True, it may NOT weigh on your hubby’s mind so much (but would he truly admit it? Not to anyone, I can promise you that)
As other men have quietly mentioned in this thread, the ideal body type for guys is also pressed on them on a day-to-day basis.
A perfect example:
The next time he goes out and buys underwear.
You’d think this would be a nice easy thing to do… but underwear nowadays is sold in boxes. On the cover of the box is some (probably gay, but who really knows) buff young twentysomething with ripped pecs, gleaming fresh-off-the-oiler sixpack and legs built like the lower half of overpowered Russian rockets.
That’s just for underwear. Tighty whities. Skivies. Ginch.
…makes you wanna go back to the days of K-Mart and buying them 3-to-a-bag.
“I just want underwear, not a message that I haven’t got the rockhard muscles of HeMan(Registered Trademark) and am less of a man for being so.”
Or images in other aspects of advertising: sunglasses, cologne (the guy’s half-naked with a 12-year-old chick who does WAY too much cocaine… I wanna smell like THIS?), jeans, cars, music videos (That Shania is HOT… but the guy she’s cuddling up to-I can’t compete with that), and the list goes on…
The media (save the news) portrays a fantasy world, where everyone is thin, can afford a stylish apartment downtown with a view, has a nice (somewhat exotic) car, and enough trendy fashion items in their closet to pan out four seasons with.
It also holds another (conjoined) purpose; to make money (this includes the news). They make money by selling you things. They sell you things by convincing you that you need to buy these things.
Because they’re a business.
Welcome to the United tate of America, land of the consumer.
They portray this because they are “getting away” with it. To a certain extent, we are letting them, that’s for sure. If the media could “sell” something by portraying a world where everyone was under 30, white, straight, not disabled in any way, and lived in Beverly Hills, I’m sure they’d do that too. But these days too much of society won’t quite buy that. Sure, there are still not enough represenations in the media of non-straight, non-white, disabled - but it isn’t like the media is actively and aggresively presenting these things as BAD. We expect them not to do this. I only expect them to go just a little bit further, and give women a break too.
uh I think its jarbaby…I’m new…but about half a year ago I was over 200 pounds. I’m tall but that’s still 60 pounds too heavy…I swear I went to the post office one day, all happy and calm, and huddled into my fat (it was like armor). With this big gut and double chin no one will hoot and holler at me I thought to myslef. I walked with confidence and happiness. I was hooted and hollered at. Told I was beautiful, told I was gorgeous. Honestly, it was quite bizarre. A man left his stoop and limped down his driveway to say ‘hi.’ To and from the post office I was being checked out and all that. No one called me a fat c***t or told me to lose 30 pounds or anything. It sounds like cheese, but really it is all about your attitude. And you really should try to stop insulting yourself. I still can’t stop, but when I cut down on the self-deprecation, life goes a little better for some reason.
And After I lose ten pounds, I’ll be back to my normal size 12 self, and after 20 pounds (which will totally wipe away the former extra sixty) I’ll be a SIZE TEN. Which in my eyes is skinny, but I actually AM big boned, so they (my cheekbones, clavicles, and hips)do jut out at that size. Its so nice to look at. At least to me.
To counter your example. There are two “Fruit of the Loom” ads running right now. They are obviously the same campaign, done by the same agency, etc…
In one, a bunch of men are standing in their underwear, in front of a mirror practicing saying “I do.” In the other, it’s women standing in their underwear rehearsing how they’re going to tell their SO that they’re pregnant. Slice of life advertising.
The men are a cross section. Some are “ideal body types” - some are very much less so. Every single one of the women has an “ideal body” and an “ideal face.”
Men do get targeted by the media, but it isn’t as constant nor pervasive, and there’s still the idea that “it’s ok to not look perfect.” That isn’t true for women.