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Old Mon, Jun-18-01, 09:00
fern2340's Avatar
fern2340 fern2340 is offline
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Default Vanity, thy Name is Man

Pretty long article BUT pretty good.... about man's obsession about body image!





Vanity, thy name is man
Body image has become an equal-opportunity obsession, and buff’s the word.



By Steve Goldstein
I recently opened my daughter's copy of Teen People to find a feature on a 16-year-old high school junior from New York City who goes in for an eyebrow waxing every two weeks. He lifts weights, too. Accompanying the profile was a helpful list of the top 15 "boy beauty secrets," with young men enthusing over cucumber slices for tired eyes, Nair to remove unwanted follicles on the lower back and a great substitute for hair wax - Elmer's washable gel glue.

Male vanity - in the callow and the codger alike - is flourishing. And with it, the industry to feed and nurture vanity's many manifestations. As the United States marks Father's Day, a national holiday officially proclaimed by the notoriously vanity-free President Lyndon B. Johnson, consider the price of pride for the American male:

• In 1997, U.S. men spent $3 billion on fragrances and grooming aids, nearly $800 million on hair transplants, and $400 million on hairpieces. Sales of health-club memberships and exercise equipment totaled $4 billion.

• Last year, according to the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, 14 percent of the face-lifts, 29 percent of the nose jobs, 19 percent of the eyelid jobs and 42 percent of the ear jobs in the United States were performed on men. Just under 28,000 men had their breasts reduced, 114,375 men had liposuction, and 178,000 men had hair-transplant surgery.

• Approximately 7 percent of high school boys are taking anabolic steroids to help build muscles, and the prime motivation seems to be improving physical appearance rather than sports participation.

• In a 1997 Psychology Today study of 550 men, 43 percent said they were dissatisfied with their overall physical appearance - a threefold increase from 1970. Sixty-three percent hated their stomachs and 45 percent were unhappy with their muscle tone.

• Fitness and male beauty books regularly rotate onto best-seller lists. A current favorite is Body for Life, by Bill Phillips, which advertises a 12-week program "to mental and physical strength." Another recent best-seller is The Wrinkle Cure, which advertises "face-changing foods" that can alter your look in 72 hours and "cosmeceuticals" for supple, youthful skin.

It wasn't that long ago that all a guy needed was a decent job and a little cleaning up to satisfy the basic requirements of masculine self-esteem. Now there are gyms full of men sweating furiously to wipe out the physical evidence of 20 years' devotion to drive-through windows; they pause only to check the mirrors or gaze at the washboard abs and defined deltoids of magazine models. And when the gym cannot do it, more and more men are turning to plastic surgeons for cosmetic detailing. Slackers are quickly reminded by the mass media that the competition for jobs, women and society's approval is younger, fitter and prettier than they are.

Old is not merely a state of mind.

Middle-aged men dealing with spare tires - that's not news. But now the message from Hollywood, Madison Avenue and MTV has been received by young men and pre-men as well. Puny is out, toned and buff are in. Teenagers are just beginning the life-long love affair with their bodies that advertisers wish for. "The number one population attracted to strength training to improve body image is teenagers," says Jim Rogers, a certified athletic trainer and member of the Temple University faculty. "Teenage boys are very gullible, desirous of peer approval, and have insecurity about their bodies."

In the last decade, U.S. health club memberships increased by nearly 50 percent and the second largest group of joiners were those under 18, topped only by those 55 and older.

Are men the new women? Or to put it another way, are men and women now equally obsessed with body image, and have men adopted most of the regimes and treatments used by women to achieve some physical ideal? The youth-craving baby-boomer population, nearly 30 percent of Americans, made vanity an avocation. Is the New Narcissism harmless, or are we reflecting badly on ourselves?

I asked this of one cosmetic surgeon and he told me of a recent patient on whom he had performed liposuction. The guy said he needed the "sculpting" to stay competitive in his business. And no, he said, he wasn't planning to tell his clients - he was a personal trainer.

We are a nation of 76 million 50-something baby boomers, and it seems every man is trying to look half his age. When asked if men are more vain than they used to be, Lynne Luciano, author of Looking Good: Male Body Image in Modern America, replies: "Very definitely." Advertising, she says, has helped create the impression that looking one's age is a threat to both career and love life.

Yet it's not women who are more demanding of their male partners. "A lot of the male vanity revolution is not about impressing or pleasing women, but about impressing men, competing with them," says Luciano, who teaches history at the University of California.

