A Third of Young Men Have Suffered from Body Dysmorphic Disorder

The number of young males dealing with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) has increased greatly in the decade or so I have been watching the statistics. I prefer to use the BDD terminology because not all of the young males suffering from this issue should be lumped into the category of anorexia nervosa (what the authors of the article are calling manorexia).

Some of these young men are healthy, but they become obsessed with looking like a male fitness model, such as those on the cover of Men's Health.

We are screwing up our boys now the ways we have been screwing up our girls for the past several decades.

A third of young men have suffered from 'manorexia' - either by purging or abusing drugs - because they hate their appearance

• Eating disorders are a growing problem among teenage boys, say doctors
• May have a traditional eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia
• Or they may abuse drugs or muscle-building supplements
• One in every 10 cases of an eating disorder occurs in men, figures suggest

By Jenny Hope Medical Correspondent
PUBLISHED: 6 November 2013

Almost one in three young men have gone to extremes, such as making themselves sick after eating, in an attempt to look good, researchers say.

New data suggests that eating disorders are a growing problem among teenage boys. Many are turning to drugs and muscle-building supplements.

The phenomenon is so widespread that the name ‘manorexia’ has been coined to describe it.

Almost one in three young men has gone to extremes - including making themselves sick after eating - to enhance their appearance - suggesting eating disorders are a growing problem among teenage boys

The study’s lead author, Alison Field of Boston Children’s Hospital, said: ‘We need to be thinking more broadly about eating disorders and considering males as well.’

Classical eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, in which a person refuses to eat, and bulimia nervosa, in which someone binges then purges through vomiting or laxative use.

Professor Field said: ‘For a lot of males, what they’re striving for is different from females.

‘They’re probably engaged in something different from purging.’

Classical eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, in which a person refuses to eat, and bulimia nervosa, in which someone binge-eats then purges through vomiting or laxative use

Men make up an estimated one in every ten eating disorder sufferers. In the UK, the highest rates of new cases are among girls aged 15 to 19 and boys aged ten to 14.

Bulimia and problems such as binge eating account for 38 per cent of new cases, official figures show.

Professor Field’s research on US teenagers found 31 per cent of males had binged on food or purged.

Her team spent three years surveying 5,527 boys who were aged 12 to 18 at the start of the study in 1999.

They were asked how they saw their bodies and about unhealthy behaviours such as drug and alcohol use.

Overall, young men were most likely to worry about being muscular, and that concern increased with age.

This could be the male equivalent of some girls’ preoccupation with extreme thinness, the study said.

About 9 per cent reported a high level of concern with muscularity, while 2 per cent had also used some type of supplement, growth hormone or anabolic steroid to look better.

That figure rose to 8 per cent for older teens aged 16 to 22, the research in journal JAMA Pediatrics found.

Professor Field said using such products was risky: ‘There are a whole range of products available online that we don’t know if they’re healthy or not. We know when a lot of them are tested, they’re not what they’re marketed to be.’

About nine per cent of teenage boys said they were concerned about their body's muscularity. Two per cent of these people had used some type of supplement, growth hormone derivative or anabolic steroid to enhance it

Young men who used enhancement products were more likely than their peers to binge drink and use drugs.

About 6 per cent of boys were very worried about both having muscle and being thin. Just over 2 per cent worried only about thinness, and this group were the most likely to develop symptoms of depression later on.

Professor Field said ‘airbrushed’ models with unrealistic bodies could have a bad effect on teens.

She said doctors and parents should be aware of attempts by young men to change their bodies, to make sure it is being done for the right reasons and in a healthy way.

Is Norway Turning Little Boys into Little Girls?

Norway has some of the most gender equal laws, cultural norms, and educational structures in the world. In another Scandinavian country, Sweden, one political party wants to legislate that men urinate sitting down.

Now, a new study of young boys (6-12) shows that these boys are more open with their feelings, and at the youngest levels (6-8), the boys engaged in "positive touching," such as holding hands at recess and scratching each others backs.

Still, the older boys (9-12) had to be wary of being called "gay" or otherwise "effeminate," so it's unclear if they youngest boys will adopt these beliefs and behaviors as they age, or if they represent a new model of masculinity.

This part of the study is great to see.

Physical strength, excelling at football and wearing fashionable clothes could win popularity points. But the most important factor for securing a high position in the boys’ hierarchy was being a nice guy – someone who is kind, funny, extroverted and relaxed with a “good personality”.

On the other hand, these same boys have become extremely body conscious. They have also taken on the traditionally female concern with body image (fitness) and appearance. A boy’s position in the "hierarchy" determines how much flexibility he has to be fashionable or try new looks.

“The fear of being called ‘gay’ works like kryptonite on the boys’ attempt to construct their masculinity,” explains Overå.

Boys have to care about their appearance (for example, using hair wax seems to be a requisite part of daily grooming), or risk being considered lazy or nerdish. But those boys who who care too much about their appearance risk being called feminine or gay.

However, according to the authors, two of the coolest boys wore eyeliner. But a less popular boy could not do this and get away with it. Social status seems to provide more latitude in how boys express their masculinity.

Another more concerning issue, at least to me, is that despite all of these changes, it is not "cool" for boys to care about their studies and their education. They have to minimize the time they spend studying in order to, apparently, (1) make it look effortless, and (2) hide the fact that they study hard and grades matter. This seems to apply to their appearance as well:

“The boys did a great deal of unseen work, both with regard to their appearance and to their schoolwork. Many of them worked a lot at home, but claimed before a test, for example, that they had only studied for five minutes. They had to hide how much it meant to them to do well and look good, and how much effort they put into it.”

In general, it seems the trend toward greater gender equality in Norway and other Scandinavian countries is a good thing. However, it is concerning that it appears to also be instilling in these boys some of the issues with appearance and popularity that girls have long struggled with - issues that we know leads to eating disorders (or use of steroids in teen boys) and other mental health challenges.

Gender equality creates new school boys

19 September 2013
KILDEN - Information Centre for Gender Research in Norway

Boys in primary school talk about their feelings and hold hands. And they are very, very concerned about their bodies and appearance.

According to new Norwegian research, decades of gender equality measures have helped to change children’s upbringing and their understanding of gender.

“It’s not that boys used to be naughty and now they are nice,” says Stian Overå.

“But compared with previous classroom research, I’ve found a change in how boys relate to emotions. Being personal and talking about feelings was not problematic or feminine in their eyes. It was almost an ideal. And it was more important to be kind than to be strong.”

Overå, a social anthropologist, recently defended his doctoral thesis on gender in primary schools. For an entire year he followed two groups of pupils aged 6–12 in a modern primary school in a suburb of Oslo. The area does not have a distinct working-class or middle-class profile. About 15 percent of the pupils had a native language other than Norwegian.

Gender equality measures work

Much of what Overå found was known from previous research. His study documents gender-stereotyped behaviour, such as girls who prefer to play in pairs and be best friends and boys who play in larger groups and have visible hierarchies with clear leaders.

But the boys observed by Overå behaved differently than the boys described in previous studies. So differently that it makes sense to talk about a change in the way boys behave

“Gender equality measures work,” Overå states.

“Gender roles in the Nordic countries are changing. Several new Nordic studies have had similar findings. Gender used to be rooted in tradition. Today it is more fluid.”

Scratch each other’s backs

According to Overå, the boys aged 6–8 had the most relaxed attitude towards feelings and touching. These boys had “positive touching” as a daily school activity in which the pupils learned to touch each other. The objective was to create a sense of belonging to a group where everyone can touch and stroke each other regardless of whether they know each other and regardless of gender.

“The pupils liked it a lot. It was not strained in any way,” says Overå.

“The youngest boys could scratch each other’s backs and hold hands during recess.”

When Overå presented the phenomenon of “positive touching” for a group of researchers at the University of California-Berkeley, they were flabbergasted.

“It’s not coincidental that these measures are developed in Norway or the other Nordic countries,” says the researcher.

“I think the changes I’ve observed are connected with Nordic ideals of gender equality and measures that are introduced as early as pre-school.”

