Boys body image

This week's Gallery is Boys

I was thinking earlier in the week about this picture because of the news events surrounding D&G.

(Great news, I don't wear them now because I've taken the moral high ground rather than because I'm poor!)

There was a lot of social media chatter about this being a gang rape photo.  Whilst it is an assertive position for the man, it doesn't come across to me as rape and I'm not perturbed by it at all in that sense.

What disturbs me most is that it has been photo-shopped in every way to make it as close to CGI as your going to get without actually drawing it from scratch.  Let's forget the woman and her legs stretched to Barbie 'she'd actually fall over were it true' proportions and 'how does she fit all her organs into that squished body' alongside the 'you appear to have no pores in your skin you freak'  No, let's forget her and look at the chiselled, tanned men.

Do you see the hip bone line on the man on the right, that is digitally enhanced there and I'm slightly put off by the height of his belly button, but given that when they digitally enhance the pecks they move the nipples, I see no reason why they wouldn't move the belly button too. Did you know you can get pec implants now? Presumably it's a plastic surgery taken up by the boys/men that want to look like someone that has been digitally enhanced.  Look at the six pack on the guy second left (I'm convinced that is CGI man not a photo) that is also drawn in.

Yup, anyway you wash it these men are as fake as a Britney Spears photo shoot. And these men are what your sons are growing up to believe they should look like.  About 10% of people with eating disorders are male and that figure is growing.  And they are getting younger, the highest rates of new cases are for boys aged 10-14.  And the support networks for boys are not the same as girls, it is much harder for them to be treated.

We have accepted what the media, the film industry, the advertising industry have done to women and partially the tide is starting to turn.  I think the advertisers have woken up and smelt the male pound and they are going to prey on boys self confidence for every penny they can get.

We are very good at telling our girls that they are beautiful no matter what, the internet is stuffed full of girls shouting about being 'all about the bass', do a few searches and see how much harder it is to find any level of 'feel good about yourself' for the boys.

What support can you give to your lad to say "do you know, you don't have to be chiselled like a photo shopped Beckham to be ok" ?

I despair at what we are allowing into the minds of our children.  1000s of images constantly flashing at them: have muscles, be toned, be tanned, have clear skin....developing teenage boys can't live up to these ideals.  Their reality is oily skin, a body that isn't ready to grow those muscles yet - if ever, and a total lack of a real world airbrush.

I enjoyed watching this:



But actually I enjoyed watching this more, it applies cross gender.