By: Tomos Land, Staff Writer
Unrealistic body standards are promoted everywhere in our day-to-day lives. Effortlessly handsome models accompany every product or service and chiselled stars are the centerpiece of the action in the media. Increasingly, even at your local gym, perfectly proportioned people seem to be defying biology and can be found on every machine. On social media, trends that focus on returning to our primitive roots, or pursue “looksmaxxing,” an ideology popularized by incel culture that scores areas of the body like your jaw, skin, and muscles. All of these can lead to eating disorders and body dysmorphia in men. However, given the multitude of issues troubling boys and young men today, these same trends often fly under the radar. There needs to be more local and national support for young men and boys to counter the negative messaging that we see in both physical and social media.
The knock-on effect of unrealistic body standards can impact every facet of our lives. For boys whose bodies are going through the trials and tribulations of puberty, certain ideas around how a man should look risk magnifying pre-existing insecurities. These include not looking masculine enough, feeling too short or too small, and worrying about changing features, such as complexion, that might be deemed unattractive. For young men, who might be navigating romantic relationships for the first time, unrealistic body standards heighten the anxiety that this new experience can bring, especially in relation to sex and undressing in front of a partner.
My own experience with the harms of unrealistic body standards for men was out of a compulsive obsession with self-improvement. Having spent most of my childhood and teenage years playing sports, the challenge for me was never about getting in shape, but rather getting faster, stronger, or fitter. Naturally, the yardsticks I used were other people such as professional athletes and online personalities. As I entered my 20s it felt as if the goalposts kept moving. I could tell that something wasn’t adding up; my body looked nothing like influencers’ shredded physiques. I worked out why after the More Plates More Dates exposee of Brian Michael Johnson, a.k.a “The Liver King,” came out in November 2022.
Combatting this issue as part of the growing efforts to address the major challenges that boys and young men face, is vital in securing future societies that are built on healthy relationships with our body and others.
Steroid use amongst young men, driven in part by body image insecurity and fuelled by charlatans such as Johnson is skyrocketing. He credited the consumption of raw meat for his gains, but in reality it was steroid use. It’s impossible to know whether many of the people I previously compared myself to on Instagram or YouTube were using supplements or steroids to gain and maintain their physiques.
To combat this, more education is needed to help boys and young men understand what a healthy body looks like and how it functions. Programs such as the Lost Boys Project in the UK are laying the groundwork for change to be made. This project, run by the Centre for Social Justice, examined the home, work, education, and health situation for young men and boys. They found that they were falling behind in school, had fewer role models, changing economic options, and were using steroids at a young age. The centre has also released further reports exploring how men are depicted in popular culture, men stepping up as role models, and policy recommendations for boys as they age and youth sports.
A similar strategy, currently being developed by the federal government, needs to be implemented soon in Canada if the emerging identity crisis for boys and young men here is to be averted.
