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How do men have so much fun shopping for swimsuits?

Jill

Unfair. If only we could all be this upbeat about finding the perfect suit, trying on dozens of them and not feeling discouraged by our perceived imperfections. I’m imagining this article written by a 49-year-old woman, and it reads a little differently. But I do want to go on vacation with this guy:

I made a reservation on the jitney. Doubting that any changing room would be open by the time I reached the beach at 7 p.m., I wore the suit under my pants to make the trip out to Long Island; as I boarded the bus, I found myself smiling slightly, and thought, “I am wearing very exciting underpants!”

I have a weird thing for very exciting underpants (some women like shoes, some like bags, I like undergarments) and “I am wearing very exciting underpants!” is the best of all clothing-related feelings.

Shopping for bathing suits is one of the worst of all clothing-related feelings, though, at least for me (second up: shopping for shorts). Because, basically, this (via the Hairpin):

Hi everybody! How’s it going? If you’re a woman, I hope your answer is “I’m fucking starving!” Bikini season will be here before you can say “Jamochachino Surprise,” so you better be torturing yourself and focusing your meager intellect and out-of-control emotions on shedding those pounds, girlfriend! I saw an article in a magazine yesterday that highlighted “four problem areas” a woman can have. Are you shitting me? I’m assuming that article was written by a woman, because if you think you’ve only got four problem areas to worry about you’ve gone so deep into the “Red Tent” of feminine insanity you might never come back. I don’t have a dedicated bank of super-servers in rural Washington State to store a giga-list of everything that could be or probably is wrong with your body, so I’ll just name a few:

Saddle bags, upper-arm fat, cottage cheese thighs, midriff-bulge (aka F.U.P.A aka “gunt”), flat chest, asymmetrical breasts, butt-beard, bacne, pit-cheese, cankles, surprise tampon string cameos, eczema, ham spatula, ashy elbows, feet of any kind, hairy knuckles, beef knuckles, uncle’s knuckles, vaginal halitosis, bald spots, loaf latch, sideburns, flatbottom, creeping jimson weed, dowager’s hump, treasure trail, Pepperidge Farm, razor bumps, leakage, phantom dangle, and panty dandruff.

SO MANY PROBLEM AREAS! Definitely our fault for having bodies at all. Put down that sandwich.

49 thoughts on How do men have so much fun shopping for swimsuits?

  1. The New York Times Style section never ceases to amaze. Hampton Jitney! $230 swimsuit! Roof deck!

    But it is important to have a comfortable, exciting swimsuit–especially when you’re out of clean underwear.

    1. The New York Times Style section never ceases to amaze. Hampton Jitney! $230 swimsuit! Roof deck!

      I know, right? I LOLed when he didn’t buy a Marc Jacobs swimsuit because $345 seemed steep for something that was going to be around sunscreen and PABA, but then thinks $230 is an entirely reasonable sum to spend on shorts.

  2. The buying-a-swimsuit-angst article is such a familiar ritual from women journalists that it’s kind of a shock to read one from a man, and he seems to be dodging the angst part, which of course means missing all the fun.

    There was a much better idea from that woman who wrote about going to the nude beach. Just skip the whole thing.

  4. *raises hand for body-image issues*

    Hell, I have angst issues buying *jeans* that fit properly, simply because they also tend to push my belly fat up and out into a nice, creepy muffin top that shows a bit through shirts and makes me think “ugly, unattractive, do not want” about myself[0]. The anxiety gets worse when it comes to swim trunks; all I can imagine is people glancing at the ol’ spare tire (and another problem I’m not going into) and being repulsed, even when I’m telling myself that everyone else around here is probably thinking the same thing about themselves, maybe even the inexplicable army of gym rats that appear during the summer by the pool deck. I’m getting better about it, especially as I slowly chip away at the mass, but the anxiety never quite goes away.

    I’m working on the damned thing. I want it gone, away, deleted, along with $too_much_information. Friggin’ evolved tendency to store fat for later energy needs and a lack of funds for access to, say, a stationary bike…

    [0] In other words, how I spent thirty minutes last Thursday. My partner tries so hard to be reassuring. It helps.

  5. “Unfair. If only we could all be this upbeat about finding the perfect suit, trying on dozens of them and not feeling discouraged by our perceived imperfections. ”

    Aahhh, no. Tei Tetua is closer to the truth. Clothes buying is on ordeal for most men in general, even for this gay man – such a waste of money that could go toward buying plants – and swimsuits are just another level of pain. And the only thing that makes it tolerable is go for swimsuits that conceal as much as possible, like those do. Board shorts are even better.

