Blog 4 Beauty Cult and Men

Some of the benefits of guys putting on the "tough guise" persona is that they are powerful and confident. Guys are supposed to be the protectors and by putting on their tough look they are able to achieve that. Thier confidence goes up and they feel needed. And I believe that every guy loves being needed. The tough guise comes with positives as well as negatives. Like mentioned above the positives as more confidence in men, being more powerful and having a male complex about them. The negatives are that sometimes that behavior can be self-destructive and dangerous. With feeling that powersome men think that they are above everyone else. They can become the alpha male and think that they have to show everyone that they are the toughest guy. Sometimes doing this means beating up another guy to show that he is more powerful than another. Another is beating up women to show that men are more superior and women should be submissive to the all powerful male. By being this power driven sometimes men self destruct themselves. They are always putting on this front that to show any kind of emotion would be devestating to their reputation. This is not only self destructive but can also be emotionally destructive to close friends and family around then man.

Most people view "gender issues" as women's problems. Why? Because in most cases women are the only ones who are willing to come out and say that their is a problem with their gender situation. Whether it is harrassment at work or feeling horrible with they way they look, women are more open about this things and seek justice or closure or support. That is just the difference with men and women. Men may also have some of the same problems but will not be open about it because that is being "a sissy" and showing emotion. Men are programmed to keep all emotion related issues to themselves because that lessens their masculinity in some way. Men also are programmed to not have issues with themselves. Everyone thinks that every guys is happy with their body or their looks, so that makes it harder for them to oppose that. Women also have this ideal that every man is comfortable with their body and looks and that men honestly do not care that much about their looks. For men to come out and say that they think they are fat or wish they had a more toned body, is basically being a women in a guys eyes.

I think that men have some of the same effects that women do when trying to live up to cultures ideal of what each gender should look like. Guys are shown to be tall, dark, handsome, muscular, toned abs...etc. They are sterotyped just like women are. And women just like men gauk over the same culture inspired body type of the opposite gender. Men know that w0men like that and they try to achieve it because that is what a man is supposed to look like. Overweight men will stop eating because they want to be that perfect weight. Guys will over work them selves to get that perfect male tone for their bodies. They turn to steroids for more muscle tone. Emotionally wise men are looked down upon because they may be too skinny or too overweight or don't have the best complexion, or they are not ruggedly handsome. This has to play some kind of a role in what they feel about themselves and their emotional state.

I feel that in some way the media inspires change of what men are supposed to look like. A century ago if you were overweight that meant you were rich and if you were fit and skinny that meant that you were of lower class and had to work for your money. How we have changed today. You look at any advertisement for jeans or cologne or anything directed toward the male, you will see them most likely without a shirt on, toned abs, muscular arms, blemish free and have the ruggedly hansome look. The reason that the media can have this much of an effect is that they portray women as wanting this, and by seeing these guys in the media, women do have this kind of a standard for what they want in a man,physically wise, just like men do for women. Also if you ever notice the overweight men are always the but of the jokes or are just known as the "funny ones". They are not the ones that get the girls or are most popular. I don't think that men necessarily have it as hard as women but I do believe that they still struggle with the issues like women do.