Considerate boys

The older boys, aged 9-12, did not have such a relaxed attitude towards bodily contact. They had to be on guard for being called “gay”.

In spite of this, both the younger and older boys were considerate towards each other.

Other studies have found that boys’ interactions are characterized by rough attitudes, aggressiveness and rule-breaking. In contrast, the groups of boys observed by Overå were friendly, inclusive and good-natured. And they talked about their feelings.

“Boys are not aggressive or emotionally incompetent. That is not my experience. In many situations the boys talked openly and thoughtfully about girls they had crushes on, difficulties at home, and anxiety and expectations about the future,” says Overå.

“When one boy opened up, the others tried to support him and shared similar stories about fear or vulnerability.”

Strong and kind

There was a lot of play fighting and other physical tests of strength as well, but this was mainly done at the beginning of the school year, before hierarchies were established.

“The boys organize themselves in a hierarchy with a clear pecking order and role differentiation with regard to leadership. Some would interpret this as a sign of aggression. I perceived it more as a game and a friendly form of contact,” says Overå.

Physical strength, excelling at football and wearing fashionable clothes could win popularity points. But the most important factor for securing a high position in the boys’ hierarchy was being a nice guy – someone who is kind, funny, extroverted and relaxed with a “good personality”.

The importance of hair wax

However, a boy’s position in the hierarchy determines how much latitude each boy has, such as how physically intimate or fashionable he can be.

“The fear of being called ‘gay’ works like kryptonite on the boys’ attempt to construct their masculinity,” explains Overå.

Boys who cared too little about their appearance risked being called childish, boring or a nerd. The ones who cared too much risked being called feminine or gay. Two of the coolest boys wore eyeliner.

“Their masculinity and heterosexuality was not threatened by it,” says Overå.

A less popular boy, however, should not try to do the same. The general rule was that boys do not wear make-up. Their hair, on the other hand, should be styled.

“Boys have fewer cards to play than girls when it comes to aesthetics, so their hair becomes a sacred domain,” says Overå.

In a group interview, the boys talked about a day at school when a cool teacher had let them eat cake during home economics class. “I remember that! It was the day when I didn’t use hair wax!” exclaimed one of the boys. The researcher was taken aback, and the boy explained: He got so much grief from the other boys that he understood he had better not go to school again without wax in his hair.

“It’s not new in itself that boys are concerned about their bodies and appearance. What is new is the extent of their concern. They talk about it a lot. And there is a great deal of unseen work involved,” explains Overå.

Metrosexual role models

A strong, well-defined, athletic body was the ideal for the older boys, who talked incessantly about each other’s bodies in the locker room. One boy had read that football star Cristiano Ronaldo does 3,000 sit-ups every day, so he had started to do sit-ups every evening. He thought his ab-muscles were becoming more visible already and gladly lifted his shirt to demonstrate for the other boys.

“For young people today it’s legitimate to try out new masculine expressions inspired by metrosexual idols like Ronaldo and David Beckham, who have their own lines of hair products and boxer shorts. This is different compared to 20 years ago when the role models were more traditionally masculine,” says Overå.

Effortlessly successful

The boys need to be concerned about their bodies and appearance, but this concern must not show. In the same way, they should do well at school, without giving it prestige or putting work into it.

“It was an ideal to succeed in an effortless kind of way,” says Overå.

“The boys did a great deal of unseen work, both with regard to their appearance and to their schoolwork. Many of them worked a lot at home, but claimed before a test, for example, that they had only studied for five minutes. They had to hide how much it meant to them to do well and look good, and how much effort they put into it.”

The problem with boys

The focus of Overås’ thesis is gender as such, but he has chosen to focus mainly on boys for two reasons: Descriptions of boys’ lives and perspectives are underrepresented in the literature from school research, and today’s society is especially worried about the situation for boys in school and society at large.

The debate about boys as losers in a gender-equal society and the feminized school arose in the 1990s. In the 2000s, stories about boys who did poorly in school dominated the debate.

But the differences in school have more to do with socioeconomic class, particularly when it comes to school performance, according to Overå. The fact that girls perform slightly better than boys in school has been known since measurements began in the 1950s. Concerns about boys arose only after girls started to maintain their advantage at higher educational levels.

Socioeconomic class more significant

“It’s a mistake to let the overall discussion focus on gender when large-scale qualitative and quantitative studies show that socioeconomic class is far more significant than gender with regard to grades in school,” says the researcher.

Overås’ data confirm previous studies that find that girls handle the demands of school better than boys. A few more girls than boys were moved to higher levels in those subjects in which the school offered this.

“But when I controlled for class, it was clearly more significant whether a pupil came from the working class or middle class than if the pupil was a girl or boy,” says Overå.

“It’s problematic to talk about differences in the schools only regarding gender. Just as there are boys who do very well, there are girls who struggle. Using gender as an explanation for this is discriminatory for both sexes.”

Psychological Bond with Superheroes Improves Men's Body Image (and Strength)

This is an interesting finding - but it only occurs for those who feel a parasocial relationship (a one-sided psychological bond) to the particular superhero. If they she a different superhero, especially one who is muscular, they can still feel bad about their own bodies.

The cool thing is that it actually makes men stronger (as measured through a hand-squeeze test) when they see a muscular superhero with whom they feel a parasocial relationship.

Men's body image positively impacted by psychological bond with superheroes
September 17, 2012

(Medical Xpress)—Batman's awesome power may come not only from his ability to defeat the likes of Mr. Freeze and the Joker, but from the fact that his mere presence makes his devoted fans feel strong and physically fit.

So says Ariana Young, University at Buffalo doctoral candidate in psychology and the principle author of a first-of its-kind study on men's relationships with their favorite superheroes.

Young and fellow UB researchers Shira Gabriel, PhD, associate professor of psychology, and Jordan Hollar, an undergraduate psychology major found that if a man has a parasocial relationship (a one-sided psychological bond) with a muscular superhero, it not only protects him from the typically negative effects of exposure to muscular media ideals, but actually makes him physically stronger.

The study, "Batman to the Rescue! The Protective Effects of Parasocial Relationships with Muscular Superheroes on Men's Body Image," is in press for an upcoming issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. It is currently online at the journal's web site.

Young points out that body dissatisfaction is a growing problem among men and suggests that this may be partly caused by hyper-muscular ideals rampant in the media.

"Studies show that exposure to muscular media figures contribute to men's body dissatisfaction," she says. "Men tend to feel bad because, by comparison, their own bodies seem scrawny.

"Although the effects of muscular superheroes on men's body image had not yet been directly examined, it seemed reasonable to assume that superheroes, too, would provoke body dissatisfaction," says Young.

"However, we thought it would also be important to consider men's parasocial relationship status with these superheroes. Many people have parasocial bonds with media figures, either real celebrities or fictional characters, and we know from previous research in our lab that identification with these figures can favorably affect how we feel about ourselves," she says.

"People tend to take on the traits of their favorite media figures," Young says. "That is, a person may come to see himself as being more like a favored media figure following exposure. In this case, we thought men might feel stronger after being exposed to a muscular superhero.

"So we hypothesized that the negative effects of exposure to a muscular superhero might be attenuated, even flipped, if men had a parasocial relationship with that superhero," she says. 

The researchers conducted two versions of the study—a Batman version and a Spider-Man version—to ensure outcomes were not specific to one particular superhero. 

During a pre-testing session, potential participants indicated how much they liked and how familiar they were with Batman and Spiderman (separately). Their responses were then averaged and served as an indicator of their parasocial relationship status with each superhero. Participants with high scores (meaning they had a parasocial bond) and low scores (meaning they did not) for each superhero were recruited for the study. 

Ninety-eight male participants later came in to the lab and viewed a profile of Batman or Spider-Man as part of what they were told was a memory task. The profile included a general biography and a full-body picture of the superhero. The images were manipulated such that some participants saw a muscular version of the superhero and some saw a non-muscular version. 

