Researcher Deborah Schooler, states that body image is not just a concern for women and that it affects men, too, and it demands attention (Noveck, 2006). This implies that although body image affects women more than men in general, men also need the satisfaction of attention when it comes to a body image conversation.

 

Dating back to the seventh century BC, in Greek mythology, Daedalus of Crete was possibly the first Greek sculptor who developed the obsession for a broad shouldered, thin waist trend that has been known as the "Daedalic" style. As a result, the ideal male body image was presented with emphasis on clearly defined muscles which were carved into the marble. Besides during the Renaissances phase, paintings of the exposed male physique were also portrayed as aesthetic and muscular. As an example, Michelangelo’s painting of ‘The Battle of Cascina’ illustrates this idealisation (Grogan, 1999). 

 

Ricciardelli (2012) wrote that the perceived attractiveness of muscular men has grown since around the 1950’s as well as the muscularity of male models. As muscles started to become a trend, even action figure heroes such as GI Joe became more muscular.

 

 

 

 

 

According to Grogan (1999), there is a general agreement that most men want a mesomorph (muscular) shape, for example, to acquire a well developed upper body, arms and thin waist as opposed to the ectomorph (skinny) or endomorph (fat) body shape. Evidence suggest that there’s a general cultural prejudice in favour of the mesomorph body type. The characteristic of a v-tapered back is a feature that is general desired and is commonly mentioned in conversation. Research shows that men aspire to these aspects as it makes them feel more masculine and, therefore, feel more confident as a man. 

 

Supporting Grogan (1999), Schooler and Ward (2006) in the same way states that “Furthermore, images of male bodies have become increasingly muscular and V-shaped, emphasizing broad shoulders, developed arm and chest muscles, and slim waists.” In addition to this Schooler and Ward (2006) claims that “Accordingly, the surge in media portrayals of the muscular male ideal may lead men to believe that it is possible, even necessary, to achieve a V-shaped, muscular body oneself.” (Schooler, and Ward, 2006, P.28).

 

Hawksley (2014) provides statistics that states out of 1077 males questioned in a survey, some 64% of the guys said that their stomach or the famous term ‘beer belly’ is the body part of which they are most ashamed of. Over 53 percent of the guys say that they worry about their friends having bigger muscle parts than they do. Based on the statistics of Hawksley (2014) this evidence shows that over half of the 1077 men questioned are dissatisfied with their stomach. And 53 percent of the guys declared that they feel unease when their friends have a bigger muscle feature like bigger arms or a nice six pack.

 

It is evident that it is demoralising and discouraging for a male when a bigger male is around. Whereas if the two or group of males are roughly the same size they probably would not compare one another. However, as everyone are of different shapes and sizes, men will naturally compare themselves to others and whether they act upon these feelings is entirely up to the individual.

 

"The media has become more of an equal opportunity discriminator. Men's bodies are not good enough anymore either." (Santa Cruz., 2014).

 

From the documentary, Body Image Documentary (2015), Dennis Husley said “What made him lose weight was that he saw other people who are happy all the time and in his opinion, it was because they looked good.” From this, a question arises whether people feel negative about themselves if they are slightly overweight. Maybe only for some people that seems to think so? In addition to this, Scott Kennel said “In the first week of him working out, he starved himself on the first day because he felt depressed and hated the way he looked. So, for a whole day, he didn’t eat anything. The next day when he went to work out, he said he got off the treadmill because he felt light headed and when he went for a shower he said he almost passed out”. It can be seen how far people are willing to go in order to lose weight, as Scott has demonstrated how to didn’t eat for a whole day thinking it would help with the weight loss and almost passed out because of his commitments in deprivation. This is similar to Wykes and Gunter (2005) stating how desperate some people are to look thin as well as to feel accepted by society.