By: Estelito Meneses
You’ve probably heard of women’s’ body expectations, but have you ever heard of male body issues? Well, if you haven’t then I’ll tell you.
Male body expectations are common in the world and it happens every day of our lives. For example, you wake up, get off your bed and walk to the bathroom and look in the mirror and when you look you see a person that you don’t want to see yourself as. Us, males, have that too.
Male expectations have been going up with males thinking that they have to be fit just for someone to like them well that’s not true how our personality interacts with that person’s personality show that person we care for example movies. Movies that show only fit body and no chubby bodies like 300, only fantasize to the female audience and put us, chubby people, down and make us hate ourselves and our bodies. Do you know how many men waste years just to get the perfect body?
In an article from HuffPost published by Tyler Kingkade, states that 12% of men spend one year just to get their ideal body, 15% of men spend 2 to 5 years to find their ideal body, 5% of men spend 6 to 10 years to find their ideal body, and finally 10% of men would spend more than 10 years of their life just to get their ideal body.
These struggles run among many male figures, even among celebrities, like Sam Smith:
HuffPost shares Sam Smith’s experience, "I think just because I've accepted that if someone calls me a faggot, it's like, I am gay and I am proud to be gay so there are no issues there. If someone calls you fat, that's something I want to change.”
And that's true if someone calls you fat you can't do anything at the moment but you can use the negativity to make yourself into a better person.
The earliest memory that I have with body issues was when I was about 10 or 12 years old, at the time I wasn't worried about my body because I thought when I grew up I would at least lose weight, but I didn't. I started to forget what my mind was thinking about my body, I would say, “Oh, don't forget to eat healthily.” But I forgot and I started to eat unhealthy food like chips and fatty food like burgers.
Honestly, I don't like wearing a tank top or anything that shows my skin or my weight out in the open because I feel embarrassed and shy. Another reason is I think in my mind that I am getting watched and getting laughed at by people and that's uncomfortable.
Body issues aren’t only limited to younger generations, such as myself, but to older generations as well.
According to an interview with Te, Joe, “Yes, without naming names, I know several adults who complain about their body issues/images and things like that and obviously several students.”
According to HuffPost, "I'm a man with body image issues and now I know I'm not alone” states, “Several men in their 50's reached out and said they had similar discomfort much of their life about their body. “ In an interview, I did with coach Te I asked a couple of questions.
According to Te Joe, a PE teacher at Yerba Buena High School, he too struggled with male body standards at one point:
“Everyday of my life (laughing), uh yeah I was not blessed with genetics that some are blessed with. For example, my mom is four foot eleven and my dad is five-eleven and so I have the luxury of having my mom's genes, but early on in high school I've learned to accept them and control just two things my effort and my attitude and so yes.”
In addition, he shares some of his struggles, such as height deficiency:
“Height deficiency, right, I’m short and as I’m getting older; you start to gain more weight.”
PE has been helping me reconsider what I eat and what I do to my body, but it also adds to my insecurities such as making me look in the mirror and make me look how much sugar/sodium I consume.
As a PE teacher, Te Joe witnesses the effects of physical education classes have on high school students some of which can be negative, he agrees that to an extent PE classes affect students.
“Absolutely, absolutely yeah it starts with the teacher and all the other teachers and hopefully they practice what they preach,” says Te.
I didn’t know how to cope with my body issues at first, I was shy and I often isolated myself, so the only way for me to cope with my body issues was to play games or drawing. Drawing is one important piece of my life that was how I coped with body issues I just kept drawing myself skinny and fit and not my actual figure.
These coping mechanisms helped me suppress the negative thoughts of my body and soon I learned to accept myself.
When I looked back at the recording I was feeling the same way as coach Te was feeling; he accepted his body issues along time ago and now I accepted that I was chubby.
“First, I think about all the negatives like all the body-shaming, kids making fun of other kids even adults things like that, but all and all umm the first thing I want kids to understand is it’s who they are and they have to learn to embrace it and make the most out of it.”
When I first heard him say that I remembered when I was getting picked on for my weight and It hurt because I remember how I felt. I was depressed for some of my life but then I found anime and k-pop which helped me cope with depression. If I didn’t find those things I would not have found good friends that make me happy.
People around the world have to cope with the fact that they have body issues and learn how to deal with it for example for me I cope with it, but sometimes it pops in my mind and I have to deal with it like exercising or eating healthy.