The participants were then asked to indicate their current satisfaction with their own body parts or functions (muscular strength, physical condition, chest, biceps, etc.). Finally, their physical strength was assessed using a hand-held dynamometer, which, when squeezed provides a digital reading of the maximum achieved grip power in pounds. 

"Consistent with previous research, men exposed to a muscular superhero with whom they did not have a parasocial bond felt worse about their own bodies," Young says. "However, men exposed to a muscular superhero with whom they did have a parasocial bond not only experienced no harmful effects to their body satisfaction, but also displayed greater physical strength," she says. 

Young says, "It would be unfortunate if, as previous research suggests, the thrill of watching a beloved superhero swoop in to save the day inevitably made men and boys feel bad about their own bodies. 

"This study shows that this is not always the case, and suggests that the popularity of superheroes may come in part from men who identify with them, and thus experience the psychological benefits of exposure." 

Journal reference: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 
Provided by University at Buffalo

 
For decades, women have been targeted by the personal products industry with everything from hair removal devices and creams to "odor" removing feminine hygiene products to make up and hair coloring. If you watch the commercials and look at the magazine ads, nearly everything that is natural about being female needs to be prettied up and sanitized. And aside from small enclaves around the world (most noticeably Boulder, Seattle, San Francisco, Flagstaff, and a few East Coast towns with women-only colleges in the U.S.), a LOT of women have bought into this marketing of the shaved, painted, and sanitized woman.

Now men are being targeted - a trend that seemed to begin with the metrosexual phenomenon in the 1990s and 2000s. But as Morgan Spurlock documents (and ridicules) in his new film, Mansome, the trend is also moving into the mainstream of masculine culture. The focus for men seems to be some of the traditionally masculine qualities - strength and muscle (but it often requires shaving one's whole body to highlight the muscle, as in bodybuilding and guido culture), six pack abs (again, super lean and muscular, with a strict attention to diet that used to be something only women worried about), nice hair (well-groomed and god forbid you should go gray or bald), and impeccable clothing (more guys seem to be getting things tailored than in the past), and so on. Those last two are where things cross-over into the realm of the metrosexual, withthe use of personal care products becoming much more acceptable.

My take: I use hair product, shower gel, cologne, go to the gym as often as I can, have six-pack abs, watch what I eat, like to wear nice clothes, and am strong and mildly muscular - but I do not think of myself as metrosexual, nor do I do any of those things because I feel some pressure to conform to an image (and I have examined this, thoroughly, since I do have a vanity part). I do it because it's who I am. If men want to get prettied up, or be rough and bearish, or live somewhere in between, who the hell cares? Whatever makes them happy.

I watch these trends in the media because they say something, no matter how trivial, about the evolution or transformation of masculine ideals in the culture. I think we're seeing some men beginning to take better care of their health and their appearance, but a trip to Walmart or Home Depot will show us just how small a minority of men are doing so at this point.

From the New York Times, an interview with Spurlock about the film.

Morgan Spurlock, Male Grooming and ‘Mansome’

By MEKADO MURPHY

 

 

Morgan Spurlock shaving his handlebar mustache in “Mansome.”

After tackling fanboy culture (“Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope”) and product placement (“Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold”), the documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock has now turned his focus to men’s grooming habits with “Mansome.” The movie, which had its premiere last month at the Tribeca Film Festival, opens in theaters Friday.

In the film, Mr. Spurlock interviews many men, from celebrities like Jason Bateman and Zach Galifianakis, to the award-winning beardsman Jack Passion, in a quest to understand how men’s grooming habits have evolved in the 21st century and how male identity has changed in the process. Mr. Spurlock’s own handlebar facial hair factors into the mix.

 

The beardsman Jack Passion in “Mansome.”

In a recent interview at his SoHo production offices, Mr. Spurlock spoke about the film. Below are edited excerpts from that conversation.

Q. How did you want to structure the film?

 

A. We wanted to use characters as the best place to jump off from, to find people who had interesting and compelling stories. Jack Passion is an amazing character. Here’s a guy who is the European beard champion and the U.S. beard champion. He represents you and the rest of us Americans as the finest in “beard building,” as he calls it. Once I met Jack, I thought this is someone we should use as a model.

We wanted to find the people who represented the fringes of this idea. Only by understanding the extremes of certain people can you start to understand what the middle represents. I find myself more in the middle with the exception of this ridiculous mustache that I’ve been shaving around for eight years.

 

Q. You did a little bit of life imitating doc with your own mustache at the film premiere at Tribeca, correct?

 

 

Mr. Spurlock without his mustache at the Tribeca Film Festival.

 

A. Yes, in the movie, I talk about how I came across Adam Garone, [a co-founder of] Movember, a charity fund-raiser for prostate cancer research where they get guys to grow mustaches. I called him and said I’ve had this mustache for a long time, so we came up with the idea of me shaving off my mustache during Movember to raise money for charity.

And then my little boy, who’s never seen me without a mustache, sees this weird man in his house and kind of loses it.

So for the premiere, I had my mustache, and while the movie showed, I shaved it off. After the movie, everybody’s looking at me like, “You kind of look like somebody I should know.” People couldn’t tell who I was. It was great.

 

Q. How did you determine which celebrities you were going to use?

 

A. Well, first you go to ZZ Top. You have these guys with these iconic rock ‘n’ roll man beards that they’ve had for years. It’s their identity. Then John Waters, with his pencil-thin mustache, was good. Zach Galifianakis is one of those guys who has always made fun of how he’s a bit of a schlub. Yet he’s incredibly successful with this dirty-mountaineer look to him. So I thought he’d be interesting.

 

Q. Beyond facial hair, what were you interested in exploring?

 

A. The film does look at this world of male body dysmorphia, where men are supposed to look and be a certain way. Shawn Daivari is an example of this. As a professional wrestler, there’s a certain way he’s supposed to look, which is completely ripped and cleanshaven without a hair on his body. He has to shave his whole body every single day before he goes to work. He has this mental image of what he has to live up to every single day. So there are some serious questions that are raised and some serious conversations that come up in the middle of a lot of funny parts.

 

Q. What ways have you found that male identity has most changed over the years?

 

A. Men now are made to feel as insecure as we’ve made women feel for decades. Magazines cater to this insecurity. You’re too fat, you’re too ugly. Get that girl! So you think: “I don’t have six-pack abs. What’s wrong with me?” I think that men have lost the confidence of self. We’ve lost this confidence of our own identity.

 

This brief article is from the LA Times, the land of bronze skin and botox - where youth is worshipped almost as much as celebrity.

Is the post-metrosexual manscape landscape the 'mansome era'?

May 20, 2012

When it comes to answering the big questions about masculine identity and the male grooming ritual, Morgan Spurlock's latest movie, "Mansome" may barely scratch the surface (in spa terms that would make it more of an exfoliation than an extraction), but since the topic is being tackled on the silver screen at the same the makers of men's lotions, potions, salves, tonics and shaving implements are seeing increased sales, I decided to have a chat with Spurlock during his recent West Coast press junket. The result appears in Sunday's Image section.

Over the course of the interview, Spurlock shared some of the surprises and regrets from getting the documentary from idea to screen. One high point was finding Ricky Manchanda, a New Yorker who, at first glance, appears to be nothing more than a preening peacock of a narcissist.

"What I love about Ricky’s story is that he's a guy who has dealt with something we’ve all dealt with on some level -- peer pressure and being ridiculed by friends .... [A]nd Ricky’s saying: 'I’m not going to be that guy, I’m going to fit in by society’s standards.' That was a real 'aha' moment for me. "

Although there are a lot of voices (and I mean a lot; the press notes list 28 commentators by name -- from famous comedians to bloggers -- which doesn't include a slew of random men- and women-on-the-street interviews) there was some insight Spurlock wishes he'd been able to include.

"I would have loved more magazine editors and more people like that to chime in on their role in what’s happened," Spurlock said. "But it’s hard to get a lot of people to talk about how they've contributed to it. ... And we tried to get people from the modeling business to talk about it from the male modeling side  and we couldn’t get people to go on camera to talk about that."

