Self-image

So Ambulance Chaser doesn’t know why I’d take creatine (see comments on totally unrelated blog post below). She “never really understood why people wanted to have bigger muscles when they already look very muscular to begin with.” Well, the simple answer is – these people don’t believe they look muscular at all.  You could think of it as “reverse anorexia” in which guys who are quite big always see a skinny weakling in the mirror.

The authors of a book called The Adonis Complex blame the media for this body image disorder, just as the media is blamed for girls having anorexia. Everywhere you look on TV or magazines, movies, etc, the “ideal” male body has become much more muscular in the past decades. Just compare James Dean to The Rock, or look at a GI Joe figure then and now. Guys these days think they have it tough; they gotta look stronger than the other guys to appeal to women (contrary to what the guys may think, the book and I both agree that most women probably like lean guys, not huge bodybuilders).

I gave the Adonis Complex a read and it was fascinating. I think a part of me has this “reverse anorexia,” but not nearly to the degree at which it impairs my life. I would never resort to steroids, and going to the gym is rarely my absolute #1 priority. I don’t think I’m like some of the guys described in the book (one big guy wouldn’t take his shirt off in his backyard because he thought people in a plane flying overhead would see how skinny he was!), but there is definitely an on-going battle between my self-esteem and the way the media shows me how I should look. Fortunately, I think I’m winning that battle.