  What's up guys, Brendan here with another video and today we are going to be talking about 
Body Dysmorphia, specifically effecting men. Lets get Right into it.

  If you google the ideal male physique something interesting comes up. Men well over 200 pounds with very little bodyfat, most of which likely achieved their physiques with the aid of Performance Enhancing Drugs. This wasn't always the case, so how did we get here to a point where the world's biggest movie star Dywanye Johnson, is so big and so lean he is likely taking years off of his life, and how does this portrayal of men in popular media effect the youth of today. As someone who has been effected by this myself, causing me to do a lot of research on mens health, I understand the impacts these unrealistic standards must have on young men.

  For an increasing number of men and boys, this otherwise benign desire to be attractive transforms into something categorically disordered. The ideal physique used to be something that varied from culture to culture but with the advent of the internet we are now witness the culmination of this ideal. Sounds like a good thing, but when you see actors like Zach Efron talk about using dangerous drugs to get in shape for his role in baywatch, and getting what looks like facial reconstructive surgery done it rings some alarm bells. 

  From facial aesthetics to height and muscle definition, some of the methods men are using to achieve such ideals might be disturbing to you. Cosmetic lengthening surgery for height has grown rapidly in popularity recently. A 2016 study on this by Guerrishci and Tsibidakis describes this as a very painful procedure where a patients legs are broken and stretched rendering them unable to walk again normally without serious physical therapy. This study also warns that patients with body dysmorphia are not suitable candidates for this procedure. Other popular practices include abdominal implants and injecting oil into muscles to make them look bigger. Despite the risk and pain involved in these cosmetic surgeries a 2023 study by Aktas and Balci states that these numbers are only increasing, with the exception in 2020 when these surgeries were banned. 

  You can couple these dangerous cosmetic procedures with steroid abuse, as this can be just as dangerous. Steroids not only can cause early death in adult males, but have a range of adverse effects on the young men persuaded to take them due to factors such as social media. There aren't a lot of studies on men in their late teens and early twenties abusing steroids, but I personally know many this age who do. Not only do young men experience the same side effects as adults but the also run the risk of effecting their not fully developed brain, and interrupting natural processes such as puberty. Despite all the well known risk of taking steroids the number of men taking them seem to only be going up according to a 2018 study by Griffiths, Murray, and Mclean. 

  While there may not be a lot of data on young men abusing steroids, I can tell you that I have been confronted by multiple young men citing fitness influencers such as Sam Sulek as there reason for taking substances they know very little about, that will effect their health for the remainder of their lives. 

  Many people are already aware of the use of Photoshop and other deceptive practices to stand out on social media. But even being aware of this sometimes isn't enough, as we live in a time where we are constantly comparing ourselves to others. Some people stand to profit off these warped ideals, and even though this sounds like I might be wearing a tinfoil hat it's important to keep in mind men such as the liver king were able to make 100s of millions of dollars lying to the public, saying that his physique wasn't achieved by taking steroids.

  Its as simple as this, long ago there was a taboo against women smoking. Naturally the tobacco industry wasn't happy about losing 50% of their potential customers, so they worked with psychologist to change the cultural perception on women smoking. 

  Today the beauty or health industry is doing the same thing as they are missing out on 50% of their potential customer base, but this time its men. Look around at the Calvin Klein ads and the like and this is not hard to see. While this causes young men to develop eating disorders, similar to women, they sometimes take things much further. A 2004 study by Katharine Phillips reports that up to 37% of people suffer from body dysmorphia, although this study is old its hard to imagine these numbers have gone down with the increased use of social media. 

  We've seen the extremes that men in particular are willing to go to in order to achieve their ideal look and it's not hard to imagine that some men go as far as killing themselves with self imagine issues being one of the reasons. A 2022 study on male suicide rates by Fowler, Stone and Simon notes that male suicide accounts for 80% of all suicide. Men Take things to heart and are more extreme in their actions, which is why the portrayal of men in modern media needs to be talked about more openly and possibly changed. I can only hope that future generations are educated enough to value their health over their appearance. 


