The Rise of the Adonis Complex - Mike Murgo

Contrary to popular belief, body issues are not just women's issues. Men have these issues as well, but because of social pressure to not express emotion or weakness, men tend to chose to be quiet about the issues and thus suffer silently. The Rise of The Adonix Complex explores men's body issues. In 1997, a survey was taken that indicated that men's insecurities about their bodies were at a new high. A whopping 43% of men were found to be dissatisfied with their bodies, and men even outnumbered women in terms of dissatisfaction with their chests, in an age where boob jobs were on the rise. Only 18% of men said they were not concerned with their appearance, and men were found to be more likely to want to look attractive to the opposite sex than women were. Even boys as young as 5 or 6 said that they would prefer to be muscular than thin or fat. It's no surprise, then, to learn that men often have distorted body images where they perceive themselves as looking different from the way they really do. The more a person focuses on their body image, the worse s/he tends to feel about how s/he looks.
How did men become so concerned with their bodies, though, when they weren't this way a century ago? The author points to the advent of anabolic steroids, which brought male bodies to a new level of muscularity never before seen in nature. Once these bodies hit Hollywood by the 1980s, men started to see them and think that, with enough time in the gym, they could also achieve these unnaturally muscled bodies. This image of the giant male body became pervasive and even influenced young boys' action toys, like GI Joe, Star Wars, and super heroes. Suddenly, these toys have broad shoulders and large, muscled bodies that they didn't have a number of years ago, which gives young boys a standard that they feel they must live up to. Even in Playgirl, from when it was first published in 1973 to the time of this study about 25 years later, the centerfold men lost 12 pounds of fat and gained 27 pounds of muscle. This phenomenon tracks the evolution of our perception of the ideal, attractive male body. Moreover, companies play on these newly pervasive male insecurities by advertising for products that will help remove these insecurities. I was once told that the best way to sell a product is to make the consumer feel bad about him/herself. Once the person feels badly, you can offer them a product that will solve their misfortune, like a hair restoration product or a weight loss supplement. Companies make money by playing off of insecurities, so they do it more often, which leads the consumer very insecure. Also, photo-touched images create perfect bodies that are impossible to achieve, which leads men to feel inadequate. These are just some of the ways that the male body image crisis came about.
Personally, I will admit that I have been a part of the "crisis." All my life, up until middle school, I was very heavy and used to being picked on for it. At my max weight at the time, I was a 210 pound twelve year old. After 6th grade, when I wore sweatshirts every day to hide my body, I realized I didn't want to live like that anymore. I started working out, eating healthier, and cutting down my portion sizes. By the time I was 14 and in 8th grade, I weighed 165 pounds. My mom grew concerned that I had an eating disorder, and she even took me to a doctor who said I was fine. I wasn't completely fine, though. Looking back, I had the "distorted body image" that the author writes about. Even though I had made enormous progress in burning body fat, I still looked in the mirror and thought my body was hideous and could use more work to achieve a "perfect" ideal that could never be achieved. I wouldn't even go swimming anymore because I was ashamed of removing my shirt to reveal a body that was in the normal BMI range. Because my mom was so concerned and I think I knew in the back of my mind that something was wrong, I started eating more, exercising less, and ultimately threw out my idea of a "healthy" living style. I gained twenty pounds the summer after middle school and a new perspective about my body, noticing that I still looked okay. Once I quit track after sophomore year, I put on even more weight which ultimately led to me becoming overweight again, although still healthy. This time, however, I'm more okay with it. Do I want to be fit and muscular? Sure I do. I still work out and am slowly pursuing my goals, but this time I'm doing it with a more realistic body image. This time I'm doing it for myself and for my health instead of doing it in pursuit of an impossible, media-crated body image.