Those Speedos become them: The role of self-objectification in gay and heterosexual men’s body image

ies examining the changing value of the male figure in modern societies illustrate that the overall number, as well as the number of objectifying portrayals of men in the media, has risen dramatically in recent years (Leit, Pope, & Gray, 2001; Pope, Olivardia, Borowiecki, & Cohane, 2001; Rohlinger, 2002). This has been accom-panied by a change in the way in which men’s bodies are portrayed: from unclothed men in appropriate situa-tions (e.g., at the beach) to present-day portrayals of the bare male body used to sell a vast variety of products (e.g., soft drinks). The increase in the use of male bodies (in advertisements) also has been accompanied by an alteration in the shape of the body portrayed. The prevailing ideal for the male body in modern societies is one that is hard, muscular, and meso