Emily Hunter: Response to "The Rise of the Adonis Complex"

Emily Hunter: Response to “The Rise of the Adonis Complex”

            Being a woman with two best friends who have suffered from anorexia, I have continually been forced to think about the way the ideal female body is portrayed in the media and to analyze the ways in which women of all ages internalize the ideal female images they observe.  On the other hand, I have rarely ever thought about the images of the male body that men internalize.  While reading this piece I began to think of all the times I have heard men make comments about their, or another man’s, body.  For example, there are numerous men that I continually see down at the pool discussing how they needed to bulk up more and get bigger.  Complements fly around the pool deck, such as “Dude, you look insanely huge today.”  If the guys are trying to insult each other they will sometimes poke fun at each other’s bodies, saying “You are so skinny” or “Dude, you look like a girl.”  I have also had numerous conversations with guy friends who hint at the fact they are feeling fat, that they don’t have enough muscle, and that they could be leaner.  They all seem to believe if they did so they would be able to get more girls.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized the male obsession with appearance is everywhere, and for many men this means constantly obsessing over body image.

            The most severe case I have observed of male body image insecurities comes from a boy I met freshman year of college.  When I first met him he was small and very thin and extremely shy.   As college progressed he began to go to the gym to lift.  Once he began to see his body change he became compulsive about going to the gym, eventually going three times a day for two hours each time.  He counted every calorie he consumed, would eat 10 egg whites at every meal, and continually was downing protein shakes.  With such extreme compulsion, his body grew exponentially, as did his confidence around girls.  What is most interesting to me is that while he gained confidence from growing larger, many girls lost interest because his size did not fit with his natural body frame or his personality. This example not only points to the anxieties and desires men feel to appear large and masculine, but also that masculinity is closely related to sexuality and the acquisition of girls.  The larger the boy grew, the more confident in his masculinity the boy became, and thus he believed he could acquire more girls.  In my mind, it was not so much the size of the body of the boy, but the confidence he projected when he felt confident in his masculinity that made him feel he would be more desirable to girls.

            Another section of the reading that I found unbelievable was the evolution of the G.I. Joe figures, especially in the smaller series of these dolls.  The fact that the G.I. Joe dolls of today would have biceps that are as large as his waist reveals how unobtainable these male body image ideals are.  While girls resort to starvation or purging to prevent weight gain, men may feel the desire to turn to steroids or high protein dieting to bulk up.  While starvation and purging seem to be more severe, the affects of steroids or restrictive diets are just as harmful.  When young, impressionable boys are playing with figurines that appear this muscular, they will believe this is the image they must fulfill and this could result in severe male eating or exercise disorders.  With male eating disorders on the rise, I wonder whether the number of self-help organizations for male body image issues has increased or whether men are faced to deal with such mental struggles on their own.  I also wonder if the pressure males feel to develop the ideal masculine body makes them more judgmental of the female body because they expect women to experience the same body image pressures they experience every day.