This week roughly 20 students of different ages and ethnicities gathered at the Boiler House Cafe for a Mosaic meeting to tackle male beauty standards in today’s society.
The students pointed out many features that society uses to label men as “beautiful,” including height, weight, facial hair, and skin tone. The reasons behind these beauty standards popping up, according to the discussion, are the media, movies, television, and athletes; many lead actors in movies are white, and professional athletes have to stay in terrific shape to do their jobs.
Actors such as Hugh Jackman, who has an intense workout regime, were also mentioned. It was explained that most men could not possibly look like these actors, who get paid to keep their bodies looking like that; most men do not have the time to exercise that much or the money to afford the strict diets needed to build that kind of muscle.
During the discussion, a YouTube video by Buzzfeed titled “Men’s Standards of Beauty around the World” was shown. The video showed what many different countries stereotype as a beautiful man. It takes note of many countries idealizing men who have more muscular figures, facial hair, and lighter skin.
The video also states that many millennials are physically attracted to racially mixed people. “When the video said ‘Millennials see mixed race people as more beautiful,’ I saw it as fetishism,” said Natalie Frazier (’20). “It seems that when you mix white with a race, it’s seen as beautiful, instead of mixing African-American with Asian.”
Another topic the group addressed is that men and women handle beauty standards differently. The group mentioned how women speak more openly about beauty standards and body shaming than men do. They believe this happens because men may be called weak (or other, more brutal words) if they do speak out about it.
It was questioned if men ever openly complimented other men’s physical appearances around their friends, like females do with other women. Mosaic concluded that men do not participate in this behavior.
Mosaic’s next meeting will be Oct. 11 at 5 p.m. in the Boiler House Café basement.
