Chinese male body images healthier than in the West

Taiwanese men appear less preoccupied about their body image than their Western counterparts and have a lower rate of body dysmorphic disorder and anabolic steroid use, perhaps because of more sophisticated notions of masculinity.Young, heterosexual male university students completed a study on computerised images of their own body shape (based on their height, weight and proportion of body fat) compared to their perceptions of the average Taiwanese man, the body they would like to have, and the male body they thought women would prefer. Participants estimated a 2 kg difference in the muscularity of the average man and the man that women would prefer, but in previous studies of European and American men this difference was about 10 kg. A second component of the study assessed body images in advertisements in popular Taiwanese magazines, replicating an American study of Cosmopolitan and Glamour. Models were defined as "undressed" if their clothing was less than would be expected on a city street, or if there was prominent exposure of the biceps, pectoral or abdominal muscles in men. The prevalence of undressed Western male and female models was similar in both Taiwanese and American publications. However, only half as many Asian women as Western women were shown undressed in the Taiwanese magazines, and only 5% of Asian men were shown undressed compared to 43% of Western men. "This suggests that, at least in the judgment of advertisers, muscularity is not a prime criterion for defining a Chinese man as masculine, admirable or desirable," the researchers said.One hypothesis was that, since antiquity, Western culture had seen fitness and muscularity as a measure of masculinity, but traditional Chinese concepts incorporated broader factors including literary and cultural attainments.Male body image disorders appeared rare in non-Western societies and anabolic steroid abuse, while common and growing in the West, was almost unknown.Reference...