November 15, 2008
IN A world-first exploration, Marika Tiggemann has charted the anatomical angst of a generation of young men. It ranges from physique, height and balding to penis size.
In the fraught geography of male body image, shoulder hair is a trouble-spot and chest muscles an outright war zone.
“People thought this was only a women’s issue,” said Professor Tiggemann, from Flinders University. She used open-ended interviews to determine men’s concerns. “Clearly it is not a small sub-group of pathologically narcissistic men who experience dissatisfaction with these body parts, but a substantial proportion,” she said.
The study of 200 young, heterosexual men published in the
found two-thirds wished they had less hair and a bigger penis; 82% wished they were more muscular.
It was so common for men to worry about muscle definition that such concerns were normal — just as most women worried about their weight, she said. But like women who risk eating disorders from extreme dieting, men’s muscle concerns could also lead to health problems, such as steroid abuse or injury.
And hair distribution was important to men, she said, but the source of unhappiness with penis size was less clear: “Are they comparing themselves to folks in the urinal … or porn?”
Mission Australia’s 2007 youth survey found body image the biggest worry for 11-24-year-olds.