Most discussions about male grooming and societal expectations eventually touch on the dreaded M-word -- metrosexual -- and when the topic finally came up Spurlock sounded ready to kick it to the curb once and for all.

"What’s the word for the post post-metrosexual era? I don’t know what it is," Spurlock said. "But I do know that we're beyond metrosexual. That was a term that came out to describe these men -- was almost a slag against them -- because they were engaging in something that had been quintessentially associated with gay culture [and] it was a negative connotation."

"We're at a place where [men taking care of their appearance] is being seen as normal, and it's becoming more accepted in society. So maybe we're living in 'mansome' era."

 

This article comes from Canada.com - Casey Scheibling, an honors sociology student at Concordia University, is looking at how porn usage impacts the rise in men using pec implants, calf implants, and penile enhancement, all of which are "very aligned with hegemonic or hyper masculinity."

For men who watch porn, it must seem that all men are very well-endowed, can jackhammer a woman for hours without orgasm (no worries that the women often seem to be in pain), and then orgasm like a small geyser. Many of the men, especially in gay porn, look like bodybuilders - highly muscled and very lean. None of these depictions are realistic and must make men (often young men) feel very insecure about their own bodies and performance.

Does porn make males insecure about bodies

By Donna Nebenzahl, For Postmedia News | January 30, 2012

Scheibling's research will examine the relationship between habitual or chronic porn consumption and excessive body dissatisfaction, says his adviser Marc Lafrance, because the men featured in heterosexual porn -- the subject of the study -- are buff males who perform on demand in a highly mechanized way.

Photograph by: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

MONTREAL — There's more to pornography than how it sexualizes or demeans women, says Casey Scheibling, an honours sociology student at Concordia University.

"Most of the literature on pornography tends to focus on women, and that leaves out half of the people involved."

How, he wonders, do the portrayals of men in pornography influence body and genital satisfaction among male viewers? “I’m not talking about men’s addiction to pornography,” says Scheibling, 23. “I’m more interested in the studies on how pornography consumers make sense of their own masculinity.”

Scheibling’s research will examine the relationship between habitual or chronic porn consumption and excessive body dissatisfaction, says his adviser Marc Lafrance, because the men featured in heterosexual porn — the subject of the study — are buff males who perform on demand in a highly mechanized way.

“Is this sort of porn consumption among extraordinary numbers of young men creating expectations around their own bodies that are difficult to approximate?”

Part and parcel of the crisis of masculinity is the kind of collective anxiety men are now suffering about their bodies and their sexual potency, says Lafrance, who also teaches a master’s level course titled the Sociology of the Body.

"There's a link to be made between this so-called crisis of masculinity . . . and the extraordinary proliferation of erectile dysfunction products, the rise of body building and cosmetic surgery, the high-energy drinks, and let's throw in for the good measure the boom in grooming products," he says.

"All of these suggest in my view an increased preoccupation with male bodies in which they’re all trying to increase the maleness of the male.

"Pec implants, calf implants, penile enhancement — these are very aligned with that hegemonic or hyper masculinity.

"Just as all those female products speak to women’s insecurity,” Lafrance says, "these are tapping into a growing anxiety around masculinity and an alpha male ideal."

Men's Health - Four for Your Core

The pressure on men to be ripped and have six-pack abs has never been greater. I'll bet that 10 of 12 Men's Health magazine covers list an article on getting ripped abs either through exercises or diet.

However, good fitness does require strong abs, or better yet, a strong core. Whether or not one can show a six-pack of abs has nothing to do with strength and everything to do with bodyfat percentage - and most of us will never need or want to be that lean.

This article from Men's Health is less about having ripped abs, although they mention that you can have that too, and more about building a strong core. In that realm, these are good exercises to add some variety to your core work.

[Personal preference: substitute a BOSU for the kettlebell in #1 - round side down. You get all of the instability with a lot less risk to wrists and shoulders. If you have access to heavy kettlebells, try a one-arm farmer's walk for core strength.]

Four for Your Core

Transform everyday gym equipment into ab-sculpting power tools

By Jill Yaworski, Photo Illustrations by Mitch Mandel

Posted Date: October 5, 2011

Infomercials are right about one thing: Exercise devices can put you on the fast track to a six-pack. But the best ones don't go by names like Ab Rocket or Torso Tiger, and you won't see them on late-night TV. They're already in your gym, says David Jack, general manager of Competitive Athlete Training Zone in Acton, Massachusetts. Add these four to your ab routine to accelerate your gains.

1. Kettlebell

EXERCISE
Kettlebell mountain climber

HOW TO DO IT
Lay a kettlebell flat side down with its handle facing away from you. Place both palms on the round part, and assume a pushup position. Slowly bring one knee as close to your chest as you can. Touch the floor with your toes, and quickly return to pushup position while maintaining good form. Repeat with the other knee. Alternate legs for 30 seconds.

BENEFIT
The instability of the kettlebell forces your abs, lower back, and hips to work harder than they do in a traditional mountain climber.

2. Resistance band

EXERCISE
Anti-rotation band speed fly

HOW TO DO IT
Anchor one end of a resistance band at hip level. Grip the handle with your right hand and cover that hand with your left. Kneel on your right knee (with the anchor point on your right) and press the handle in front of your chest. With your elbow slightly bent, let your right arm open toward the anchor point, and return explosively to the starting position. Do 10 to 12 reps on each side.

BENEFIT
You're not only strengthening your pecs but also carving your abs as they fight to prevent your torso from rotating.

3. Barbell

EXERCISE
Overhead barbell walk

HOW TO DO IT
Grab the bar using an overhand grip that's about twice shoulder width, and raise it directly overhead. (Add weight only when you can maintain proper form.) Keep your arms straight, your body tense, and your head back. Walk forward for 5 to 10 seconds, pause, and then walk backward for 5 to 10 seconds. That's 1 rep. Do 2 sets of 2 reps, resting 60 seconds between sets.

BENEFIT
Balancing the bar targets your shoulders as well as your torso's stabilizing muscles, including hips, obliques, and lower back.

4. Medicine ball

EXERCISE
Windmill slam

HOW TO DO IT
Hold a medicine ball at waist height and assume a staggered stance, your left foot 2 to 3 feet in front of your right, knees slightly bent. In one smooth "windmill" movement, swing the ball counterclockwise, arc it above your head, and slam it to the floor outside your left leg. Then catch the bounce. Do this 10 times, switch legs, and repeat.

BENEFIT
You'll send your calorie furnace into overdrive while chiseling your rectus abdominis—better known as your six-pack.

What men really think about . . . their bodies

It's interesting to me that some of the most serious men's work - including men's studies people - are in Australia, where the men are maybe more traditionally "masculine" than anywhere else on the planet. This podcast is part of a series on what men think about - a nice topic and one we should be doing here in the States.

The guys in this video are brutally honest about their insecurities and anxieties. These are the kinds of discussions we need to have - the Men's Health cover guys are not the average guy any more than the Playboy centerfold is the average woman.

What men really think about . . . their bodies

In the first of a series exploring "What Men Really Think About...", Kim Farrant hosts a panel on how men think and feel about their bodies. With disarming and unusual frankness, a cross-section of adult Australian males (Bobby Morley, John Chaplin-Flemming, Ben Dennis, Dr Randall Farrant and David O'Halloran) speak about perceived social pressures, personal neuroses and other body-image issues they encounter in their lives. Produced by Danielle Karalus and Kim Farrant, Melbourne, May 2011

There will be more of these videos in the coming weeks.

Tags: men, psychology, body image, body, self-esteem, masculinity, What men really think about, Bobby Morley, John Chaplin-Flemming, Ben Dennis, Dr Randall Farrant, David O'Halloran, Kim Farrant, Australia, males

Men Fuel Rebound in Plastic Surgery

Mickey Rourke (I think)

Guys, WTF? Facelifts, moob jobs (reductions), liposuction . . . . Seriously men, it's bad enough that women feel pressured (by men, often enough) into the insanity of plastic surgery, but now we do it too? Sad . . . .

