This is a really great thread. Especially in Britain, the number of young males with eating disorders, unhealthy exercise habits and body dysmorphia is only just being considered.
When I was 17, all the popular guys in my year at school were the ones who were super skinny (as in unhealthily so). I was a rugby player who had stopped playing due to injuries and was much heavier. Dont get me wrong i wasnt obese, but i certainly didnt have an attractive - or particularly firm physique. Long story short, the girls in my year were uninterested unless you looked malnourished. It was frustrating, girls were just not interested.
As for pressure from society, it would get to the stage where very few high street shops would stock anything other than skinny jeans for men, which for me were a no- no. You know its bad when a pair of 34 inch waist trousers fail to go over your thighs. I often hoped for clothes that looked good, but that werent all about showing off how muscle bound or how unhealthily skinny I was. In short clothes I was comfortable in.
So we left school, and my best friend and I took up the gym, both motivating each other. We did it partly because we wanted to change how we looked, but literally 6 weeks into it, and we did it because we enjoyed it.
Two years down the line, we both still work out 5 times a week. I certainly no longer care about how skinny or otherwise i am, all that i focus on is getting myself to higher and higher levels of fitness in a safe and responsible way. I now get much more attention from females (and males
) but only because I vaguely conform to what the glossy magazines and Mens Health etc try and define modern men to be.
I know that teenagers will always worry about image, and women will always wonder what clothes look like on them, but in Britain for sure, the image of perfection and health as portrayed by the worshippers of celebrity is damaging our youth.
I hope what ive written makes sense and is fitting, its my experience and take on mens body image, in the UK
