Themasculine beauty ideal is a set ofcultural 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 perceivedphysical attractiveness.[2]
Masculine beauty ideals are mainly rooted inheteronormative beliefs abouthypermasculinity, but they heavily influence men of allsexual orientations andgender identities.[3] The masculine beauty ideal traits include but are not limited to:male body shape,height,skin tones,body weight,muscle mass, andgenital 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, genital enlargement, radical fitness regimens, skin whitening, tanning, 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 theUniversity of Edinburgh, Alexander Edmonds, states that in Western Europe and other colonial societies (Australia, and North and South America), the legacies ofslavery andcolonialism have resulted in images of beautiful men being "very white."[8]
Standards of beauty vary based on culture and location. While Western beauty standards emphasize muscled physiques, this is not the case everywhere.[9] InSouth Korea and other parts ofEast Asia, the rise ofandrogynousK-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 asancient Egypt, withart as an example of this.[1] Egyptian art pieces showed youthful figures in an idealized form.Greek andRoman sculptures continued this theme of idealism but chose to represent beauty through qualities such as muscles and intellect.[1]
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, excessiveadipose tissue (body fat) was a symbol of wealth.[10] Paintings that represented the beauty of theearly 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.
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