For most of the 20th century, "any man who overtly emphasized his physical appearance risked being accused of vanity," she says. "Men who wore toupees aroused derision at best." This changed in the 1970s, the advent of the boom in running and disco, which made the male world safe for athletic dancing and peacockism. Cultural signals emphasized brawn over brains. Pumping iron went trendy in the 1980s; a sign of the times was a board in an upscale Manhattan gym that read, "No pecs, no sex." The 1990s ignited the strong-as-bull market - male cosmetic surgery, liposuction and the introduction of Viagra, all designed to remedy various male shortcomings.

University of Kentucky women's studies professor Susan Bordo believes that gay culture has helped make male beauty acceptable. In her book The Male Body, Bordo says that public display and preening fashion have entered the masculine mainstream. "Men have definitely adopted some of the gay culture," agrees Luciano. "Gay men have long been into bodybuilding and showing off their bodies."

Where is vanity's sting? In The Adonis Complex, authors Harrison Pope, Katharine Phillips and Roberto Olivardia document what happens when lifestyle becomes obsession. Men remain dissatisfied with their bodies even after building themselves up, leading to a syndrome they call muscle dysmorphia, or MD, in which men feel small when they aren't. "Men are being bombarded with unrealistic images of the male body," Phillips says. "These influences can be very profound and very pervasive."

MD is a kind of reverse anorexia. Symptoms include a need to exercise every day, shame about body image and, often, anxiety and depression. Men with MD will habitually go on vacation only where there is a gym, or transport weights with them; limit sex to conserve energy for workouts; check themselves in the mirror obsessively; and decline to wear shorts because they think their legs are too scrawny.

Phillips, an associate professor of psychiatry at Brown University, routinely sees men with MD who lift weights and work out excessively and become anxious and upset when they cannot. A patient who lived 90 minutes away agreed to be treated only after he found a gym en route to her office where he could stop for a quickie. A classic case was a commercial cook so unhappy with his toned, muscular body that he did push-ups in the restaurant bathroom.

Many men with MD obsess about their diets, and apportion their food for the day into plastic baggies or carry scales to weigh food. "I've had men so huge they cannot sit in the chair in my office," she says, "but they are convinced they are puny." The Adonis Complex estimated that as many as 100,000 men may be suffering from muscle dysmorphia, but Phillips thinks that the figure is grossly underestimated. "Men will not talk about it," she says. "There's a sense of shame and embarrassment because they really think there's something wrong with them." Body-image obsession among men "has been steadily rising," she says, "and I'm not sure we've seen the end of it."

Sylvester Stallone, an iconic figure for many bodybuilders, is prominently featured in the 1999 book Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man, in which Susan Faludi argues that cultural forces have created a false mythology of masculine prowess that ultimately has undermined men and their roles in society. After the box-office success of his he-man Rocky and Rambo films, Stallone tired of being a pinup and chose a role in a 1997 movie called Cop Land in which he played an overweight, partly deaf town policeman in New Jersey.

Looking ripped, he says, had its price: "You are always aware of yourself," he told Faludi. "Do I look as good as I did yesterday? You are always looking for a reflection in windows and things. I don't think there's ever a moment, including when you are alone in your own house, when you are not constantly aware of every aspect of how you look. Even having a conversation when you're in shape is - everything is on display. You take a serious gym rat, a man who lives in a gym, it's like what do you do with it? You've got it, but it comes out in this vanity thing which borders on the world of exotic dancers. You qualify for nothing."

Stallone's conversion didn't last. After Cop Land failed to change him from action figure to acting figure, he went back to the gym, telling Faludi he was on a "mission" to turn back the clock. He was in a movie last year called Get Carter, in which he played a very tough enforcer, for which he was suitably buff and polished and well-displayed.

Tom Deters doesn't have readers, he has "disciples." They are the several million men who read Flex, Muscle & Fitness and Men's Fitness, the hard-body magazines of the Weider Publishing Group. (Joe Weider is the guy who brought to America a champion Austrian-born bodybuilder with the lederhosen name of Arnold Schwarzenegger.) As group publisher, Deters' job is to pull in readers with cover lines like "Get Summer Abs and Lose Flab in Six Weeks" or "5 Weeks to a Ripped Physique" or "Hard and Fast Rules to Get Shredded."

Deters' disciples are no-nonsense. "They are not woulda, coulda, shoulda," he says. He eschews demographics for what he calls psychographics - "our psychographic is speaking to an audience who is living a fitness lifestyle, irrespective of age." In the "global fitness revolution," everything is touched by awareness of physical presence, whether it be Ken dolls, G.I. Joe, or the buff cartoon heroes of Saturday morning TV.

"There are more people in this country that want to stay fit than ever before," he says. "The best way to attract readers is to tell them how to get results with their body and make sure they understand they can get results." As to whether men have become more vain about their bodies, Deters demurs. "I don't know what came first, the chicken or the egg. Men have more latitude to express themselves emotionally, verbally and physically. And that's maybe more acceptable than it was 20 or 50 years ago."

