Men Must Be Beautiful, but Not Too Beautiful

Discovery News ran this story the other day on the need/desire in young men to look good, but not so good that they might be considered gay or effeminate. That is a tough double bind - one of many that young men must deal with.

Big Think ran a little preview on this story that looked at it in terms of how men are in a double-bind about appearance.

Men Must Be Beautiful, but Not Too Beautiful

Big Think Editors on October 1, 2011

What's the Latest Development?

Society's expectations of beauty do not affect women alone. Recent research indicates that men, too, perceive their body in light of what the media, their male peers and opposite sex deem masculine. "After conducting interviews, observations and focus groups, Concordia University researchers concluded that boys possess a 'double-bind masculinity,' in which they care about their appearance, but not in ways that make them look vain or uncool." Researchers believe this outlook takes root in males during adolescence or even in childhood. 

What's the Big Idea?

Men have a difficult role to fill: Society expects them to meet normative standards of beauty but also to be practical enough to overcome those expectations. "Unlike girls and women, boys and men are pulled in two separate directions: being healthy, attractive and masculine, and the need to transcend their bodies for a more rational, functional outlook in life." While women are seldom judged for caring about their looks, it is a common reaction against men who appear vain. Men must possess beauty and social skills to fulfill their masculine role. 

Here is the original article from Discovery News.

BOYS WANT TO LOOK, BUT NOT TOO GOOD

Analysis by Marianne English Fri Sep 30, 2011

Images of tone, skinny bodies and ideal beauty stare us down everywhere -- from web sites to TV shows, in magazines and advertisements. The concerns about these pressures usually focus on how girls and women react to them.

But some qualitative research tackles the same problem in boys and men, with interesting results.

Moss Norman of Concordia University in Canada looked at how teen boys perceived their bodies in light of what media outlets, their male peers and the opposite sex deemed masculine. After conducting interviews, observations and focus groups, Norman concludes that boys possess a "double-bind masculinity," in which they care about their appearance, but not in ways that make them look vain or uncool. The idea isn't new, but researchers are curious to see when this outlook takes root in males. So far, it could begin in early adolescence or even during childhood.

Essentially, double-bind thinking is common in boys between the ages of 13 and 15. Participants, from two white and black communities in Canada, note that it would "be nice" to have a muscular body similar to what's deemed desirable through media, but it's not a big deal if they don't have it.

Unlike girls and women, boys and men are pulled in two separate directions: being healthy, attractive and masculine, and the need to transcend their bodies for a more rational, functional outlook in life. True, women can feel tugged by conflicting responsibilities and body image issues, too, but they aren't generally looked down upon for caring about their appearance -- something that seems to be the case among boys and men. In some instances, participants describe such "vanity" as limited to the realm of "girls" and "gay men," the author writes.

Instead, a sense of what they perceived as "normal" drove the teens' concepts of masculinity. Staying in shape was a personal responsibility, not necessarily an effort to look better. Boys not concerned with their appearance said they don't need to look good, but rather need to have "game," or the smooth skills, to draw interest from girls. Surprisingly, most boys didn't apply the same flexibility to girls their same age. An unattractive girl couldn't get attention from boys with social skills alone. In other words, her appearance had to back it up, which wasn't true for boys, in their opinion.

Perhaps boys' need to separate themselves from girls -- as less vain, more self-driven and rational -- underlies some of the sexist thinking in youth today, the paper suggests.

"They [boys] are simultaneously compelled to both achieve culturally privileged male bodies at the same time they are interpellated to maintain a function, aloof and distanced relationship with their bodies," Norman writes in summary. Ultimately, media messages appear to shape boys sense of what's normal, but pursuing them directly is looked down on and may challenge their sexuality in the eyes of their peers.

Other research touches on how putting forth uniform images of masculinity (men being strong and dominant) may promote aggression, as men perform the vast majority of violence in movies and TV.