    But Speedos – the “banana hammock” – are a humiliating horror, and buying them is self-inlficted pain. And the same goes for bikinis or anything that shows the shape of anything.

  6. I admit I don’t have the same degree of swimsuit angst, but I do wish my body looked more attractive. The meds I take, combined with an ongoing chronic illness make me retain a good amount of abdominal fat. This is true regardless of my diet or how much I exercise.

    And as for shopping for swimsuits, I usually take all of about five minutes to select something. My criteria is “pick something that doesn’t make you look stupid.”

  7. “I admit I don’t have the same degree of swimsuit angst, but I do wish my body looked more attractive.”

    This is equivalent to “I wish I had chosen a different color umbrella” for most women.

    Think instead “I wish I hadn’t tattooed my face with my phone number punctuated with swastikas” because, unless you are notably more potbellied than other men around you, and go to work wearing a pink belly shirt, no one gives a shit.

  8. “Pepperidge Farm”? What the hell is that?
    Does that mean I can’t even look at Milano cookies now?

  9. I personally wish men wore less baggy swim suits. I thought all men wore speedos growing up (turns out it was only my dad 😛 ), but the swimsuit equivalent of boxer briefs is definitely what men should be in. Board shorts and really flappy suits just look silly on everyone.

    For myself, I am the rare woman who totally does not think about what I look like in a suit. Trying on a suit in the mirror at home I might be dissatisfied a bit, but on the beach/pool my attitude is, “whatever.” If people think I look bad, they are free to turn their heads. 😛

  10. I must be the other rare fat woman who doesn’t care what I look like in a bathing suit.

    For one, my whole body is a 320 pound “problem area” which does, in many ways, protect me from worrying so much about particular “problem areas”.

    But I think the most important is that I think of bathing suits in the same utilitarian way someone who run thinks of jogging shorts. I compete in long-distance swim races, so I’m narrowly focused on a bathing suit that won’t chafe after an hour or two in the open water and accepting of the knowledge that I look like a beaching walrus after an hour or two in the open water.

  11. I won’t claim to be completely free of body image issues, but they have been greatly diminished by a) getting older and feeling less social pressure to be #1 Attractive Sexpot since I’m past my cultural sell-by date, and b) spending a lot of time at the public pool. Seriously, if you need a reminder of what real bodies look like, please, please, please get yourself to a public pool, preferably the kind where all ages and types get together to cool off on a hot day. Kids, moms, dads, grandparents, teenagers, babies, all exposed to the elements together, most of you feeling slightly naked. You will not only get a refreshing eyeful of humanity, but also a good lesson in tattoo art (Of which there is a surprising lot. And it’s bad. Which is also refreshing. We’re all imperfect and it’s pretty great.)

  12. I’ve been way happier since I decided that, since there isn’t a law against ladies wearing trunks, I’m just going to wear some fucking trunks with a tankini top and call it a goddamned day.

    Also, I am oscillating between being horrified by and trying not to laugh because of that list of problem areas. I really don’t want to know what ham spatulae are.

  13. I am so glad I’m not the only one wondering what the hell a ham spatula or Pepperidge Farm is. BTW, what the hell is “loaf latch”?

    (I mean, “butt beard” and “creeping jimson weed” are fairly easy to figure out, but some of these terms—WTF?)

  14. Elisabeth: Board shorts and really flappy suits just look silly on everyone.

    At least for swimming they do. They look like they weigha tone when they’re wet.

    And that list? It reminds me of ice massages for muscle spasms, where the muscle spasms harder and harder until it finally just goes fuck it! and relaxes. That can be the only justification for so much cruel crap.

  15. I definitely read the quoted article as satire.

    Re: bathing suits and dudes
    Most people aren’t snapping pictures of fat guys on the beach in their swimsuits, but there are dozens of galleries devoted to fat women. Google “fat women in bathing suits” then do the same for men….

    Yeah. That’s exactly it.

  16. “At least for swimming they do. They look like they weigha tone when they’re wet.”

    Well, sometimes that’s the point. :p

    (my sister and her teammates used to wear layers of stretched out swimsuits and old t-shirts and the like when training)

    Also, I don’t care how dumb board shorts look – I can get them wet without ruining them, and then I don’t need to worry about nasty looks bc I didn’t shave in certain places. (Also, true board shorts don’t actually don’t weigh all that much when wet, as they are meant to be worn that way.)