Roger Schwab, a former bodybuilder and bodybuilding judge, sees these disciples every day. They come into his club in Bryn Mawr, Main Line Health and Fitness, looking to get ripped.

"We ask people why they are working out with strength training, and we hope that it is to improve functional ability, but a great majority are training for body image," says Schwab. Many men who go to health clubs want to get bigger but don't understand they are limited by genetics. "In the field of exercise, common sense is anything but common," he continues. "Body image is important to all of us, but it can be carried to extremes. It's the holy grail for many men."

The muscle mags "pander to kids who don't know any better and older men who should know better," Schwab says. "They are selling a dream."

Do these publications offer unrealistic goals for men limited by the bodies they were born with? Deter says ingenuously that they view information in the magazines "as a positive catalyst and a motivator."

Yorktown High School sits in a leafy corner of North Arlington, Va., a few miles across the Potomac River from Washington, workplace of many Yorktown parents. The school has a solid academic reputation and routinely sends its graduates to many of the most selective colleges.

Just inside the front entrance, a flight of stairs leads down to a room filled with weight machines, free weights, benches and other strength-training equipment. The space is about the size of a large classroom, with louvered windows along one wall and mirrors covering virtually all of two walls and most of a third. Presiding over the room is Tony Kroll, a special-ed teacher who supervises the teens, suggesting routines and serving as spotter. The room is open from 2:30 p.m. until 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday during the school year, and will stay open during the summer, mainly for use by the football team.

It is 3 p.m. on a Wednesday in May, a gorgeous day, 80 degrees and sunny. About 15 boys are in the room, lifting and flexing, grunting and chatting. On the bench is David Andrukonis, a senior doing bench presses up to 195 pounds. He weighs just over 145 pounds; the torso of his 5-foot-7 frame tapers from broad, muscular shoulders to a narrow waist. In between sets, Andrukonis drinks from a liter bottle of water he carries all day. After school, he works out until the room closes. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, he improvises with a mixture of running and lifting, using weights he has at home or cadging a guest pass to a neighborhood gym. Andrukonis started working out for wrestling, but that career is over. Now he does it for himself.

"When I was in first grade, some friends and I formed a 'health club' at my house, running laps around my back yard and playing around with dumbbells," he says. "I've had this weird tic forever, but I started lifting seriously in ninth grade. I'm kind of hooked on it now. I'm lifting for reasons I could not define. Image is a big part of it. It's something I feel good about. It's a rush. I'd feel bad if I missed a few days."

Andrukonis was up until 2 a.m. finishing an article for the school newspaper on ecstasy use by his classmates. Still, he doesn't skimp on his routines. A phys-ed teacher who has dropped by nods his head at Andrukonis. "He's a hard worker, that David, a hard worker." A kid in a bowler hat named Wayne spots for Andrukonis, and occasionally checks himself in the mirror. Andrukonis says he likes looking in the mirror and hearing compliments from people.

"I've never measured my chest and biceps - not because I don't want to know, but because I'd feel really silly doing it," he says. "I'm not huge, but I want to feel as cut and defined as I can. I check myself in the mirrors sometimes. It's kind of a nice effect during workouts. You actually have a bigger muscle after workouts, so that's cool."

A core group of 20 to 30 boys comes to the weight room regularly, and "95 percent of those that come are here for body image," Kroll says. They want to look good, gain strength, get bigger, lose weight. But Kroll will bar anyone he discovers taking anabolic steroids, the muscle-building synthetic hormones known to have many harmful side effects.

"I'm here to help them achieve their goals and make sure they do it properly." He says most of the teens know their limits, and their goals are clear. "They want the body, the six-pack and whatever. Whatever they see in magazines or TV."

As Andrukonis finishes his routine, he remarks on how much better he feels now than yesterday, when he worked all day on his story. "I was stressed out. I was mad I couldn't lift. Maybe my grades suffer a little, but I like the way I've got it balanced out."

A few miles away, Josh Halloway is pulling into the parking lot of Gold's Gym in Clarendon, Va. He is 6 feet tall and lanky, with a mane of dark hair and a slight stoop common to schoolbook backpackers. An aspiring actor, Halloway, 18, will be attending New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in the fall. And, for that reason, he has decided to pump iron.

"You have to look good if you're going to pursue a career in the theater," he says, beginning his workout on the treadmill. "And if you're going to do eight shows a week you have to be fit. You don't think about acting being a sport, but the worst thing is to be in a scene and be physically unable to do something. You don't want the reason they don't cast you to be how you look when you take off your shirt. When you're an actor, your body is your instrument."

