{"id":109,"date":"2009-12-11T10:00:32","date_gmt":"2009-12-11T10:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/?p=109"},"modified":"2015-03-12T11:19:41","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T18:19:41","slug":"men-and-weightlifting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/2009\/12\/11\/men-and-weightlifting\/","title":{"rendered":"Men and Weightlifting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Countless forms of media have been devoted to exploring the female body ideal and to highlighting the extremes to which some women will go to achieve these socially accepted expectations. However, little information is readily available addressing how men feel about their perceived obligations to fulfill a certain body ideal. Do men experience the same pressures to look a certain way as women do? Is the psychology of male weightlifting compa\u00adrable to that of exercising for women? To gain insight into these questions, <em>[in]Visible <\/em>asked men from all 4C\u2019s about their personal experiences with body image issues.<\/p>\n<p>What do men think women are physically attracted to? When asked to describe the type of body they thought women wanted, moderation was thought to be key to get\u00adting female approval. However, it was assumed that the majority of women would be more into muscles than not. One participant, when asked what kind of male body he thought women wanted, answered, \u201cOne with a six pack\u2026 not necessarily a six pack but a nicely flat chest and stom\u00adach\u2026a very tight muscular body. Maybe women have a tol\u00aderance for guts or flabbiness but not much. Arms are im\u00adportant too.\u201d Most of the men expressed the belief that women generally evaluate the physical appearance of men more subjectively than men do. One respondent stated, \u201cI think it varies a whole lot. A lot of women think Brad Pitt is really hot, but some wom\u00aden think Vince Vaughn is hot. But personally I don\u2019t see why for Vince Vaughn.\u201d Another stated, \u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019m convinced that women care as much as males think.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In terms of motivations for weightlifting, the ma\u00adjority of interviewees reported both aesthetic and practi\u00adcal incentives. The men who participated in sports or who had hobbies that necessitated strength stated that weight\u00adlifting granted practical benefits in these activities. One interviewee stated, \u201cI think it\u2019s not necessary to have su\u00adper huge pecs as long as your arms don\u2019t look all bony and you look resilient enough to do something that requires some labor. As long as you look dependable, not useless.\u201d When asked whether strength or looks was more impor\u00adtant to him, one contributor answered, \u201cI definitely care more about strength, probably because I\u2019m trying to be a good athlete. But for guys who aren\u2019t trying to be good at sports, it\u2019s about looks.\u201d Aesthetic appearance is a heavy motivation for weightlifting. One participant, in explain\u00ading his motivations for weightlifting stated, \u201cIt seems like the average person at my school is really jacked. There\u2019s peer pressure to lift weights. Everyone is really conscious of their image. They want to look good, and they are really motivated.\u201d However, some men expressed an entirely dif\u00adferent motivation for working out, one saying, \u201cExercising is a way of escaping, especially from the stress of academ\u00adics. You feel free. It feels really good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whether it be to attain their ideal bodies, gain strength, or just let off steam and relieve stress, men visit the gym for a variety of reasons. Many of the men inter\u00adviewed feel societal and peer pressure to look a certain way. While all of the participants acknowledge that society projects a particular standard of masculine appearance, many men also acknowledge that women generally evalu\u00adate men in the real world with subjectivity. Many men ob\u00adserve that women seem to \u201caccept\u201d a broad range of male body types. It would be difficult to determine if this male assumption of female subjectivity is valid or not, but it is certainly worth thinking about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Countless forms of media have been devoted to exploring the female body ideal and to highlighting the extremes to which some women will go to achieve these socially accepted expectations. However, little information is readily available addressing how men feel about their perceived obligations to fulfill a certain body ideal. Do men experience the same [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,233],"tags":[123,124,125,122],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feature","category-vol-2-issue-1","tag-exercise","tag-men","tag-valerie-latimore","tag-weightlifting"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}