Are Men Having a Body Image Crisis?

Cristen answers a viewer's question about whether the media-fueled male muscular ideal is affecting male body image and if men are becoming more sexually objectified.

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[EddieLlamas]

I notice on social media how some ladies will put up posts about how the objectification of women is wrong and how beautiful "real", average, and plus size women are. That's the good part, because I totally agree. The problem is, though, these same ladies will post pictures of guys who are all ripped, all sweaty and wearing nothing but jeans or underwear. I never see them give average dudes a chance like they want men and media to give the average gal.

[ameliadegroot]

my boyfriends a bit on the pudgy side, and i know he's insecure about it and wants to loose weight. i love him regardless, but sometimes i feel my reassurance that he looks good is outweighed by what the media portrays as 'how men should look' 

[mreaper]

male with body issues here. yes it's real. I'm the classic tall beanstalk. it stems from a couple places: #1 bullying. eather verbal or physical. again classic football player geek confrontation. guy puts you in headlock and drags you down the hall.
did I give you permission to touch me? ive looked in the mirror lately. no im not starving. my parents feed me.
#2 jealousy. he can do things I can't. skinny guy tries, can't accomplish it. gets angry.

[tammydvir]

I definitely notice a trend in this and I can tell you it's definitely bother some guys. I was watching the 2013 Super Bowl with a few friends, girls and guys, and what I think was a Calvin Klein ad came on. It was basically just shots of different body parts of muscular guys. When it ended, one of the guys in the room spoke up about what bs that commercial was. Which I appreciated...except, that he hadn't been bothered at all by the Go Daddy commercials that had been book-ending that ad. When we pointed out to him that this is nothing new for women he kind of hushed up which at the time made me feel some sort of satisfaction. Looking back though, instead of feeling some sort of accomplishment that guys are finally being subjected to the same thing women have been dealing with for so long, shouldn't we be fighting to end both?

[whatthewindblewin]

just wanted to say thank you Cristen for bringing up this topic. It really hits home for me as I've always had a body image disorder and constantly try to reach for the quote/unquote"perfect body" that the media is constantly promoting. It's good to have someone speak up about it and I think it's crucial for guys to be aware, just like women, that the effect of promoting perfection that doesn't exist is seriously alarming and dangerous. I'd love for you to introduce more male topics like this.

[cototheyounger]

I'm a skinny guy, women have always made fun of me and men have always called me 'skin and bones' but nowadays I don't pay attention to it because I'm too lazy to go to the gym, id rather stay home drink a cup of tea and read.

[GreyBBDvids]

I am a guy, and I don't see it happening as much in the media, but I am seeing is to be more healthier.

Outside of the media like clothing that is the problem.
Every time I want to buy clothes I am like looking at the size and wondering what is going on. I used to be 2XL and the clothes I used to see was small to large size. Few years later I became a L size and all I see is small to medium clothing!
It is like stop! Why don't you sell clothing for normal size people!

Pants is another story! If you want to buy pants you are now stuck with skinny jeans that can only fit one thing in your pocket, finding normal or "loose" jeans is hard to find in a normal clothing store.
I always have trouble putting my 3DS and my phone in the same pocket (keys in the other pocket so it does not scratch my 3DS and phone).

[PessOmist]

I am thinking of switching to a 0 calorie diet cause I am too fat. 

[honeylea]

I'm a big fan of your podcast and so appreciate you spotlighting on this issue! Thanks for these fun videos and your sassy red lipstick! Keep up the great work!

[tetsubo]

My traditional wedding gift is a handmade ceramic bowl. I like the symbolism.

[pillowsRfun]

This does ring a bell, and it really is a good point that should be raised, Muchly appreciated :)

[glyngillard]

This problem has gotten much worse for men in the past 5 years.  It's not enough to be muscular now, the media has had a huge campaign promoting the image of the near-anorexic man as being the desired male.  Skinny guys now have the upper hand in the dating market, even over muscular guys unless they are very skinny and very muscular (think 8-packs) which is hard to do.  Being sexy is largely no longer natural or something people put work in, it's just an ingrained societal belief.  We're losing touch with what makes us naturally attracted to each other by following meaningless trends.

[lloydgush]

There's always been male sexual objectification, it's not new to this age, and guess what, always in par with female sexual objectification, And I don't see this as problem. The problem is there's always this idea that you can't think much of yourself if your are an "ideal" men, much less if your aren't.
One example is in friendzoning. When a guy friendzone you, he won't say you are less of a women, not a women, or less of a women being. He will just say you are not his type. The classic "I see you as a girl friend, not a girlfriend."
When a girl does the same, she very frequently see's you as not a men and express that. "I don't see you as a men, I see you as a friend."
Though both have the "family zone", or the "guy/girl" zone (the guy say he see's you as one of the guys, or the girl say she see's you as one of the girls), and the gay zone (you are like a gay friend, you are like a lesbian friend). And the fact that women see gay men as women, even though they aren't trans (I can't count how many times I had to say to a gay guy he can never be too feminine, because he's a guy, and shouldn't worry about it, because some men like softer guys with no worries). Basically, if you are a men, you can't have any self esteem or worry about self steam under society's eyes.

[KoobztheShawk]

I'm a 19 year old male college sophomore. I've seen little to nothing telling me that my body isn't what it should be, but then again, I get all of my TV on netflix or the web, so I have very little exposure to such advertisements. The only source that's telling me to work on my body is myself :D

[SparkSkel]

Do this and this and this if you wanna be a real "man".

[ClimberGirlstRM]

Lets all remember that there is no competition over who is being objectified worse, Men or Women?. Lets not turn this into a competition of who has it worse. How about we all just acknowledge that objectification and body imagine issues occur on many different spectrums. Regardless of their gender the person experiencing it has feeling that are being hurt. Im a pretty big feminist, but I really hate seeing the comments saying "women have it worse".  That doesn't change the fact that men are experiencing something that is hurting their self-esteem and happiness. The objectification of men and the body imagine issues they are now experiencing is something fairly new in our society. MAYBE, just maybe! Us females could use our vast experience in being objectified to help our male friends who might be going through something we are very familiar with. As I mentioned Im a huge feminist, but we have to stop making it a Men vs Women thing, thats what equality is. 

[elchippe]

"The day you started lifting is the day you became forever small"

Dom Mazzetti

[daddydojang]

Beauty fades. Develop your personality and intellect. Ladies dig intelligent/funny guys.

[upd]

As a guy I would say that its worse than you think depending on where you are and while you might think its the ripped guys on tv that can make men so insecure there are a couple of other factors. the first is the portrayal of men on TV and movies not the Muscular handsome ones but the average, skinny or fat ones to put it simply if you aren't a muscular man then you are a lazy unmotivated screw up oh unless you are a genius or ridiculously funny. I will grant you that there aren't many women in the media who are not in shape but we don't usually get the negative portrayal of their character. the other factor I feel is a increase focus on health and fitness in women i think most men see this and assume an increased expectation of fitness from women whether or not that is the case.

[DavesChaoticBrain]

I totally think this is happening.  I don't even bother trying to date anymore because no one wants a round guy like me.