Increasing Number Of Men Pressured To Accept Realistic Standards Of Female Beauty

[YoungDemCA]

NEW YORK—Confronted on a regular basis with images of women who represent a diverse array of body types, a growing number of American men are reportedly feeling pressured to accept the increasingly realistic standards of female beauty now depicted in the media, social scientists confirmed this week.

“More and more, men today find themselves bombarded with un-retouched images, and with that comes the considerable mental burden of trying to reconcile what they see in these ads and magazines with their personal perceptions of beauty,” said sociologist Cliff Hillard, who studies attainable ideals of female attractiveness in the media and how they can create an overly realistic sense of what women ought to look like. “For most men, it’s very discouraging. Instead of seeing only rail-thin models, they’re now exposed to accurate representations of women whose proportions mimic those of actual human females.”

“Think about the average man flipping through a magazine that features pictures of women who haven’t had their cheekbones raised or their noses reshaped with Photoshop,” Hillard continued. “How is he supposed to feel when he sees something like that?”

Every day, according to Hillard, men are faced with “inescapable” displays of average-sized women, women who are representatively diverse in terms of race and ethnicity, and women who are not professional models.
According to one recent study, the average man sees photographs of women without digitally exaggerated bust-to-waist ratios dozens of times per day on TV, billboards, and the sides of buses, which the findings suggest has a demoralizing effect on the male psyche and has been shown to negatively influence men’s self-esteem and mood the more often they view such images.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/increasing-number-of-men-pressured-to-accept-reali,35685/?ref=auto

When satire gets the message across in a clever and funny way....

[babylonsister]

1. Love this! nt

[VanillaRhapsody]

2. Clever....very clever....

I was sucked in for a while there....reading along and wondering what planet they are describing...waiting for the big reveal! LOL

[BainsBane]

3. Although satire

The tone is eerily familiar.

[R B Garr]

4. This sounds like a Howard Stern show, actually. n/t

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. "proportions mimic those of actual human females.”

No wonder Viagra sales are up.

[azurnoir]

6. Haven't you ever noticed

there are NO women in Viagra commercials only a guy in blue tinted situations in a factory, with his car, on a boat, with his horse!?!! but no women now finally we know why, it's women real women so threatening that even men who've "You've reached the age of knowing how to make things happen, can't seem to make that happen at least without a pill or something

darn us real women

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. The one with the muscle car is the funniest....

He's driving through an empty desert.

[Warpy]

7. A companion piece should be

the increased business at sperm banks for both sexes as males rush in for relief to 1990s dirty magazines and women, faced with the diminished sex drive of men confronted with reality, start their families without their direct help.

But yeah, too funny and right on target.

[seabeyond]

9. i think that will be more a reality. nt

[wryter2000]

10. OMG, I thought it was real

What does that say about the state of the world.

Fabulous satire!

[F4lconF16]

11. You're not the only one.

I was terrified until I saw the link. It really does say something...

Great piece though.

[redqueen]

12. Best part:

“Here you’ve got a generation of boys who will grow up looking

at women in the media and seeing flaws here, flaws there, flaws

everywhere—what are they supposed to think?” said Hillard,

who noted that his 12-year-old son is just now beginning to

objectify women and that such portrayals could grossly alter

what he perceives as an idealized female form for the rest of

his life.