04/25/24
August 11, 2003
One in five elite male athletes have poor body image.: "Some male athletes see pictures in men's fitness magazines of big, extremely muscular men and feel that they don't measure up." You have got to be kidding me.
posted by worldcup2002 to culture at 02:44 PM - 5 comments
I so believe this. Elite male athletes are just a subset of the entire male gender. The difference is, they are frequently evaluated solely by their physical pursuits. Probably four in five elite female athletes have a poor body image, and I'm not saying that pejoratively.
posted by vito90 at 10:07 PM on August 11, 2003
I hope we're not moving towards a point where men have the same obsession with their bodies and fashion that the media has helped promote for women. I read a story not long ago about how more boys were becoming obsessed with their appearance, even to the point of being anorexic, and around here (a beach town) it seems like half of them are dying their hair blond. When I was a kid, I was one slob among many, and my generation went on to celebrate slovenliness by inventing grunge. (Sadly, we now seem to be embracing the male makeover with Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.)
posted by rcade at 07:02 AM on August 12, 2003
It's a sign of the Apocalypse.
posted by worldcup2002 at 10:53 AM on August 12, 2003
Metrosexual. Mark Simpson coined this term to explain the effects of commercialism on masculinity. The typical metrosexual is a young man with money to spend, living in or within easy reach of a metropolis — because that's where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and hairdressers are. He might be officially gay, straight or bisexual, but this is utterly immaterial because he has clearly taken himself as his own love object and pleasure as his sexual preference. Particular professions, such as modeling, waiting tables, media, pop music and, nowadays, sport, seem to attract them but, truth be told, like male vanity products and herpes, they're pretty much everywhere. —Mark Simpson, "Meet the metrosexual," Salon.com, July 22, 2002
posted by dusted at 12:15 PM on August 12, 2003
"ha ha!" - in my best Nelson voice.