What is your view on the male Body Image to what extent do you think that the representation of male body image is changing?

Throughout the years, the media's representation of the male physique has drastically changed. Where before, men would not have felt pressured to have perfect body types they are now extremely self conscious about the matter. This is due to a proliferation of media over the years which bombards male audiences with images of models and edited appearances which can combine to make them feel that they have to make drastic, and somewhat harmful changes to their lifestyle in order to achieve unrealistic goals.

When people think about body image and the negative effect that it has, they commonly associate this issue with females. This is because throughout periods such as the 1950s, there was an enormous amount of pressure being focused on their body type as advertising of the time began embracing the idea of using pin up girls as a way to sell product. From that point onwards, women have been concerned with their appearance and have strived to achieve the image that men want. Meanwhile, men of the time had little concern over this matter as there wasn't a lot of media products which highlighted the male form in a way that would force the audience to feel self-conscious.

As years went by, the world saw an influx of media products. Attitudes towards women and their place in the world began to change, as a result distributors began to create media products that would appeal to women in the same way that the pin up girls used in advertisement would have appealed to men. This ushered in a new era of male models and a focus on appearance that had never been seen before. Men are now overly sexualised, almost to the same extent as women in order to sell product. Examples of this can be seen in adverts such as the Diet Coke advertising campaign where a man with an often sought after physique is represented within the female gaze, highlighting certain features in order to gain a reaction out of its desired audience. The proliferation of media products means that variations on male body image can be seen everywhere you go in life. This can be seen on Twitter, television, film, posters, fashion magazines, and so on. This can be overwhelming for the male audience as they see so much of it to the point where they begin to think that this is a natural body type. The result causes men to feel discontent about their own appearance and begin to do erratic things in order to feel happy with themselves.

Media has set unreachable standards within the male physique and has had a extremely negative impact on the audience as a result. The worst thing about the new standards is that they are often false, using new technology such as Photoshop in order to airbrush and contour models, giving them more defined features which the male audience then attempts to achieve. This confusion between the real world and the world in which the media creates for us is referred to as Hyperreality. This theory from Baudrillard is extremely relevant within todays society as young men often confuse the two worlds and then go to extreme lengths such as plastic surgery and life-shortening routines in order to achieve this standard.