BY NATALEIGH MCCALLUM
Makeup, hair trends and clothing are all things women obsess about. But now men are too.
A recent study conducted by BuzzFeed, the online news media company, found ideals of male beauty have increasing prevalence in entertainment, media and advertising.
The BuzzFeed article stated that although more women have negative opinions about their bodies, the percentage of men admitting body image-based issues is growing at a much faster rate. The number of men’s beauty products increased by more than 70 per cent worldwide between 2012 and 2014, making the male cosmetic industry worth $3.3 billion globally.
So, what are the new ideals of male beauty? BuzzFeed gathered information from professional publications, entertainment and social media to find out what exactly makes a man attractive today.
In their study, they focused on 12 countries and how the societal term of beauty for men varied.
For example, in America, men face media pressure to have the perfect, muscular body. A popular look for American men in recent years is the “lumbersexual,” which is bearded, masculine and white.
For Mexican men, they found that more of a macho behaviour was an ideal. They finished second in a 2000 study of the most vain men in the world behind Venezuelans.
Brazilian men believe Germanic features and tan skin are an ideal and undergo cosmetic surgery. South Africa’s ideal is white men, even though they only make up nine per cent of the population. Skin lightening cream is the highest selling male beauty product there.
For Turkish men, they often use body hair removal services and in the United Kingdom, it’s common for men to have tattoos.
In South Korea makeup and plastic surgery are popular, particularly to make eyes bigger, to double eyelids and create a high-bridge nose.
From all of this, where is the world’s ideal of beauty going to go? It is known that media has a negative effect on how women see themselves. Only four per cent of women consider themselves beautiful according to Dove. But now, it is affecting men as well.
Due to the pressure from society people today have lost touch with what really matters. A study at San Francisco State University found that while women struggle with trying to be thinner, men struggle with becoming more muscular. Men and women must remember it is what is on the inside that counts.
The views herein represent the position of the newspaper, not necessarily the author.
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