  17. other good things about board shorts: they are much more practical for going back and forth between swimming and climbing on rocks or sitting on the rough concrete or hiking or any other things you may want to do* – compared to typical, easily snagged, bikini cut women’s swim bottoms in any case.

    *yeah – my last two vacations that involved water? a family vacation to Lake Powell and a solo trip up and down the CA coast. I didn’t really spend a lot of time *just* swimming on either trip. :p

  18. “Pepperidge Farm”? What the hell is that?
    Does that mean I can’t even look at Milano cookies now?

    *looks at Milanos in hand* Hmm, guess I’d better put these down th–OH WAIT. Now that I think about it, I do have “feet of any kind” so I’m already doomed, so it doesn’t matter, so I might as well not worry! 😀 *continues putting Milanos into face*

  19. jennygadget: Also, I don’t care how dumb board shorts look

    I love board shorts. They look like a no-look. They’re like jeans or whatever, a covering that becomes invisible by virtue of absolute familiarity. They just look a little impractical for swimming. They look like that training where you have to swim the length of the pool in your uniform and web gear.

  20. Well, I was talking about men in board shorts, not women, if it wasn’t clear. I haven’t actually really thought about women in board shorts that much. (And in case you couldn’t tell, I was being mildly tongue in cheek anyways.) A quick google reveals men’s regularish suits already look like women’s board shorts, whereas men’s board shorts look like…basketball shorts made out of swim material, which pretty much looks silly.

  21. My criteria is “pick something that doesn’t make you look stupid.”

    Whereas I figure “I’m going to look stupid anyway, may as well pick the neon orange one with the pink polka dots”.

  22. And to think, my only swimsuit criteria are: 1. does it fit? 2. will it stay on when I actually swim? 3. is the color/pattern not totally godawful? Granted, it is hard enough to find a swimsuit that even satisfies these.

  23. I don’t think this will make it feel better for (general) you, but body insecurity isn’t something only for women, although it’s probably a lot harder for women (in general). When I was growing up, I *always* felt both too fat and insufficiently muscular. I never took off my shirt when I was swimming until I was, like, 25, and was “forced” to attend a sauna. I have a great shot of me surfing and never used it as fb profile because it shows my belly isn’t the sixpack I want it to be, and I was usually wearing my shorts up to the belly button because I didn’t want people to notice my love “handles” (not overly clever, I know that now ;)) Of course, there was no real reason to be ashamed of my body, it was just that I didn’t like it to be un-perfect/human-shaped and that probably made it a lot harder for women to like it, which, well, was a negative feedback slope.

    I guess what I’m saying is that when one likes whatever one wears, one feels a lot more confident and a lot sexier, which will likely lead to a better reception on the part of others, which can help create a positive feedback slope. But, alas, it all starts with a leap of confidence.

  24. My biggest problem with buying a swimsuit is finding one with a supportive top that comes in cup sizes. Fortunately, figleaves has a nice selection with cup sizes above D.

    I’m very happy tankinis exist, because I have a long torso and I was tired of wedgies. Also, board shorts are great because a) no shaving!; b) pocketses; c) wearing them means I can never, ever burn my ass again when I miss with the sunscreen.

  25. After reading this post, I was watching That Mitchell and Webb Look (British sketch comedy) and this conveniently relevant skit was on:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85HT4Om6JT4
    The pressure in advertisements reflects the peer pressure in life, as long as we keep buying into idea of problem areas we’ll never be free of them.

  26. annalouise: I must be the other rare fat woman who doesn’t care what I look like in a bathing suit.

    Please, let me assure you that you most certainly are NOT! If people are thinking about what *you* look like in *your* swimsuit then they are really wasting braincells that should be used on figuring out how to make the most out of theirs. I can’t swim but damnit I will put on the prettiest/sexiest swimsuit I find, get a donut and play in the pool to hell with what anyone thinks of what I look like in my bathing suit or bikini, whichever one suits my fancy that day.

  27. Whats with all the hate for men’s board shorts?

    Americans… you need to come visit the antipodes, board shorts are the goddam uniform of summer here. They aren’t silly, nor are they uncomfortable or hard to swim in. They’re cheap and you can look respectable with just a toweling down and putting on a t shirt. Don’t even need to go get changed in a men’s inevitably urine-reeking changing room at the local pools.

