The Adonis Complex
01-09-2009, 07:22 PM
Perfect men-men with thick hair, flawless skin, bulging muscles, and six-pack abs-are taking over the world. They're everywhere: in the movies, on TV, on the covers of magazines.
Depending on where you live, you might even see one in the flesh once in a while. It's enough to make a regular Joe feel like a regular schmoe.
And that is exactly what's happening, according to Harrison Pope, Jr., MD or PhD co-author of The Adonis Complex: The Secret Crisis of Male Body Obsession and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, MA.
"Men are getting a dose of the same medicine that women have been taking for years.
They are seeing impossible images of male perfection in photographs and magazines, and being told that this is what they have to look like," according to Pope. The result, he says, is that men are feeling more inadequate than ever.
A Disorder of Our Own
We know that looking at those unhealthily skinny, airbrushed-within-an-inch-of their-lives models in fashion magazines have given rise to eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia in women.
Now men have something they can call their own: the Adonis Complex. Pope and his colleagues coined the term "Adonis Complex" to include a number of different male body image obsessions. In Greek mythology, Adonis was a half-human/half-god who represented the ideal of male beauty (he was so fine that the goddesses Aphrodite and Persephone got in a cat fight over him.)
A number of factors have contributed to the rise of the Adonis Complex, but chief among them is the advent of steroids. "Steroids have given us a distorted, chemically-induced idea of what men should look like," he says. In spite of the serious health risks posed by steroids and the fact they are illegal and banned by all major sporting leagues, their use is widespread.
Chicks Don't Dig It
Ironically, many-perhaps even most-of these intimidating images of male perfection aren't even real, Pope says, but "drug-induced." And it's not just those cartoonishly huge wrestlers who are on steroids, he says.
Most of those guys on the covers of health and fitness magazines are using steroids as well.
"There are limits to muscularity and leanness," says Pope, who believes that an alarmingly high number of male fitness models are getting an illegal "juice boost."
Studies by Pope and others have shown that while men think women prefer very muscular guys, in reality most women find big muscles unattractive almost to the point of being repulsive.
In fact, most women preferred to cuddle up to a more average physique.
Another Thing to Worry About
The most extreme version of the Adonis Complex is Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). Men with BDD are obsessive about their appearance, often fixating on one aspect of it.
Hair tops the list of body obsessions. Other big issues include muscularity, chest size, penis size and body fat.
Men with BDD may constantly check themselves in the mirror, work out compulsively, or avoid situations that require them to take their shirts off in public. One man with BDD, interviewed in The Adonis Complex, described spending over an hour every morning trying to style his hair just right.
Most men who have BDD know it, but feel powerless to do anything about it.
They are usually expert at hiding it from the people closest to them. Breaking the cycle involves therapy (Pope recommends cognitive behavioral therapy, which is specifically geared towards changing specific behaviors). Anti-depressants may also be prescribed.
Get Over It
Of course, BDD is an extreme example of men being tormented by unrealistic body image.
Many more men, however, suffer from milder versions of the Adonis Complex. If you or a guy you care about is driven to unhealthy behaviors in the pursuit of a buff bod, consider the following suggestions.
Thought it was an interesting read and taken from: The Adonis Complex
Depending on where you live, you might even see one in the flesh once in a while. It's enough to make a regular Joe feel like a regular schmoe.
And that is exactly what's happening, according to Harrison Pope, Jr., MD or PhD co-author of The Adonis Complex: The Secret Crisis of Male Body Obsession and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, MA.
"Men are getting a dose of the same medicine that women have been taking for years.
They are seeing impossible images of male perfection in photographs and magazines, and being told that this is what they have to look like," according to Pope. The result, he says, is that men are feeling more inadequate than ever.
A Disorder of Our Own
We know that looking at those unhealthily skinny, airbrushed-within-an-inch-of their-lives models in fashion magazines have given rise to eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia in women.
Now men have something they can call their own: the Adonis Complex. Pope and his colleagues coined the term "Adonis Complex" to include a number of different male body image obsessions. In Greek mythology, Adonis was a half-human/half-god who represented the ideal of male beauty (he was so fine that the goddesses Aphrodite and Persephone got in a cat fight over him.)
A number of factors have contributed to the rise of the Adonis Complex, but chief among them is the advent of steroids. "Steroids have given us a distorted, chemically-induced idea of what men should look like," he says. In spite of the serious health risks posed by steroids and the fact they are illegal and banned by all major sporting leagues, their use is widespread.
Chicks Don't Dig It
Ironically, many-perhaps even most-of these intimidating images of male perfection aren't even real, Pope says, but "drug-induced." And it's not just those cartoonishly huge wrestlers who are on steroids, he says.
Most of those guys on the covers of health and fitness magazines are using steroids as well.
"There are limits to muscularity and leanness," says Pope, who believes that an alarmingly high number of male fitness models are getting an illegal "juice boost."
Studies by Pope and others have shown that while men think women prefer very muscular guys, in reality most women find big muscles unattractive almost to the point of being repulsive.
In fact, most women preferred to cuddle up to a more average physique.
Another Thing to Worry About
The most extreme version of the Adonis Complex is Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). Men with BDD are obsessive about their appearance, often fixating on one aspect of it.
Hair tops the list of body obsessions. Other big issues include muscularity, chest size, penis size and body fat.
Men with BDD may constantly check themselves in the mirror, work out compulsively, or avoid situations that require them to take their shirts off in public. One man with BDD, interviewed in The Adonis Complex, described spending over an hour every morning trying to style his hair just right.
Most men who have BDD know it, but feel powerless to do anything about it.
They are usually expert at hiding it from the people closest to them. Breaking the cycle involves therapy (Pope recommends cognitive behavioral therapy, which is specifically geared towards changing specific behaviors). Anti-depressants may also be prescribed.
Get Over It
Of course, BDD is an extreme example of men being tormented by unrealistic body image.
Many more men, however, suffer from milder versions of the Adonis Complex. If you or a guy you care about is driven to unhealthy behaviors in the pursuit of a buff bod, consider the following suggestions.
- Don't buy into the media images around you.
- Remember that many of the super-muscular male bodies you're seeing are just products of drugs.
- Know that a vast industry profits from making you feel insecure about your body.
- Masculinity isn't defined just by the way you look.
Thought it was an interesting read and taken from: The Adonis Complex
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