Wednesday 18 September 2013

The Ideal Man

The vast majority of body image research focuses on females, there is comparatively little research on the effects of media exposure on males' body image. For both men and women, there seem to be similar trends with differing approaches. A comparison of the most popular magazines, for instance, reveals that print media encourages women to control their weight through dieting and men through exercise (Agliata & Tentleff-Dunn, 2004). In the last years, the ideal man marketed to men (including a rather young target group) became more muscular: Toy action figures became more muscular than they were 25 years ago resulting in decreased body esteem in young males (Hobza et al., 2007).
In a study, males were exposed to ideal vs. neutral male images on TV. Results indicated that participants who were exposed to ideal image advertisements became significantly more depressed and dissatisfied than those exposed to neutral advertisements. The rate of body image dissatisfaction among males may be increasing (Agliata & Tentleff-Dunn, 2004).



Agliata, D. & Tantleff-Dunn, S. (2004) The Impact of Media Exposure on Males' Body Image. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23(1), 7-22
Hobza, C. L., Walker, K. E., Yakushko, O. & Peugh, J. L. (2007) What About Men? Social Comparison and the Effects of Media Images on Body and Self-Esteem. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 8(3), 161-172

Photo (detail) of Bill Gold via (for the whole picture see)

16 comments:

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    1. Hahaha, I just "had" to post this photo ;-)
      Thanks for your feedback and have a nice day!

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  2. Now, there's hope! This very photo can save the empire, no, the world!

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    1. Yes, it does have some potential, doesn't it?...

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  3. Many, many thanks for posting this stellar piece! I BTW posted some bits and pieces of Bill Gold's work over at my journal. His poster works are legend and of great diversity, plus, it always reminds me of how much good design reflects individual taste...

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    1. Lovely follow-up to Laura's posting, Florian. Many thanks to both of you!

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  4. Bill Gold! My eyeballs nearly fell out of their sockets!

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    1. I suppose this is the most natural physiological response to this photograph ;-)

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  5. This made my day! Great find, the ideal man, he definitely is! I mean that.

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    1. Ideal, absolutely ;-)
      Thanks for commenting, Macy.

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  6. This photo must have broken a bunch of records in superfly coolness, haven't it?

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  7. I'm impressed and a kind of positively speechless - referring to the photo, of course. It's a superb addition to the text, no doubt.

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    1. "Positively speechless" is hilarious. Thank you, Kenneth.

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  8. Bill Gold, no other name would do. ;-)

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