Behold the Man: The Hype and Selling of Male Beauty in Media and Culture [Paperback]

John Dececco Phd (Author)

2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product Details

Paperback: 188 pages
Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (Dec 30 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1560239530
ISBN-13: 978-1560239536
Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 15 x 1.5 cm
Shipping Weight: 318 g

Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,448,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Book Description

The first comprehensive study of how images of male beauty are projected onto society, Behold the Man: The Hype and Selling of Male Beauty in Media and Culture examines the role media and society play in creating the image of the idealized male. This book explores how these images are interpreted by all genders and sexual orientations in order to investigate the phenomenon’s effect on the self-esteem of adolescent and adult males. Behold the Man provides you with research and examples that identify this problem from many angles to help you realize that being a man is more than merely possessing muscles and good looks.

Discussing examples in which both attractive men and women are idealized as “the norm,” Behold the Man argues that men are experiencing the same injustices as women--splashed on the covers of magazines and in advertisements, based on their sex appeal, sometimes to promote nothing more than their looks. Within Behold the Man, you‘ll find topics that relate to the reasons for and effects of male beauty standards, such as:

aspects of male beauty, from Ancient Greek ideals to how it is visualized throughout history in art
the vision of “the ideal male,” along with sexual connotations, in advertisements for clothing, cologne, sunglasses, automobiles, and shaving products
the emphasis of strong, well-built males and their bodies in movies, music videos, and literature
how men alter their bodies by dieting and cosmetic surgery to achieve the look found in advertisements
today’s growing numbers of male eating disorders caused by the notion that only good-looking, muscular men are acceptable
reasons behind the exploitation of the male body and the double standards for male beauty found within gay male communities
how advertisers and authors faithfully follow the “bigger is better” theory--from pectoral and bicep muscles to penis size

Recognizing how society has created and changed the appearance of the ideal male, this text explains to you the danger men of all ages face who feel they need to be physically handsome to be desirable. From Behold the Man, you’ll learn about the real messages of advertising and media, the problems they cause, and that true self-worth cannot be measured by physical attributes.

Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
Men are meat-their naked bodies hoisted up on larger-than-life billboards, flashed across movie and television screens, frozen in print advertisements, displayed as props and playthings in music videos, begged for in pornography, silenced in erotica, shamed into dieting, chopped up in cosmetic surgery centers. Read the first page

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2.0 out of 5 stars Immensely disappointing, Aug 17 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Behold the Man: The Hype and Selling of Male Beauty in Media and Culture (Paperback)

An angry Dotson's adds nothing but his own value judgments on male beauty (or the male physique) in today's culture. There is very little objectivity in the book as Dotson bashes everything from advertising to working out.

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Amazon.com: 3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A long overdue book!, April 9 1999

By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Behold the Man: The Hype and Selling of Male Beauty in Media and Culture (Hardcover)

Dotson takes an insightful look at how our culture dictates how men should view themselves and the extreme lengths that we go to in order to achieve an unrealistic ideal. It's about time someone explored a concept once so closely associated with women. Like a surgeon, Dotson dissects this very timely subject and exposes how men can be just as gullible as women when it comes to self-image.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Immensely disappointing, Aug 17 1999

By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Behold the Man: The Hype and Selling of Male Beauty in Media and Culture (Paperback)

› Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews 3.5 out of 5 stars