The masculine beauty ideal is a set of cultural beauty standards for men which change based on the historical era and the geographic region.[1] These standards are ingrained in men from a young age to increase their perceived physical attractiveness.[2]
Masculine beauty ideals are mainly rooted in heteronormative beliefs about hypermasculinity, but they heavily influence men of all sexual orientations and gender identities.[3] The masculine beauty ideal traits include but are not limited to: male body shape, figure, beefcake, height, skin tones, body weight, muscle mass, male breast size, masculine hip size, physical fitness, hair and genital size.[4] Men oftentimes feel social pressure to conform to these standards in order to feel desirable, and thus elect to alter their bodies through processes such as extreme dieting, bodybuilding, male breast muscle enlargement, male buttock enlargement, radical fitness regimens, skin whitening, tanning, genital enlargement, and other bodily surgical modifications.[5][6][7]
Because masculine beauty standards are subjective, they change significantly based on location. A professor of anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, Alexander Edmonds, states that in Western Europe and other colonial societies (Australia, and North and South America), the legacies of slavery and colonialism have resulted in images of beautiful men being "very white."[8]
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Main article: Sexual dimorphism |
Standards of beauty vary based on culture and location. While Western beauty standards emphasize muscled physiques, this is not the case everywhere.[9] In South Korea and other parts of East Asia, the rise of androgynous K-Pop bands have led to slim boyish bodies, vibrant hair, and make-up being more sought-after ideals of masculine beauty.[8]
Beauty standards have evolved over time, changing based on various factors. Youth was seen as beautiful in places such as Ancient Egypt with art as an example of this.[1] Art in general is a way to gain insight into the beauty standards of the time. Egyptian art pieces showed youthful figures in an idealized form. Greek and Roman sculptures continued this theme of idealism but grew to represent beauty through muscles and intellect.
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See also: Bodybuilding |
Over time, wealthy and powerful figures moved away from the idealistic nature and grew to see wealth through access to scarcities as more ideal. One of these scarcities was the amount of food accessible at the time. When food shortages were a problem, excessive adipose tissue was a symbol of wealth.[10] Paintings that represented the beauty of the early modern period were of prominent and powerful figures, many showing their wealth through their excess adipose tissue.[11] Due to this, they were not painted in an idealistic way, focusing especially on the clothes and other material possessions to accentuate this wealth.
