WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 (UPI) -- The bulging Olympic weight lifter's body is out of reach for most college-aged men, but that doesn't stop them from trying -- sometimes to their detriment, a new study says.
The pressure from society, friends and family to have muscular bodies may make men see themselves as objects, and that any body type besides big and burly is unworthy, said study author Tracy Tylka, an assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University in Marion.
"Men can be affected by pressures to be muscular, and that can increase their own dissatisfaction with their muscularity and body fat," said Tylka, who presented her research Aug. 10 at the American Psychological Association annual meeting.
Since most body image research and attention has focused on women trying to be thin, people tend to downplay male pressures to be muscular.
"Anyone who cares about these men (should) not minimize it," she said.
Tylka and colleagues gave questionnaires to 285 predominantly white men with an average age of 19 at Ohio State University. The men were asked questions targeted at how much pressure they felt from family, friends, romantic partners and the media to become more muscular.
The researchers then used a technique called structural equation modeling to see if objectification theory could predict men's muscularity behavior, which included weight lifting, using supplements to increase muscle mass and restricting their diet. Objectification theory means a person is focused on their external appearance as an object, instead of their internal qualities such as personality. The theory has been thoroughly studied in women, but never in men.
The model provided an adequate to excellent fit to the data, which suggested that pressures to be muscular are associated with men dissatisfied with their muscle tone and body fat. However, it is still not possible to say media and societal pressure caused the behaviors.
The body-fat finding advanced the literature on male body image, Tylka said, because the research on muscularity often overshadows the fact men are also insecure about their body composition.
Men concerned about their body fat were more likely to report symptoms of eating disorders, such as restricting diet and a fear of obesity.
Those worried about lacking muscle were more likely to become obsessed with weightlifting or taking steroids -- which, if taken in excess, could be lethal.
A fascination with weightlifting and getting bigger may in some cases be signs of a mental illness called muscle dysmorphia. The opposite of anorexia, muscle dysmorphia, or "bigorexia," is a variant of obsessive-compulsive disorder; people who are affected become fixated with remedying their perceived smallness.
Previous research has shown college-aged men exposed to advertisements depicting highly muscular men experienced greater dissatisfaction with their bodies than men exposed to neutral ads. Tylka also found this connection: The more pressure the Ohio State University men felt, the greater their dissatisfaction.
Society has pumped up the male image in recent decades into a Herculean, sinewy ideal. "Playgirl" centerfolds have become increasingly muscular since the 1980s; likewise, the waist, chest and biceps of male action figure toys have grown bulkier over time. Like Barbie, many of the current toys exceed the muscularity of even the biggest bodybuilders, Tylka pointed out.
Tylka expects her study to be published in 2007. The results should be viewed with caution, since the findings have not undergone final peer review and may change. Tylka also warns not to generalize the findings to other populations beyond white college-aged students -- more studies are needed to confirm the results.
But any study that examines men's construction of self image is a step forward, said Dr. Doug Bunnell, clinical director of the Renfrew Center of Connecticut.
"It's been an understudied phenomenon, and we've all been (too) content with the explanation that men don't struggle with these sorts of issues," said Bunnell, who is also a past president of the National Eating Disorders Association.
Applying the objectification theory to men is a novel idea, Bunnell said, and he's not surprised that men also internalize messages from the media.
"These messages become part of the foundation for self-image, and men are not immune to it," he said.