  28. rkel,
    I live off and on in the antipodes, and…nope, still think board shorts look silly on men. Speedos on Australian lifeguards on the other hand… 😛

    On the whole shaving thing: the “it’s easier to conform to normative beauty standards” in board shorts isn’t a convincing reason to wear something IMO. Swimsuit/bikini bottoms only be more of an ordeal if you really feel like you have to shave. Again, going back to not giving a f*** how I look to other people, I also do not attend to my bikini region on a regular basis (I give it a cursory once-over with my razor when I shave the rest of my legs, about once every two weeks). If people are offended by my hair, they are free to look away 🙂

    [Again, I didn’t say I think board shorts look bad on women, but I don’t think not having to shave is a great reason for people to shy away from bikini bottoms. Pockets, now that is a reason I support.]

  29. I’m less concerned about compliance with beauty standards than I am about giving the world entirely too much information about my pubes.

  30. I find that being pretty much unable to see anyone else in the pool really helps the lack of self-consciousness. It’s sort of like being an ostrich: I can’t see anyone else, so in my mind, no one can see me, so it doesn’t matter what I look like – so I’m fat and happy. (I love swimming.)

  31. I long ago decided that Monica Douglas, who wore her hat rather higher on her head than the rest of Miss Brodie’s set, had the answer, and just began to assume that I’d look grotesque whatever I wore. And at least gay ageism means now I can wear what I like without fear of reprisals, having retired from romance. Not ideal, but one takes what’s on offer. Now that the subject is raised, I don’t even own a bathing suit; such bliss.

  32. oldfeminist:
    “I admit I don’t have the same degree of swimsuit angst, but I do wish my body looked more attractive.”

    This is equivalent to “I wish I had chosen a different color umbrella” for most women.

    Think instead “I wish I hadn’t tattooed my face with my phone number punctuated with swastikas” because, unless you are notably more potbellied than other men around you, and go to work wearing a pink belly shirt, no one gives a shit.

    ooh look a sexist feminist. protip homeskillet, men have plenty of body shame, women dont own it. if you think being a fat dude doesnt get you made fun of, i dont know what planet you live on. as someone who has both made fun of fat men and been a fat man made fun of, by both men and women, i think you should take your hypocritical crap elsewhere. this is the same attitude that has white cisgendered feminists ignoring the racism and other isms in their culture. like gloria steinem hating on black women who voted for obama rather than hillary.

  33. As I was trying to hold in my laughter, I couldn’t let out a good chuckle. This article was so real and honest that it just became so funny. Women have to deal with all these issues, but so do men…they just don’t have articles about it!

  34. Oh look, a mansplainer! Protip homeskillet: she was talking about magnitude. She didn’t say men don’t have those issues, she said for women it is orders of magnitude worse.

    Take your mansplaining WATM!! elsewhere.

  35. Jill pretty much dismissed any male/fat male body issue in her article. I do not know what makes her such a authority on male body issues? I remembered how many guys sat out swim class in High School and took a failing grade that almost kept some of them from graduating, I guess things like that do not count

    Rare Vos: fat men

  36. Rare Vos:
    Oh look, a mansplainer!Protip homeskillet:she was talking about magnitude.She didn’t say men don’t have those issues, she said for women it is orders of magnitude worse.

    Take your mansplaining WATM!! elsewhere.

    I beg to differ with your assessment of oldfeminist’s post.

    Firstly, let us take a look at:

    1. This is equivalent to “I wish I had chosen a different color umbrella” for most women.

    – So, men feeling their bodies don’t measure up is similar to women wishing they had chosen a different color umbrella. So I suppose women take steroids and work-out obsessively and take all kinds of creatine supplements when they’ve chosen the wrong umbrella?

    Then let us look at:

    2. Think instead “I wish I hadn’t tattooed my face with my phone number punctuated with swastikas” because, unless you are notably more potbellied than other men around you, and go to work wearing a pink belly shirt, no one gives a shit.

    – I guess it’s very easy to think that no one gives a shit if you’re not a man. I see this attitude all the time among certain women “Why do you want to get a nice shirt? You’re a guy, no one gives a shit!”; “Why should we put pictures of men in tuxedo on this page, no one gives a shit!”; “why do you want your hair to look good? You’re a man, no one gives a shit!”

    If you’re man who is in his early 40s or below (or even if you’re not), you’ll certainly know the pressure of wanting to look good. Why do you think that the male cosmetics and grooming industry is enjoying a huge increase in profits, compared to 10 years ago? Why do you think there are Facebook ads on Facebook going on about getting the “300 Spartan body” in 10 days? Or young boys trying the “Hugh Jackman Wolverine Diet” of waking up early to eat chicken breast before going to sleep and then waking up early again to work out? Why are all these diets advertised if no one gives a shit?

