Are men care less about their looks than women do?
Would you believe that 94 percent of men would like to change some aspect of their physical appearance? So much for seeing themselves as paragons of physical perfection.
What is the male ideal? According to an overwhelming majority of men, it’s the muscle-man physique. Being muscular - with wide shoulders, well-developed arms and chest and a narrow waist - is as tyrannical a standard for men as being slender is for women. A survey of Psychology Today readers found that a man’s self-esteem is directly tied to having a muscular upper body. Those who feel their biceps aren’t beefy enough endure the same feelings of inadequacy and depression, as do women who think their thighs are too thick.
Men also have appearance worries that women don’t have such as height and lack of hair. Research by Thomas F. Cash, an expert in the psychology of physical appearance, shows that the majority of balding men feel some distress over their hair loss; those who start losing their hair in their 20s experience especially intense stress, sometimes reporting a sense of losing control and a fear that their thinning hair will cost them points in the dating game.
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