As an actor in Los Angeles and New York, working on improving
his body image and making it more marketable takes up a lot of
Jonathan Grady’s time and effort.
“There is this typical standard that society places on
people that this is the image that you should have or you are not
really in. For men, they should be muscular, tall and for females,
it is thin with blond hair,” said Grady, a UCLA alumnus.
But an emphasis on looks and style is just a part of the
pressures that come with being an actor, he said.
“I go to the gym five days a week, the clothing I buy I
try to stay in, and stay with the current trend,” Grady
said.
“In New York and L.A. everyone is looking for that hip,
trendy look. But it is really hard for individuality and uniqueness
to be portrayed, because a lot of the time they say they are
looking for fresh and different looks, but they are really looking
for an image and if you don’t fall between the lines, you are
not going to make it.”
The Center for Women and Men will be hosting a video screening
and discussion to talk with students about the pressures to have an
ideal body type for both men and women and methods to combat
inaccurate and unhealthy ideals.
“Our focus will be to teach students how to be critical
consumers of the media. Research has shown that when people no
longer consider media images to be an appropriate comparison to
themselves they feel better about their body,” said Karen
Minero, a psychologist and associate director for the UCLA Center
for Women and Men.
Minero and Jill DeJager, a dietician with the center, will host
the event, “Do you love the body you have?” and lead
the discussion after the video viewing.
The event will include two videos, one about the media’s
influences, including advertising, on women’s body image and
one on men’s body issues and how the ideal body type affects
men.
“Everyone has body issues based on inaccuracies from the
media. Women are encouraged to shrink and take up less space, while
men are encouraged to take more take space, be ripped, be loud and
outspoken,” said Matt Bean, men’s program and outreach
coordinator for the center.
According to the center, 40 percent of men want to lose weight
(fat) while another 40 percent want to gain weight (muscle).
Alternatively, 70 to 80 percent of women want to lose weight.
Bean said society tells men to go to the gym, and women to go on
a diet.
The effects of the unhealthy body images can manifest as serious
mental and physical disorders for both men and women, Bean
said.
“These pressures can manifest for men as problems like
body dysmorphic disorder or muscle dysmorphia, which are commonly
called reverse anorexia.
“Students feel like they should look bigger and stronger
and may make unhealthy decisions as a result,” Bean said.
Body dysmorphic disorder involves an obsessive anxiety over a
perceived physical flaw while muscle dysmorphia is an obsession
with an imagined physical defect in musculature.
According to the center, these disorders can hamper a
student’s daily functioning. With this disorder, even a
muscular person who looks in the mirror will imagine themselves as
weak and scrawny, Bean said.
For women, some of the pressure students feel comes from the
living environment while attending college, Minero said.
“This is a difficult time for students, they move into
same-gender environments either in the dorms or houses and those
environments can be difficult because there is a focus on
appearance. It is difficult as far as pressure to adopt the point
of view that appearance is equal to self worth,” Minero
said.
The Center for Women and Men works to help students move from a
high school to a college environment and offer counseling to help
students with the transition.
“Coming away from high school, into a new environment,
students want to be making new friends and feel like they need to
be impressive. But their self identities are still growing and
changing, physically, mentally and emotionally. Body image is a big
part of that,” Bean said.
These differences between men and women ideal body types can be
seen by trends in plastic surgery, said Dr. Jaco Festekjian, UCLA
assistant clinical professor of plastic surgery.
“The most common procedures for women in L.A. are
liposuction, rhinoplasty and breast augmentation. But for men,
liposuction is also most common with a distant second as nose job,
primarily for ethnic men,” Festekjian said.
Since body image is a part of self-esteem, having inaccurate or
even impossible ideals can affect a student’s whole sense of
well-being, Minero said.
“What we try to do, for men as well, is to try not to
compare to athletes and models. What we are finding is that those
bodies were not achieved naturally. These people are not achieving
those bodies in a healthy way,” Minero said.
The event today is meant to give students a new and healthy
point of view about body image and the ideals portrayed in the
media. Minero said she knows talking about these issues can help
students become more successful.
“Consider all the time students spend on preoccupation,
getting ready in the morning, makeup, what to eat, when to
exercise, all the time that is invested.
“Then all the time actually spent on the way you look,
going to the gym, tanning shops, hair salons. It can affect
students’ academic and professional future, as well as social
and personal relationships,” she said.