Through muscles, men compensate for their shortcomings and want to be "macho". But they're more of a joke, it's just that fitness culture doesn't add to their masculinity
Small, big, fat, thin. Bald. With an overbite. With a big nose and ears like a slapper. And last but not least, a belly that can only dream of the mythical six-pack. Human (though in this case we're referring mainly to men) appearance can simply be very diverse. But that doesn't mean, of course, that each variation is equally "valued" or that everyone is happy with the way they look. And although one might expect that the harsh visual criteria are mainly imposed on women, the opposite is true. "Men are subject to very strict standards regarding their appearance and behavior. If they don't meet them, they are able to work very hard to correct their image - and to affirm their masculinity," summarizes psychology professor Benoît Monin directly. But this "hard work" can not only turn into pathology in some cases, but can also be a proverbial "disservice".
Muscles everywhere you look
More and more members of the male population are struggling with not fulfilling certain perceived notions of what a "proper man" looks like. And many of them are already taking proactive steps to reverse the situation. Overcompensating for a (subjectively perceived) "lack of masculinity" has become an increasingly common practice. Although societal norms associate masculinity primarily with strength, according to recent research by Washington University, it is men who, for whatever reasons, are convinced that they do not live up to the ideals of proper masculinity who tend to compensate in various ways. "We know that being perceived as masculine is very important to many men. We found that the strategies men use to affirm their masculinity are precisely the practices that are associated with the characteristics of traditional masculine identity," the research then summarises.
What emerged in the aforementioned study as the main problem men face in the context of their masculinity is the lack of height. This is the one that many also feel the need to compensate for in various ways. In fact, the research suggested that men who were deliberately presented with fabricated information about their less-than-perfect masculinity tended to exaggerate information about their height. "Height is something that is simply a given, but how a man presents his height is a different matter - a mental one," the study also states. And others have decided to make up for what they don't have in height by going "wide."
The little (angry) muscleman
The term "manlet" was at first a topic only across the fitness community. Who was it referring to? To a man who was simply too small, to which he was also duly sensitive, and so he compensated for this "lack" by gaining muscle mass. In fact, one could refer to this problem as a modified Napoleonic complex. Men, to whom the pejorative label "manlet" belongs, then not infrequently also give vent to their aggressiveness and try to look like proper alpha males. Unfortunately, however, the resulting effect is quite the opposite, and a similar practice only draws further attention to the lack of height. But the whole problem ultimately stems from their own insecurity and anxiety and results in ingrained complexes and not infrequently the building of a certain "line of defence", when these men resort to rather extreme solutions.
One truly controversial solution to the lack of height is to join the community of so-called incels (INvoluntary CELibate), who simply state in public that their life without a partner and de facto celibacy is the result of innate and immutable characteristics - and these may not only be insufficient height, but also too big a nose, etc. What's wrong with that? The primary basis is self-hatred, but this is fed specifically in the case of heterosexual men also by hatred of women, who are programmatically considered too shallow to give men who don't fulfill the classic attributes of manhood a chance. And it is precisely this hatred that is then the fundamental driver of men who compensate for not being able to grow in height by growing in (muscular) width.
Queer fitness?
Interestingly enough, similar mechanisms (described above) are at work in the gay community. In it, those who are too effeminate are simply "undesirable". Twisted. Aunties. It is the muscles then that in some cases serve to demonstrate the right amount of masculinity. Of course, in this case too, the possibility of different perspectives comes into play. For, as scholars who have studied extreme bodybuilding suggest, this very area is now, for many reasons, inherently very queer (and this regardless of the orientation of the actors). For hand in hand with muscle building goes the culture of worshipping a specific visuality that could (with exaggeration, of course) be captured in a trio of words - washed out, shaved, smelled out. Bottom line: feminized. And in such a case, even muscles simply do not add to men's masculinity (i.e., the truly traditional one).
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In conclusion, however, it must be said that it is not only men who are subject to various pressures to fulfil gender ideals. Women, for a change, are confronted with the 'ideal feminine', but also with the roles they are traditionally expected to fulfil (especially caring roles). Some women who do not want to face the consequences of their "non-standard" behaviour and feel the need to fulfil gender expectations, for example, often a priori avoid traditionally masculine fields - from science to IT to purely technological fields.
It is clear that concepts related to (traditional) masculinity, but also femininity, do not bring us much happiness in our lives, but on the other hand they are very deeply socially rooted. In the end, then, we cannot be offended by those who try to compensate for their perceived shortcomings in every possible way. Although breaking out of this eternal circle is probably the only way that people - regardless of their height, size, or even the amount or colour of their hair, eyes.... the size of their feet...and of course the particular expression of themselves - can get up and go to sleep knowing that they are exactly as they should be.
