It can affect some more than others. Heterosexual males are not immune from body dysmorphia and eating disorders.