    And that’s before I even consider how much more powerful the need is for today’s men to have good looks in Asia: Come to Japan or any Asian country and tell me that no one gives a shit about a man’s appearance there. 25% of plastic surgery operations in the region are done by men, and the numbers are growing.

    I’m a guy who wears a T-shirt and board shorts when I go to the beach, because, well, frankly I feel like I don’t have the bod necessary to go sans shirt. And I’m on the slender side (on a Western scale)… I can’t even imagine what guys who are on the plump side go through. I guess as guys, we don’t really talk about this…..because that’s not the culture to do so.

    I think everyone can acknowledge that women have it harder. Who is arguing against that? But to diss the problems that men face with body image as “not being satisfied with the color of their umbrellas” is highly insulting, especially if you’re a guy struggling with trying to gain muscle or lose those “man boobs”.

    There’s no need to put down men’s problems with image in order to highlight how bad women have it. If anything, I suppose if you’re the vengeful type, you can chortle in glee because it seems that, instead of women getting some relief in having to look good all the time, it’s now men getting dragged into the whole whirlpool of self-image problems as well.

  38. timothynakayama: There’s no need to put down men’s problems with image in order to highlight how bad women have it.

    Oh yes there is, for some people. It’s called damseling. They can get pretty territorial.

  40. timothynakayama: I beg to differ with your assessment of oldfeminist’s post.

    Firstly, let us take a look at:

    1. This is equivalent to “I wish I had chosen a different color umbrella” for most women.

    – So, men feeling their bodies don’t measure up is similar to women wishing they had chosen a different color umbrella. So I suppose women take steroids and work-out obsessively and take all kinds of creatine supplements when they’ve chosen the wrong umbrella?
    …
    the whole whirlpool of self-image problems as well.

    Well, while I think it may be fair to say that pressure to adhere to certain standards of appearance is in some ways.. increasing for men, I think still think it’s fair to say the two aren’t really comparable.

    Now, I don’t think the difference is akin to Umbrellas vs Swastika Tattoos. It is however, pretty big.

    Now, I’ll be the first person to admit I am by no means an attractive man by most standards:

    My body has a doughy unpleasant composition, my proportions are kind of weird and I have a funny nose. My hair has an off-looking texture and is already thinning in spots. I’m extremely prone to ingrown hairs on my face so I’m left to choose between “Weird Patchy Beard”, “Sketchy Looking Stubble” if I don’t shave or “Surface of Mars” if do. My back is hairy and covered in acne.

    However, despite all that the fact my body could politely be called a train wreck… doesn’t really change how I feel about myself on a fundamental level. I suspect this is the case for most men in my position.

    Beauty is treated as, if not the #1 trait, at least in the top 5 traits that determine a woman’s value.

    It’s silly of course, however I don’t think that stops many people (even those most aware of the standard, and how silly it is), from internalizing it to a certain extent. If that is something you’ve internalized, issues of appearance have a lot more impact of you.

    When I think of things that might generally be used to insult a man “Coward”, “Loser”, “Whimp” etc.. all come to mind long before “Fat” or “Ugly. It’s the exactly opposite when I think of things that might generally be used to insult women.

    I’m hardly claiming to be an expert on anything here. It just seems to me that male/female body image issue aren’t really comparable in a general sense. I mean people are individual, and not everyone is going to have internalized the same standards the same way. Just that when taking a broad view.. you’re kind of looking at different animals.

  41. MacaroniGalaxy:
    I’m hardly claiming to be an expert on anything here. It just seems to me that male/female body image issue aren’t really comparable in a general sense. I mean people are individual, and not everyone is going to have internalized the same standards the same way. Just that when taking a broad view.. you’re kind of looking at different animals.

    Of course. As I said, no one is arguing that women have a lot more problems when it comes to being required to look good all the time. I think everyone here can acknowledge that, yes, it IS a different animal, and yes, women get the far shorter end of the stick.

    I think I just have issues with comparing the increasing pressures men have in regards to image with “not choosing the right color umbrella”. That is insulting and dismisses all the young men who have eating disorders, who, due to cultural reasons, just don’t have an outlet to express their dissatisfaction with their own bodies.

    I suppose that is one good reason why some women out there just dismiss that men actually have some pressure to try to fit in within an ideal image: they don’t live it, and it’s not something that is culturally known. Like, for example, I was strangely surprised that some women didn’t know what a urinal soap was, or the cough checkup with a doctor, but then again, how would they know, since these things aren’t depicted in popular culture. Same thing with the whole young men facing image issues as well.

