Adolescent Boy’s Body Image and Media

Currently, appearance is one of the biggest factors to evaluate people. People may have a

better impression of people who have a good appearance than people who have a bad appearance.

So people can have a vague judge on other people with their appearance. Thus, it is obvious that

many people care about their appearance whether it is attractive or not. Although this issue does

not only happen often in women but also happens among men too. Men, especially adolescent

boys, are sensitive and concerned about their appearance than people think, making them having

a negative body image. They may have a longing towards the people who are on media that has

an ideal body figure. Media could negatively influence adolescent boy’s body image by

making them dissatisfied with their body image and having health problems.

Adolescent boys may be dissatisfied with their body image due to the media. This

can be true because they tend to compare themselves with the men in the media. In

Western culture, men on media that are represented as attractive mostly have the

characteristics of muscularity. A study in the article “Teens with negative body image

may experience depression as adults, study finds” by Kristen Rogers, found out that

men’s dissatisfaction is mostly associated with body build, stomach, and hip. These are

the factors of muscular people, which shows that men mostly care about their

masculinity, leading to a good appearance. Hence, they feel dissatisfied with their body

image by thinking they do not have enough masculinity to attract people. Furthermore,

according to “Body image - men”, a study suggested that young males may be

particularly vulnerable to poor body image because they are more likely to be in a

situation where people judge them from their appearance. (Better Health). This tells that

young men tend to be sensitive with their body image because they have a higher chance

of people evaluate by their appearance. Therefore, adolescents boy’s vulnerability to

body image makes them more easily and heavily be dissatisfied with their body image

while watching media and comparing themselves with people on media. Media is

harming men mentally in this way, but can also lead to physical harm too.

Adolescent boys may suffer from having health problems due to the media. As

explained, adolescent boys may be dissatisfied with their body image. These dissatisfied

boys could end up having some kind of disorder. According to “Body Image and the

Adolescent Male” by Angus Whyte, the author brings up research in the U.S. in which 20

million men experience an eating disorder at some point in their life, which is mostly

caused by body image related disorders that start from their adolescence. This shows that

so many people have experienced eating disorders because of body image issues during

their adolescence. It can tell those adolescent boys were trying to achieve some kind of

ideal body image and result having an unbalanced diet. Furthermore, not only eating

disorders are the health problems adolescent boys could suffer. According to the text

“Men’s Body Image”, male body dissatisfaction can make them have Muscle dysmorphia

because they feel extreme concern on their body image (Honigman and Castle). Muscle

dysmorphia is when men feel extreme concern with their body image but usually is not

noticeable from others. This disorder harms adolescent boys because they usually feel

concerned so they try to work out more even tho they are already muscular enough. In a

serious case, they start using steroids to strengthen their muscle even more. Therefore,

this extreme exercise will destroy their body and cause serious problems.

Some people argue that media does not harm adolescent boy’s body image as

much. This is because there are other factors that negatively influence adolescents boys

more. One of the factors is the people around them. These people around can be their
family, friends, or classmates. This is because they are more often to hang out with them

and consciously think about their appearance. The consciousness will lead them to

compare themselves with their peers. According to “Body Image Issues: The Teen Male

Edition”, a study by the Indiana University of Pennsylvania found that 1 in 5 teen males

considered their peers to be “in shape” and compare with themselves. This situation may

happen because they are most likely to have a similar status and if others have better

things than the individual, they tend to be conscious in that part and feel dissatisfaction

due to the gap. 

Although it is true that there are other factors that harm adolescent boy’s body

image, the problem with this point of view is, however, it is too narrowed down and peers

are not always assumed to have a good or ideal appearance. In contrast, media has many

kinds of ideal body image figures, which is different from the small world that an

individual has.

In conclusion, Adolescent boy’s body image could be negatively influenced by

media being dissatisfied with their body image and having health problems. Adolescent

boys tend to compare themselves with the ideal body image in the media making them

dissatisfied. Then the dissatisfaction may lead them to have disorders such as eating

disorders and muscle dysmorphia, which both could harm their lives. However, people

normally have one or more problems during their adolescence period, which they are

conscious and be concerned about even tho other people do not care. Therefore, the

problem of dissatisfaction during adolescence is one of a challenge in their life.

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