I don't even really see this is an image problem, or a self-esteem issue - to me, it's a health issue. Elective surgery is not something I think I would ever do. My fear of mistakes, infections and so on is strong enough to get my ass into the gym and to eat healthy foods.

Men Fuel Rebound in Plastic Surgery: Sizeable Increases in Facelifts and Other Surgical Procedures for Men

ScienceDaily (Mar. 21, 2011) — Statistics released by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) show that more men are going under the knife. Overall cosmetic plastic surgery procedures in men were up 2 percent in 2010 compared to 2009. However, many male surgical procedures increased significantly. Facelifts for men rose 14 percent in 2010 while male liposuction increased 7 percent.

2010 ASPS statistics show that men underwent more than 1.1 million cosmetic procedures, both minimally-invasive and surgical. The majority of the the Men's Top 10 fastest-growing cosmetic procedures are surgical, which bucks the previous trend of growth in minimally-invasive treatments.

"The growth in cosmetic surgical procedures for men may be a product of our aging baby boomers who are now ready to have plastic surgery," said ASPS President Phillip Haeck, MD. "Minimally-invasive procedures such as Botox® and soft tissue fillers work to a point. However, as you age and gravity takes over, surgical procedures that lift the skin are necessary in order to show significant improvement."

Men's Top Ten: Fastest-Growing Male Cosmetic Procedures (by percentage increase)

The list comprises the fastest-growing surgical and minimally-invasive procedures from 2009 to 2010. Criteria for inclusion: Procedure performed on at least 1,000 men in 2010. (Surgical procedures are listed in bold).

1. Facelift -- 14% Increase
2. Ear Surgery (Otoplasty) -- 11% Increase
3. Soft Tissue Fillers -- 10% Increase
4. Botulinum Toxin Type A -- 9% Increase
5. Liposuction -- 7% Increase
6. Breast Reduction in Men -- 6% Increase
7. Eyelid Surgery -- 4% Increase
8. Dermabrasion -- 4% Increase
9. Laser Hair Removal -- 4% Increase
10. Laser Treatment of Leg Veins -- 4% Increase

Plastic surgeons say that another trend they see in male plastic surgery is the type of patient seeking their services.

"Typically people think of celebrities and high profile men going under the knife," said Stephen Baker, MD, an ASPS Member Surgeon based in Washington DC. "And while that may be true, the typical male cosmetic surgery patient that I see is an average guy who wants to look as good as he feels. Most of my patients are 'men's men,' the kind of guy you might not think would have plastic surgery."

Dr. Baker said that baby boomers who are now reaching retirement age are the new face of the male plastic surgery trend. "They want to look good. So when they have the financial means to do it, they are ready to do it now," said Dr. Baker.

In fact, one of Dr. Baker's patients is an "average Joe" named Joe Marek. Joe recently underwent a facelift and eyelid surgery. The 57-year old said, "I didn't feel that old. I felt young. I was working out. I was pretty active and I wanted to look like I felt inside."

Joe also said his 52-year-old girlfriend supported his decision to have plastic surgery.

Men's Top Ten: Most Popular Male Cosmetic Procedures (by volume)

This list comprises the top five surgical and top five minimally-invasive procedures by volume in 2010:

2010 Top Five Male Cosmetic Surgical Procedures

1. Nose Reshaping (64,000)
2. Eyelid Surgery (31,000)
3. Liposuction (24,000)
4. Breast Reduction in Men (18,000)
5. Hair Transplantation (13,000)

2010 Top Five Male Cosmetic Minimally-Invasive Procedures

1. Botulinum Toxin Type A (337,000)
2. Laser Hair Removal (165,000)
3. Microdermabrasion (158,000)
4. Chemical Peel (90,000)
5. Soft Tissue Fillers (78,000)

Source:
American Society of Plastic Surgeons (2011, March 21). Men fuel rebound in plastic surgery: Sizeable increases in facelifts and other surgical procedures for men. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 24, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2011/03/110321093646.htm

Tags: Men, Rebound, Plastic Surgery, Sizeable Increases, Facelifts, Surgical Procedures, liposuction, botox, cosmetic surgery, moob jobs, breast reductions, American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Science Daily, men, body image, plastic surgery, masculinity, ScienceDaily (Mar. 21, 2011) — Statistics released by the Americ

Louis Theroux: Bodybuilding

Ronnie Coleman - 8 times Mr. Olympia

As a follow-up to yesterday's post on the male body (repulsive or beautiful), here is one subculture where the male body is worshiped, but not in a healthy way (in my opinion). Bodybuilding seeks to take the male form to its idealized extremes - how big can a man become, using any means necessary?

At the end, he also visits with female bodybuilders, who are extremely masculine (due to the steroids). This is a fascinating topic in its own way, but not for this discussion.

Bodybuilding - at least in those men I know who do it, and as an outsider watching the spectacle - seems to represent both an admiration for the idealized male form and a strange form of body image disorder. Most of the guys who are serious about bodybuilding are never satisfied with how they look (they are not big enough, or a muscle group is not quite right, or they want better symmetry, there is always something that needs to be bigger or better) - and many of the men I know at the gym have some self-esteem issues (physical size becomes a compensation for a perceived weakness or missing sense of worth, a kind of literal "body armoring" in the Reichian sense).

When I was in high school, back in the early 1980s, I saw in bodybuilders the musculature and (perceived) strength of some of the comic book superheroes I grew up with - Superman, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, and even Captain America (who became the perfect specimen of human strength after being given an injection by the government, oddly similar to taking anabolic steroids).

Since then I have had some sense that bodybuilders seek that strength and size as a way to embody and possess some sense of the hero aura, the need to be a "super" something - which is clearly an unconscious drive.

Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends: Bodybuilding

Louis travels to California, home of the body beautiful, to see if he can join the world of extreme body building.

After working out with Guy Grundy, a leading amateur, he soon realizes he is not cut out to be a muscle man and goes off in search of another role in the bodybuilding world.

Theroux travels to Charles Peeple’s farm in Connecticut, where Peeple has transformed his farm into a playboy mansion for female body builders. While here, Theroux gets a part in a female muscle film being made at the farm.

If you are interested in learning more about the strange world of bodybuilding (which I think reveals a lot of how the sense of masculinity can be interpreted and distorted) here are a few resources that might be useful.

Pumping Iron (featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger)
Bigger, Faster, Stronger (on steroids and masculinity)

There is also an excellent book on this topic:
The Adonis Complex: How to Identify, Treat and Prevent Body Obsession in Men and Boys, by Harrison G. Pope, Katharine A. Phillips, and Roberto Olivardia

Tags: men, masculinity, body image, bodybuilding, muscle, Louis Theroux, Strange Weekends, Guy Grundy, steroids, superheroes, body dysmorphic disorder, Ronnie Coleman

Lawrence Barraclough - One Man's Relationship with His Penis [NSFW]

How is that for a title sure to bring a lot of people here who have NO interest in gender and masculinity? Maybe if you found this blog for some other reason, you'll have a read and hang around a bit.

Male concern with penis size is so universal that it is the subject of jokes and, more importantly, the subject of shame. A lot of guys who are perfectly normal in penis size feel ashamed of what we tend to refer to as their "manhood."

And that is certainly a part of the problem - men can be so identified with penis size that not being "hung like a horse" is seen as a sign that he lacks virility or manliness. There seems to be some assumption (likely from watching porn) that the average male penis is at least 7 inches long erect. Not so much. According to Wikipedia:

Results vary, with studies that rely on self-measurement reporting a significantly higher average than those with staff measuring, but a mean erect human penis is approximately 12.9–15.0 cm (5.1–5.9 in) in length. Flaccid penis length is a poor estimate of erect length.

In the interest of full disclosure, I worried about this issue when I was a young man. My best friend in middle school/high school was well-hung (we all played sports growing up, so these things are obvious), and in comparison I thought that I must be abnormal. As I grew up, and had wonderful, enthusiastic sex with my various partners, I stopped worrying about it.

