Keep an eye on your kid's social networks.
One glance at the real men in their lives will drive home this point.
The same holds true for "hot" movie stars. Point out that the sports celebrities they admire have teams of people helping them to work out, feeding them special meals, and, in some cases, surgically altering them. Seek out unconventional role models and talk about people from media and real life who have different body types and say why you find them beautiful (for example, they're kind or wise). Avoid TV, movies, and magazines that promote stereotypes and outdated gender roles. By fostering a healthy lifestyle, you're helping your kids resist extreme dieting messages. If you take care of yourself, you'll help your kids appreciate all that bodies can do. And in a culture that discourages boys from talking about their feelings, it can be that much harder for parents to detect a son's body dissatisfaction. Exposure to highly sexualized material can impact men's self-esteem and relationships. As they grow older, the pressure to "man up" can sometimes lead to crash diets, over-exercising, smoking, or even taking dangerous supplements. Finally, frequent exposure to sexual material can impact men's self-consciousness about their own appearance, as well as lead them to view women as sex objects.Īlthough research on boys lags behind that on girls, it's clear that negative self-image can affect boys' physical and mental health.īoys are encouraged at an early age to think that being a man and being physically strong go hand in hand. And some boys are going to extreme efforts to get a muscular, chiseled physique. With the advent of social media, online forums and blogs make it easy to seek and share information about diet and fitness. Researchers have found a significant relationship between men's exposure to muscular-ideal media and negative self-image. But what drives a young man to achieve that look can be far from healthy. They want to bulk up.īig muscles are typically associated with good health. Unlike their female counterparts, however, most boys aren't out to get skinny. Boys are falling prey to the images of ideal bodies splashed across magazine covers in video games, movies, and music videos and now on social media. From padded Halloween superhero costumes that give 5-year-olds six-pack abs to action movie stars with exaggerated physiques, representations of men in the media have become increasingly muscular and unrealistic. The pursuit of a perfect body is no longer only a "girl" thing. "Body image" definition: one's perceptions, feelings, and behaviors toward one's body The measurements of the male action figures young boys play with exceed even those of the biggest bodybuilders.33–35% of boys age 6–8 indicate their ideal body is thinner than their current body.The proportion of undressed males in advertising has been rising steadily since the 1980s.Exposure to traditional media is a risk factor for developing body dissatisfaction.Body image is influenced by family and culture.Body image develops early in childhood.