This article is from WeChat official account:Guokr (ID: Guokr42)< span class = "text-remarks">, author: red Queen, the original title: “strip meat, do not think too thin, muscular possible these” muscle addiction “,” title from the chart: “Dragon Ball Z”
Regarding the health of contemporary people, a common ridicule on the Internet is that many people’s health problems nowadays are unable to control their mouths, unable to move their legs, and are confident in the mystery of their fat house. However, some people insist on exercising, but they are always worried that they are too thin.
Fitness can’t eliminate some men’s body anxiety
In recent years, there has been a lot of discussion about masculinity. No matter how much we insist that masculinity is more of a spiritual character, most people’s first reaction to “masculinity” will still think of a strong body. Some of the proposals for “cultivating boys” that have become a hot topic some time ago often put physical education courses in the first place.
Using the theory of animal behavior, the male body shape and muscles are a kind of sensory stimulation. Human instincts are naturally attracted by a strong body to judge a person’s mate value or combat effectiveness. And businesses and the media may have long learned to use this stimulus to manipulate our instincts.
1. Sexy male model becomes “muscular man”
In 1993, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School (Harrison G. Pope) and his research partner in “Integrated Psychiatry”(Harrison G. Pope) span class=”texA study published in t-remarks” label=”note”>(Comprehensive Psychiatry) shows that 9 burly bodybuilders think they are skinny and even wear thick clothes on a hot day to prevent others from seeing them “Thin arms and legs”.
In 1999, Pope’s research team published an interesting study result in (Eating Disorders) in “Eating Disorders”. Researchers collected the most popular humanoid dolls for children in the past 30 years-American Soldier, Luke Skywalker, Wolverine, etc., and found that over time, the humanoid dolls have become stronger and stronger, with more and more muscle lines. The clearer. For example, if the height of the Wolverine doll is enlarged to 175 cm, its upper arm circumference will reach 80 cm!
You might say that fictional images are inherently exaggerated. In this regard, Pope and others also conducted a study on the image of real people. They found the “Play Girl” (Play Girl) magazine from 1973 to 1997 and compared the photos of naked men in the magazine inserts. According to the model’s height and weight as well as the visual body fat, the male model’s muscle mass and fatness were estimated. It turns out that in more than 20 years, the handsome guys in “Flower Girl” have gradually become “muscle men”-as time goes by, magazines have increasingly used strong male models. The male models in 1997 compared with those in 1973 Up, about 6 kilograms of fat was lost and 12 kilograms of muscle increased.
Second, artificially cast super masculine
Ancient “masculinity” model—the bodybuilders in ancient Greek sculptures and Renaissance oil paintings. If they were placed in today’s bodybuilding competitions, some people might ridicule them for having too little muscles and too much fat. Nowadays, more scientific training methods, food nutrition, and the emergence of medicines, especially artificial steroid hormones, have made humans’ muscle mass and exercise capacity have been unprecedentedly improved.
The effect of steroids on muscles is not uniform. Men have higher natural steroid hormones than women, so men not only have more muscles, but also proportionally stronger shoulders, upper arms and trapezius muscles.(Neck base and upper back). And extra steroidsPeople of, these parts of the muscles are particularly developed, Pope called this “super masculine” (hypermale) image.
A “super masculine” image with exceptionally developed muscles| Blade teeth
There is a classic concept in animal behavior—supernormal stimulation (Supernormal stimuli), which means that some exaggerated sensory stimuli can cause animals to be overwhelmed and react more intensely than “normal behaviors”. For example, the green leopard butterfly (Argynnis paphia)-the male butterfly is attracted by the flapping wings of the female butterfly, but if you use the extremely fast flashing light spot Pretend to be a female butterfly for better attracting effect. The male butterfly is madly overwhelmed by the “two-dimensional beauty”, even if the flashing frequency is as high as 140 times per second, which is 14 times the normal!
In the mainstream media, those “super masculine” images of machos that can be achieved with the help of artificial hormones and even Photoshop have also successfully attracted people’s attention. These images are like flashing “two-dimensional” butterflies, and the eye-catching effect is better than the image of ordinary people.
Three, muscle addiction syndrome
It is worth emphasizing that modern people may be surrounded by super-stimulating human images, which may affect people’s mental health.
Pop and his research partners have conducted many surveys on fitness enthusiasts and found that they seem to be in very good physical condition.Okay, but in fact, many people are in a mental health crisis-In addition to the “worry about being too thin” mentioned at the beginning, some people spend too much time exercising, which seriously affects their normal life and even causes sports injuries. . The artificial steroids mentioned above, if used improperly, may cause serious physical and psychological threats(such as hair loss, liver damage, male testicular atrophy, etc.) span>.
Popper collectively referred to these psychological symptoms as Muscle Addiction Syndrome(Muscle Dysmorphia), which is a body image disorder (Body Dysmorphic Disorder, also called body deformity).
Although I insist on fitness, I am always worried that I am too thin | anotherlookmedia
Many men also admit that there is a problem with their diet, or force themselves not to eat, or suddenly lose control of overeating and then vomit. If these psychological symptoms appear in women, you are likely to raise your hand to answer: This is a “name and surname” mental illness-eating disorder(Eating Disorder), also called eating disorder, common forms include anorexia and bulimia.
Eating disorders are inseparable from people’s anxiety about their body shape. But it seems that many people think that only “beauty-loving” women canWorried about getting fat by eating too much, and eating disorder. In fact, some men have the same concerns.
4. Mental health under a masculine appearance
Popper believes that the reason why men worry about their muscles is that the “super masculine” male body image in the media cannot escape the blame, just as slender models and actresses make the majority of women obsessed with losing weight.
However, the situation of men is different from that of women in two major ways. One is that many “super masculine” male bodies actually require external steroids to achieve, but the media deliberately ignore this. The message presented to ordinary people is that as long as they train hard, self-discipline of diet can become a “super macho.” This makes many men feel anxious and frustrated, thereby increasing the risk of muscle addiction syndrome. And industries related to fitness and plastic surgery are using this anxiety consciously or unconsciously. After all, the more men worry that they are not “masculine”, the more classes the gym sells.
Secondly, many men are afraid to speak out their psychological problems due to the demands of society for “masculinity”. When a man has tears, he does not flick it lightly. It is too cowardly to say that he is mentally ill, and that he is worried that his body may be even more embarrassing.
Many patients with muscle addiction syndrome seem to be healthy on the surface, and most people still regard them as representatives of “masculinity.” But who would have thought that under the appearance of “masculine” there might be unspeakable pain.
References
[1]Pope Jr HG, Katz DL, Hudson J I. Anorexia nervosa and “reverse anorexia” among 108 male bodybuilders[J]. Comprehensive psychiatry, 1993, 34(6 ): 406-409.
[2]Pope Jr H G, Olivardia R, Gruber A, et al. Evolving ideals of male body image as seenthrough action toys[J]. International journal of eating disorders, 1999, 26(1): 65-72.
[3]Jin Xinhong, Jin Yahong. Muscle addiction syndrome: a new type of psychological disorder?[J]. Psychological Science, 2016, 39(1): 239-244 .
[4] (America) Pop, (America) Philip, (America) Oliverdia; but Tang Mo translated. The beauty and sorrow of men: “Mao Analysis of Complex”. Chongqing: Chongqing Publishing House, 2005.5
This article is from WeChat official account:Guokr (ID: Guokr42), author: red Queen