Perhaps all adolescent boys worry about this as they become more socially and sexually aware. That's my guess . . . but as the film points out, men can talk about almost everything, but NOT their penises.

Lawrence Barraclough - My Penis and I

This is a film I made (The Author) in 2005 for the BBC. “I guess this thing is about having a small dick, and it’s horrible saying that because it’s true…. And why is it such a problem? This is what this film is about”. My Penis and I follows my two-year journey to discover if size matters. It charts the effect my penis has had on my life, my family and my relationship with my girlfriend Nicola. The film is now out of BBC licensing and I am free to distribute it non-commercially.

My Penis and I from Lawrence Barraclough on Vimeo.

Tags: Lawrence Barraclough, My Penis and I, BBC, men, manhood, penis, shame, identity, well hung, masculinity, knob, cock, body image, film, documentary, bigger is better, size matters, penis size

Self-Made Men - FTM Identity and the Body

Henry Rubin's book, Self Made Men, is an excellent overview of the perspective and experience of Transmen - based on his qualitative interviews and an excellent background history of how our understanding of the transgender/transsexual person.

These are some long excerpts from a single chapter on the body and how it can feel completely alien to one's sense of identity.

This poses some serious issues to concepts of embodied consciousness (here, embodied, literally "in the body," includes the brain) - it is assumed by many philosophers and neuroscientists in the "embodiment" camp that much of who and what we understand ourselves to be is shaped by our embodied experience. The experience of transgendered people counters this position bhy demonstrating that it is entirely possible to have a sense of self and identity that is exactly opposite of the body in which one is born.

So unless we one day find a genetic component to identity, separate from body, we have to accept one of two options: (1) transgenderism is a mental illness of some type (which I do NOT believe is true), or (2) our current models of embodiment and socially constructed gender identity are inadequate or incomplete.

There is still so much we do not understand about who we are as human beings - but a book like this goes a long way toward helping us sort out parts of the mystery.

Self Made Men: Identity, Embodiment, and Recognition Among Transsexual Men, by Henry Rubin.

Chapter 3: Betrayed by Bodies

• Ed: There's the difference—there's tons of butch dykes who could so far tell you almost the exact same story. I finally decided what it is. Its that butch dykes are comfortable enough with female parts and FTMs cannot have that. They would rather die or do something drastic or get help.

In these comments, Ed makes a distinction between himself and butch women based on the specific discomfort he experiences with his female body. Like other FTMs in this study, Ed explains that there are real and empirical differences between FTMs and lesbians—these differences are historically constant and positive. From their perspective, the experiences of comfort or discomfort with one's body, especially one's gendered parts, differentiate these identities.

Ed assumes that even very butch women are more comfortable in their bodies than he is in his. Some butches, especially those who came out before the lesbian-feminist revolution, contest this assumption. Anthropologists like Gayle Rubin and Esther Newton suggest that butches share many predilections and dilemmas with FTMs, including a preference for male names, pronouns, and clothes including undergarments; great discomfort with their bodies; and related difficulties
in their sexual lives.' These scholars theorize a continuum between FTMs and butches. In this usage, "butch" is a noun.

Against this continuum thesis, most of the FTMs in this study see themselves as distinctly different from butches. They signify this by calling lesbians "butch women." In their lexicon, "butch" is an adjective that modifies the noun "woman." Ed hesitates when telling me that he "finally decided what it is" that distinguishes him from butch women. It has taken him some time to come up with something that he feels answers the question with certainty. Ed's criterion is the one most FTMs in this study prefer: the tension he felt between his body image and his material body. His male body image came into conflict with his anatomy and with how others interacted with him It is not enough for him to pass as a man in the world or be able to do the things that men do. Ed locates the difference between himself and other females, especially butch women, in his body.

FTM difference claims are unsurprising if we consider them in light of the history of chapters one and two. By articulating a difference between themselves and lesbians, these FTMs are drawing on a discourse that has successfully obtained desired medical procedures in the past. FTMs today make these same claims though it is less difficult to convince physicians to treat them. These claims about their bodies are, therefore, not just means for dealing with physicians; they also provide meaning to their enigmatic lives. Each FTM in this study felt a need to construct a biography that legitimates his seemingly strange life choice. That choice has to make sense to him as the only rational thing to do in such circumstances.

The history of becoming treatable bodies is echoed in the words of the FTMs who speak here about their bodies during childhood and adolescence. Their comments reveal their experiences of betrayal by their bodies. They also demonstrate how their perception of difference from lesbian women establishes them as treatable subjects. FTMs frame adolescence as a persistent conflict between their male body images and their feminizing material bodies. This tension between body image and material body points to the general importance of bodies to a sense of self.

FTMs describe adolescence as an extraordinarily difficult time of life when they risked and often lost their senses of themselves. They divide their lives into two halves: a "before" and "after" puberty. After puberty, as the process of sexual development took over their bodies, they felt simultaneously disembodied and acutely aware of their bodies. They become, in the words of one FTM, "social zeros."

In adolescence, these men used their experiences of disembodied awareness to reinforce their sense of difference from others with female bodies. This difference helped them consolidate their identities as (transsexual) men. They claim that their experiences of puberty were uniquely different, either quantitatively more painful or qualitatively different in kind, than that of most other adolescents. By positing that difference in their changing bodies, they provide a logical reason for modifying those bodies.

Although some may suggest that such difference claims are not empirically valid and that all teens experience this kind of distress, the experience and the claims of such difference are what is important here. Whether this difference can be proven empirically is less important in this context. The experience of difference is one way that these men determined the direction, and interpret the meaning, of their lives. By anchoring this difference in their bodies, as Ed does in the quote that opened this chapter, they could legitimate their transitions from female to male.

Body and Self

Jake: After I got [breasts], and in order to fight off the glances of the boys, I made myself as invisible as I could, which is why I never made friends in school. I totally became a nothing almost. It really angered me if the boys gave attention to me because I know they weren't giving it to me.

Henry: What were they giving it to?

Jake: The breasts. [laughs] Or some illusion or this new outfit. A physical outfit. This thing that glued on me. It was no longer me the way I liked it and it's not the way I wanted it.

All of the confusion, fear, and wonderment of puberty was complicated for Jake, as it was for other FTMs, by the secret knowledge that he was not a girl or a woman Jake, a gay man who has always been attracted to males, characterized his adolescence as lonely, mostly due to his lack of place within the gendered world of junior high and high school. He became a "nothing." Jake looks back on the new sexual attention he received from his pals with frustration, not pleasure, because the boys no longer recognized him as one of them. As his body developed the cultural signs of womanhood, he became increasingly aware that he identified as a boy on the verge of manhood. He was not the only female-bodied person to grow uncomfortable with the sexual attention given to breasts, but Jake found this attention difficult to receive because it meant that he was no longer able to socialize with others on his own terms. The problem, he says, was not exactly that he was treated as a sex object by his neighborhood chums. Instead, it was his sense of complete misrecognition based on physical cues that are culturally identified with womanhood.

For Jake and for most of the guys in this study, puberty marked the first significant "before" and "after" of their young lives. Before puberty, while their bodies still cooperated with their identities, they were able to convince themselves and others that they were, or at least were like, boys. As their bodies began to look significantly different from other boys, they had more and more difficulty being recognized for their true male selves. It became increasingly difficult to sustain a male identity as their bodies began to resemble the bodies of adult women. Breasts made it impossible to deny that they were female-bodied.

Before puberty, when their bodies were unencumbered with breasts, they were able to ignore, hide, or minimize the few physical signs, like genitalia, that marked them as female. Relative to adolescent bodies, the bodies of children are less identifiably sexed. Girls' and boys' bodies are more similar than the pubescent or fully developed bodies of women and men. This is especially true with regard to breasts, which are the most visibly gendered features of the mature human body. This relative lack of sex markings on the bodies of children made it possible for the FTMs to see themselves as boys.