Halloway's goal is to get stronger in his upper body, and he says he's not obsessed with it. He plunked down the $800 fee to join Gold's Gym only because it has many more machines and weights than the school. After the treadmill, he heads downstairs to the weight room, where men with arms the size of hams are straining themselves.

"Look at this room. It's like the set of Baywatch," Halloway says. "You get people here who come up to you and correct your form. Some of them are kind of self-righteous. They look so serious. It makes me kind of sad."

The room is a wilderness of mirrors, and everyone - everyone - is looking at himself. Halloway works out four times a week for about an hour. "It hasn't taken over my life," he says, smiling. He admits being spurred by a girl from his school, Mercedes, and his stepbrother, a serious lifter who lives in Hawaii.

"I look at my gut in the mirror - that's such a girl-labeled activity," he says. "Mercedes told me I'd be so much more attractive if I had some muscle. That irked me. Then she came to see me at the gym and she said, 'Wow, look at you' as if I was a different person. I guess you have to play the game. The game used to be that women had to change their image. Now we all do. It amazes me how superficial people are."

Every time Bill Brown visits Dr. Stephen Davis at the 1818 Center for Plastic Surgery in Cherry Hill, less of the original Bill Brown departs. A hairdresser at one of the top salons in Cherry Hill, Brown, 48, has become an aficionado of artificial enhancement. Over the last several years, Brown has had liposuction on his neck, collagen injections and permanent implants in his lips, rhinoplasty, lifts of the lower eyelids, liposuction of the abdomen, microdermabrasion (skin sanding) and hair transplants - the last performed by someone other than Davis.

Brown's rationalization of the thousands of dollars he has invested in artifice is simple. "I work around a lot of nouveau riche people. It's a young business. If you look like a dinosaur, you get treated like a dinosaur."

Nine of 10 clients go to Davis for "purely cosmetic reasons," he says. His vanity patients typically take a three-step approach: Diet first, then the gym, "and then us, trying to tweak what's left into perfection."

Perfection wasn't a goal for Frank K. Growing up in New Jersey, he was teased mercilessly for having more breasts than the baby-fat pecs known to chubby boys everywhere. "Real C cups," he says. Razzed by classmates as "Training Bra" or worse, he failed to find solace at home. "My parents told me to do push-ups," Frank recalls. He's still so sensitive about the experience that he asked that his full name not be used.

Even when he slimmed down to row crew for Drexel Frank still had a chest, and it mortified him to remove his shirt. Finally, in his late 20s and married, Frank went to see Davis after listening to a talk show on WWDB-FM devoted to cosmetic surgery. Davis told him that liposuction to reduce his breasts would cost about $3,200. Frank had the 90-minute procedure done on a Friday, with Davis removing two liters of fat from his chest. He was back at his job at a construction management company the following Monday.

Now the small scars from the incisions have vanished and so, too, has his self-consciousness.

"I don't know if it was a sense of vanity - that I wasn't perfect," Frank, 31, says. "I felt it was a gross deformity and I had to take care of it. I had to do it to feel human, and to have more identity as a male."

Male identity is increasingly going under the knife - with less hesitation than ever before. Men who flock to plastic surgeon Alan Brackup's office in Langhorne, Bucks County, often begin by apologizing for being vain. "Don't worry, it's what we do," reassures Brackup, a former ophthalmologist who recognized a trend and an opportunity six years ago.

Brackup has been seeing a steady increase in men coming into his office seeking facial cosmetic surgery and liposuction, the latter usually for love handles or a spare tire. "There're growing numbers of men in America who want to look fitter and younger - to look as good as they feel," he says. Another consideration is that almost any physical alteration is now possible.

"Cosmetic surgery used to carry a stigma; it wasn't considered a manly thing to do," Brackup says. "Men are still a little self-conscious about it. You can't make it too surgical, too perfect, because it's too feminine. You don't want to prettify men."

Brackup's clients range in age from early 20s to over 70 and spend an average of $4,000. Some men just want to look younger, others say they need to stay competitive in the workplace. Men in sales businesses are regular customers, as are recently divorced men who are dating again. The New Narcissism keeps his phone ringing.

"Ideals have changed," says Brackup. "We snickered at Charles Atlas years ago, but our concept of being in shape has changed. We put unrealistic expectations on ourselves. The bar has been raised to a point where, for most men, it's unfair."

There's lots of discussion about what might be the Next Big Thing in male vanity. The post-bodybuilding, face-lift, liposuction, Viagra, phallic-implant breakthrough. A procedure to make men taller - by surgically implanting new bone in the calf - is causing a lot of buzz. And it would take the current obsession in a whole new direction: up.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Goldstein is a magazine staff writer. His e-mail address is slgoldstein~krwashington.com.
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