'The old ideal of American maleness is under attack...'

http://www.healthyplace.com/eating-disorders/main/eating-disorders-men-have-body-image-problems-too/menu-id-58/ . The Healthy Place website is the largest consumer mental health site online, and has been specifically designed to provide information and support to people with any mental health concerns. The article I have found is from the ‘eating disorders’ section of the website, and focuses on the issue of male body image and a man’s role in modern American society.
The article explores the increasing pressure that men are facing to be masculine and desirable in a society that has become feminised and obsessed with the importance of appearance. It suggests that this pressure is mainly down to the ‘shift in gender roles’ that has occurred over the last century. This has meant that men are no longer considered desirable by women simply because of their education or their financial security, as in the past, because this is something the most women can now achieve themselves. Therefore what women now consider to be most desirable in a man is his personality and his appearance. The article states that: ‘we are moving away from the old adage: men do, women are…we're reaching some kind of compromise, where there is more choice. Women can choose men who are not rich or successful, but who are beautiful…’
This shift has meant that men are now seen as ‘objects of desire’, much like women have traditionally been, and there is therefore increased pressure on men to hold on to their masculinity while looking after themselves and their image in a way that they have never been expected to before. Page one of the article discusses the results of a 1993 Psychology Today survey which found that ‘Men believe their appearance has a greater impact on women than women themselves actually acknowledge’ and that ‘Men are less worried about being overweight… but more concerned about muscle mass’. These results offer an explanation for increases in male body image disorders, increased participation in exercise and increased use of drugs such as anabolic steroids. We can see from this the male body image issues are more common than ever before.