Many of the participants say that before puberty they simply knew that they were boys. Others remember only a persistent sense of difference that had no name. While the former group was clearly beyond the borders of normal female-bodied subjectivity, this latter group remained just on the border of the socially prescribed roles for girls in Western culture. As youths, many of them inhabited the ambivalent position of tomboys? Texas Tomboy appropriated that moniker when he got older, but it had always been a part of who he was.

I liked being referred to as a tomboy growing up. But I always played with the boys and rode BMX and built ramps and I was the only girl in my neighborhood that liked to play like that. I remember wishing I could wear boy's underwear. I would be really persistent. I don't know what my arguments at seven years old were, but I got my way.

Texas is still persistent. He is a video artist, a part-time hustler, and a short guy who "always exceeded people's expectations ... with strength and intelligence." Texas's attitude represents one FTM's response to being called a tomboy. For him and those who responded similarly to the term, "tomboy" was an adequate label for who they were and what they liked to do in their childhood. For a short time, it gave them a place in the social order. They were different from most girls, but their sense of that difference could be explained in the deviant identity of the tomboy.

The tomboy identity comes with an implicit normative expectations that the child will grow out of it. Tomboys who do not grow out of their tomboy preferences are stigmatized. Many female-bodied individuals do grow out of their tomboy stages and become unproblematically identified as feminine women. In addition, women athletes are more acceptable today, so even very athletic females are tolerated. Other tomboys grow up to identify as gay women or lesbians. Some FTMs called themselves tomboys until it became apparent that they were expected to grow out of it.

Other men in this study immediately grasped the normative assumptions behind the minimal tolerance granted to tomboys, knew that their experiences were more than a phase, and felt patronized by the tomboy label. They understood that a tomboy is a girl who is like a boy, whereas they knew themselves to be boys. Jack and Wolfie both express their dissatisfaction with the tomboy label. They each feel that the tomboy label undermined their sense of difference from girls and trivialized their sense of themselves.

Jack: I wasn't a tomboy. I was a boy. I would rather just be called a girl than to be called a tomboy. Because that's totally dismissing. That's acknowledging what I'm doing, but saying it's a phase and I'm going to grow out of it.

Wolfie: I was very conscious of patronizing attitudes towards children and that was one part of it. A tomboy is like a "boyette."

These men were more isolated almost from the beginning of their lives. Their way of being in the world was completely unrecognizable to others. They resisted the tomboy label because they did not want to be mistaken for girls, but by refusing this label, they completely cut themselves off from the social order.

The non-tomboy FTMs classify FTM tomboys as "secondary transsexuals," whereas they see themselves as "primary transsexuals." For this group, the early recognition that they were not girls of any sort is an unequivocal sign of transsexual identification. (Likewise, the FTMs who never had lesbian careers think of themselves as "primary" and those with lesbian careers as "secondary" transsexuals.) The nontomboys express an absolute discomfort with their female bodies. The tomboys struggle longer to become certain that they are men. Another small group in this study was not tomboy-identified and was more comfortable doing activities that the culture associates with girls, such as doll play and house play. Looking back, these men identify with other "sissy boys" and feel sure that many of their childhood and adolescent boyfriends and pals turned out to be gay men like themselves.

Under the cover of heterosexual normativity, their behavior as "sissy boys" looked like normal femininity to others. This "normal" female behavior did not mean, however, that they were girls, at least not in their own minds. They report that they felt like they were boys growing up, but they were not interested in culturally hegemonic activities of "normal" boys.

Before puberty, the guys had disregarded or actively ignored what few markings indicated the sex of their bodies and identified themselves in one of three ways: (1) they were boys (with bodies that approximated the bodies of other boys) who liked to do typically boy activities, (2) they were tomboys who felt a distinct, yet not quite definable, difference from others with female bodies, or (3) they were boys who, because of their preference for activities associated with girls, evoked little suspicion from others although they knew themselves to be different from girls. The first group was more stigmatized than the other two and suffered deeper social consequences for their refusal to conform to the identities their bodies were assigning them. The second group had a temporary place in the cultural landscape of childhood, but it was a place that eventually evaporated as they matured. Finally, a twist of cultural logic gave the men in the third group a hiding place that aroused few suspicions, but made their path after puberty particularly misunderstood by others—if "she" liked doing "girly" activities and preferred men as sexual partners, why change "her" sex?

Once their bodies developed female features, all of them were forced to realize that they were unlike the boys they had considered their natural cohorts. The bodies they inhabited disfigured their essential male selves.' They were faced with a choice of maintaining their male identities at great risk of social stigma or "going underground" and playing the role dictated by their female bodies. After puberty, the social difficulties they had experienced increased exponentially as their bodies changed from relatively ungendered and asexual into female bodies. Three things—menarche, breast development, and hair growth—made them physically uncomfortable and socially alienated.

For most - if not all - of these men, the onset on menses (menarche) was one of the most disturbing and traumatic experiences of their young lives. Their once simple and mostly androgynous bodies (of which they experienced very limited awareness) suddenly betrayed them and revealed its dissonance with who they experienced as their self.

Often for the first time, they knew without doubt (and this generally coincides with the emergence of breasts) that they had the wrong body - that they were boys in a girl's body and it felt horribly wrong.

Menarche

Most female-bodied people can point to the onset of menses as a physical threshold that marks one as a grown woman. The capacity to fulfill the childbearing role remains the physical and hegemonic criterion for adult womanhood. For FTMs like Ed, this benchmark of adult female status was greeted with gritted teeth.

I remember the next day going to school and telling someone and this girl was like, "Isn't it great?" and I'm worried about it and I felt very ashamed that I was not happy at all.

Ed wants to distinguish himself from the typical transsexual portrayed on television talk shows, describing himself as "any other long-haired, some facial hair, black T-shirt guy." In the story that he tells of his first menstruation, he emphasizes the difference between his female friend's response and his own. This difference is one piece of evidence that Ed assembles to legitimate his male identity.

Shadow was born in South Dakota, which is the home of the Santee Sioux and the Lakota Sioux Native American tribes. He was given his name in a ritual by a Native American man, an older friend, because it captured the sense that he was a part of both the light and the dark. As he grew up and assumed this name, he began to frame his shadowy existence as a conflict between his body image and his material body.

My belief about my process growing up is that what I was going through during puberty was estrogen poisoning. I will swear by that now that I've started the testosterone. The way I functioned in life was taken from a point of anger. In my early twenties the violent rages were frequent. I'd say like once a month. Imagine that. [laughs]

This is an emphatic statement of the difference between a young girl who is approaching maturity with ordinary discomfort and a transsexual man as he endures his menstrual cycle.

Like several of the guys in this study, Shadow ties his body alienation to his angry and violent youth. For him, the body became his "first clue" in his search for a way to make sense of his dilemma Most of the other men understand this kind of anger as a social reaction to a difficult situation, but Shadow believes that estrogen poisoning caused his violent outbursts. Shadow's story of estrogen poisoning counters to the hegemonic cultural belief that testosterone is the likeliest cause of male rage. He does not claim that estrogens, in and of themselves, are poisonous. Rather, he explains his rage as an incompatibility between his body image and his female endocrinology. Shadow recalls visiting doctors and becoming frustrated with their inability to fix the problem.

Going to different doctors and [hearing], "Sorry dear, you're a healthy, young female. Just growing up. This'll pass. It's just what women have to go through." Bullshit! I don't care what you say, this is not normal. Then my other female friends are going through this. I knew there was something different going on.

Like the others, Shadow also used the experiences of the girls around him to sharpen his own self-understanding. These guys went through the normal body changes that are part of female adolescence.(4) However, they insist that their responses went far beyond ordinary teenage angst from the rapid and uncontrollable physical changes Texas describes it as "a tragedy." James recalls becoming embarrassed of the body he had previously loved because "it could do great things." Francis remembers a loss of self-confidence, crying a lot, and becoming acutely self-conscious. Dani calls it "a shocking experience ... mind-boggling." For many of the FTMs in this study, the experience of starting to menstruate brought on intense shame and embarrassment. Several of them, like Julian, say that their shame resulted in an extended silence that isolated them.