  42. What you said is true yet a certain segment of Fat Feminism was invests so much time and afford into a campaign to marginalize fat male experiences and their body issues

    I’m hardly claiming to be an expert on anything here. It just seems to me that male/female body image issue aren’t really comparable in a general sense. I mean people are individual, and not everyone is going to have internalized the same standards the same way. Just that when taking a broad view.. you’re kind of looking at different animals.

  43. Another disservice by Feminism is the idea that body issue pressure is something that is just now affecting Fat Men. Even before the invention of people like Jack LaLanne men were seeking ways to replace fat with muscle and bulk.

    timothynakayama:

    I think I just have issues with comparing the increasing pressures men have in regards to image with “not choosing the right color umbrella”. That is insulting and dismisses all the young men who have eating disorders, who, due to cultural reasons, just don’t have an outlet to express their dissatisfaction with their own bodies.

  44. I work at a Drug Rehab and sometimes do shifts at our Homeless shelter. The shower room at the shelter is like a scene out of the book “Lord of the Flies”. I have seen enough men change in a toilet stalls to say for certain that all sizes of men have body issues, even-though so many people say this is not so.

  45. One big difference between body issues in men and women: men who fit the chiseled movie star body ideal get to actually feel good about themselves, while extremely beautiful women are held to even more exacting standards and constantly told that they are not quite beautiful enough. My female friend with the worst body issues? Also the most beautiful woman I’ve met in person. Extremely slender, huge boobs, blonde hair, pretty face…and yet she is obsessed with how awful she looks, which spills over to her thinking she’s also stupid and socially inept. Plus she’s gotten sexually harassed constantly since about the age of 13. I’ve seen this to varying degrees in lots of the conventionally attractive women I know.

    Another big difference: the fucking insane rates of eating disorders among women.

    Yeah, men have body issues too and no one is denying that. But it’s not only of a different magnitude for women, it’s almost a wholly different thing altogether.

  46. Male body issues are marginalized on a whole magnitude on sites like this and all men a dumped in to one general pool and all statements made are noting more than generalities.

    If you are going to take such a superficial approach to male body issues, then why even bother in the first place? All it does is give men a reason to complain.

    Male Body Issues are never as simple or non-injurious as you would lead us to believe.

    rae:

    Yeah, men have body issues too and no one is denying that. But it’s not only of a different magnitude for women, it’s almost a wholly different thing altogether.

  47. It’s difficult to take seriously hyperbole like “orders of magnitude” with regard to body image. A quick google search pulled this for eating disorders for 14-15 year old girls and boys:

    Lifetime prevalence of any ED among girls was 17.9% anorexia nervosa (AN) 0.7%, bulimia nervosa (BN) 1.2%, binge eating disorder (BED) 1.5%, and EDs not otherwise specified (EDNOS) 14.6%. Corresponding numbers for boys for any ED is 6.5%, AN 0.2%, BN 0.4%, BED 0.9%, and EDNOS 5.0%.

    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1471015303000576

    In no case is there an order of magnitude in difference, although there are much higher rates reported by women than men.

    Moreover I’m not sure women really understand the way men think about their bodies. One reason for this might be the differences between female and male preferences with regard to muscle mass.

    Only slight demographic and physical differences were found among the three groups of men. Modest differences were found between the men’s measured fat and the fat of the images chosen. However, measures of muscularity produced large and highly significant differences. In all three countries, men chose an ideal body that was a mean of about 28 lb (13 kg) more muscular than themselves and estimated that women preferred a male body about 30 lb (14 kg) more muscular than themselves. In a pilot study, however, the authors found that actual women preferred an ordinary male body without added muscle.

    Harrison G. Pope, Jr., M.D., Amanda J. Gruber, M.D., Barbara Mangweth, Ph.D., Benjamin Bureau, Ph.D., Christine deCol, M.D., Roland Jouvent, M.D., and James I. Hudson, M.D., S.M.(2000) Body Image Perception Among Men in Three Countries, Am J Psychiatry 157:1297-1301

    Male body image seems more complex than female body image to me, at least with regard to weight, as both low body fat and high muscle mass are considered ideal.

  48. I do not understand why people here keep returning to explaining the history of female body issues, because none of the comments made here challenges the feminist stance on female body issues.

    I think that the men who have commented are simply questioning the feminist approach of dealing with male body issues as more of a stereotype than a real issue to be discussed.

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