Never_Too_Buff

Ideal Body An original research which involved more than 1,000 men showed that over half of them desperately want to have the unrealistic bodies of actors and models. No matter how hard we try to look away, we cannot escape them, because they seem to be everywhere. From the products we buy, TV shows that we watch, advertisements in magazines and the commercials on television to the models and actors that span the covers of the supermarket products, the picture of unrealistic body stares back at us with a negative effect. In “Never too Buff” John Cloud argues that the body image issue is becoming an increasing problem in today’s life and how men are very obsesses with their appearance. To support his argument he provides a lot of evidence but, I found this essay unconvincing in many ways. John Cloud uses extensive study to show how body image plays an important role in men’s lives in today’s society, and how it has become a big issue. In “Never too Buff” he discusses a book called “The Adonis Complex” that shows how men have become emotionally obsessed with their body image. His research also describes that majority of young men feeling physically inadequate due to media presenting images that show ideal male physique as extremely muscular and massive. Cloud mostly states his argument on the male side through his use of outside research, examination of the impact of professional sports, and the media’s influence on men’s perceptions of ideal masculinity. In addition to his effective use of outside research, John Cloud also makes a very significant point when he describes how the athletic bodies of professional athletes have impacted men’s desires to strive for their own ideal image. He claims that close to half of men today are not satisfied with their appearance, compared to only one in six in 1972 (46). They see the steroid enhanced bodies of sports figures as models of ultimate perfection. Men’s Health, which describes how to get “rock-hard abs” in as little as six weeks, has 1.6 million subscribers today compared to 250,000 in 1990 (46). Another disturbing craze Cloud recognizes is the number of times men go under the knife to try to achieve this appearance. The year 1996 saw men undergo over 700,000 cosmetic procedures (46). But perhaps the most troubling trend of all that Cloud points out is the intake in anabolic steroids. He describes several different studies that find that a record number of boys and men are injecting themselves with the illegal drugs. But the only reason athletes’ take illegal drugs is to gain straight. Finally, John Cloud blames the media for altering men’s perceptions of ideal body and effectively explains his reasoning. He describes the influence media has on owning a buff body by purchasing increasingly available supplements with dangerous side effect: “As they infiltrated the body-building world in the ’70s and Hollywood a decade later, steroids created bodies for mass consumption that the world had literally never seen before” (47). Not only athletes influence men but, actors and models influence men with muscular appearances, even action figures such as G.I. Joe. Another example he gives is a video game, Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown. The manual explains that Duke can ingest a bottle of steroids to give him an adrenaline boost. Cloud’s specific examples of how the media glorifies a buff body reinforce his argument. Although John Cloud states that the body image issue is becoming a big problem in today’s society. He shows this by, describing extensive investigations, studying the effects of athletic body building, and analyzing the media’s power to pressure men into striving for image perfection.