It felt like something so private and so humiliating and so shameful and I already was very private and secretive. Not for a second did it occur to me to go tell the gym teacher, certainly not my mother, certainly not a peer ... I don't even know if I could've said the word at that time. I don't know if I could've even said "period."

Not telling anyone about their first periods and not using sex-specific language to refer to themselves were last-ditch attempts to maintain their bodies as they were "before." By choosing to conceal the start of menses, these female-bodied people willfully refused to situate themselves linguistically as women. Partly as a reaction of disgust and shame, partly as a strategy of resignifying the material body, these men took care not to acknowledge their material bodies.

Their unwillingness to use language that refers to female bodies and female processes demonstrates the extent of their discomfort. One important strategy they deploy for preserving their sense of self is the use of euphemistic and indeterminate language to specify body parts that are abhorrent to them. They almost always use articles, rather than possessive pronouns, to refer to their female body parts. These body parts have become independent agents acting in defiance of the disembodied self. Such threats are linguistically neutralized and effaced via grammar.

There are many more stories in the book about how "The initial arrival of that "dreaded visitor" made other guys aware, sometimes for the first time in their lives, that they were not the boys they thought they were" (p. 102). The experience was sometimes overwhelming:

If menstruation stands out as the mark of womanhood, then it comes as no surprise that these men regarded it with suspicion, hostility, anxiety, and frustration. Some stubbornly refused to allow the material body to define them. For many others, this foreign body convinced them to try to live for a time as women. Those who attempted to do so claim that they were unable to perform femininity adequately and suffered through long periods of depression. Some report an inability to recall whole segments of their lives, suggesting that they withdrew from the world in order to preserve their identities. Several say that they chose to isolate themselves from others as a way of asserting themselves and preventing others from treating them in ways that offended their sense of self.

The arrival of breasts, being a visible marker of their alien bodies, posed its own set of difficulties, shame, and fear - some refer to their "treacherous bodies."

Breasts

James: I was embarrassed by my breasts. I tried to cover them up a lot. My posture was bad as a result. It was just difficult sometimes to acknowledge my body.

A writer and an executive, James tells me that he transitioned so that he could finally grow up. James's anguish came from the difficulty he had seeing himself in a body with breasts. Some FTMs on the brink of transition prioritize their breasts as the most important aspect of their appearance that they would change The chest is the body part most likely to block them from living full lives. It inhibits them from living full-time as men and causes the most discomfort when they look in the mirror Some start binding breasts from their first appearance and others take up the practice as they age and become more distraught. The men bind the breasts down using everything from control-top nylons with the legs cut out to ace bandages, even duct tape and specially made jerseys. A few choose not to bind because it is too ungainly or too hard to breathe. Another strategy for minimizing the conflict between the body image and the material body is to wear two or more shirts, even on the hottest of days.

By some accounts, breast size could be a relevant factor in determining who can live with their female parts and who cannot. Others said that site made little difference to them. The simple fact of the existence of the breasts was unbearable to most of the men in this study. During adolescence, Texas recalls, he had such a strong antipathy to the mere idea of the breasts that he believes he influenced his development.

My mom told me because she had really huge breasts in high school that I would, too. I really feel like I willed them away. I really didn't want that. I don't know, it was really hard. I really didn't like going through puberty at all. [close to tears]

Others, like Francis, who never developed or who developed later, report wanting breasts and being envious of the larger girls around them. Their typical explanation for this contradictory desire was a wish to be "normal." Having breasts would confirm their femaleness and magically eliminate those "abnormal" thoughts about being a guy. These guys seem to feel that their wishes backfired, and at least one man suggests that all that wishing got stored up in his body, eventually producing large breasts. These wishful refusals provided the strength to sustain a transsexual man's sense of his essential self while his body was betraying him As with menstruation, the FTMs felt that their responses to the development of breasts were anomalous compared to the experiences of the young women who were assumed to be their cohorts.

This perceived difference contributed to their isolation. Jack recalls the feeling of not being accepted for who he was.

They loved to have someone to pick on and I happened to be that person. Thank God for my mother. Every once in awhile I'd go, "I just don't want to go to school today." "Okay." It was so horrible. You act like a boy, you isolate yourself from the whole world. Boys don't accept you and girls don't accept you. They'd often walk by in theirgroups and yell stuff. A lot of things were, "You're so ugly" and being picked last at gym. Or nobody would call me. That's just the worst feeling in the whole world.

By falling in line, these guys could reduce the stigma that they faced, though at a huge cost to their subjective sense of self. Wolfie, like many in this study, expresses the feeling that he was faced with a choice between staying committed to his body image and subjectivity but being alone, or capitulating to social pressures and the materialist compulsion to become the woman that his body dictated he should be.

Either you have a chance at a relationship with somebody and go along with whatever the prevailing dress and behavioral ideal is or you don't. Sort of a choice between being uncomfortable in yourself or having other people make you feel uncomfortable.

Either way, they feel that adolescence brought on these choices because of the changes in their material bodies that failed to represent their subjectivity adequately.

Several men tell stories that narrate their resistance to their treacherous bodies or the social conventions associated with those bodies. John recalls:

My mom went into the section, I kept wandering off. She kept dragging me back there. The saleslady comes up and she's like, "Raise your arms up." I said "no" three times; finally I did 'cause I decided I'd let mom buy it and I'd never wear it. I actually wore it to school the day of the test and watched all the other girls take their shirts off and took a good look [laughs] and then refused. I never got the scoliosis test. I got in trouble. That's the only time that thing ever touched my body. Ever.

John refuses even now to concede that he went into a lingerie department. He will say "the section," but a heterosexual man in his social location would not say he had been in a store looking at women's underwear with his mother. He refused the saleswoman's attempts to put the garment on his body three times. Conceding to take it home was a passive move that allowed him to defer wearing it. The single time that he wore a bra became an adolescent locker-room escapade, a covert kind of panty-raid that allowed John to exercise his heterosexual, masculine desires for the girls in his cohort. Instead of a story of joy at this event, or even a certain modest embarrassment that a non-transsexual child might express, John's tells of maintaining his male gender identity despite outside attempts to discipline his body. In fact, the heterosexual masculinity of this story helps him to consolidate his gender identity.

Here is one final passage from what was one of the most illuminating chapters in the book. So much or our sense of identity is embodied - when the body does not match our perception of who we are, the psychological dissonance can be frustrating, uncomfortable, and cause terrible suffering.

These experiences confirm the idea that we have a body image, an embodied sense of our selves that may not coincide with the material body itself. "Agnosia" is the term used by phenomenologist Merleau-Ponty to designate the condition of a reverse "phantom limb." Agnosia is "the nonrecognition of a body part that should occupy a position within the body image" (Grosz 1994, 89). FTMs become disembodied selves who refuse to recognize their breasts. Transsexual men perpetually monitor their breasts because their flesh does not coincide with their body image Agnosia, in this sense, is an assertion of a self rather than a delusional condition.

After having had their chests reconstructed, many of the guys report that they could not remember what their bodies looked or felt like before the procedure. They say that this effect occurs within weeks of the surgery. This observation shows that their bodies now conform to their body image and their sense of self.' No longer agnosic, FTMs in this study feel as if they are now "tuned into one station." The alignment of body image and material body restores, to some degree, the carefree embodiment that characterized their youth.

A few of the guys noted that their disembodied awareness shifted after chest reconstruction to other, less obviously gendered body parts like hips and buttocks, as they began to be able to inhabit the upper halves of their bodies. Some report an increased desire for penis reconstruction after their chest surgeries, or increased frustration with the limitations of phalloplasty and other surgeries for penis reconstruction. These desires and frustrations indicate that the physical body remains, to some degree, out of sync with the body image and that a disembodied awareness may continue to structure their lives.

I highly recommend this book.

Tags: transgender, transsexual, men, masculinities, body image, bodies, psychology, Self Made Men, Identity, Embodiment, Recognition, Transsexual Men, Henry Rubin, FTM, transmen, betrayed by bodies