What is your view on the male body image and what extent do you think that the representation of male body image is changing?

The representation of the male body in media texts has changed substantially in the last century. What is currently shown as a representation for men is as being very attractive with perfectly shaped bodies, an example of this is the recent film 'Magic Mike XXL' which depicts the male leads half naked showing their muscles and abs. This links with the female gaze where the use of sexualising men in media products is used to attract the female audience. In contrast to this the representation of the male body in the 1960's was very different. In most media platforms at this time the male body was shown as being strong and heroic while the female body was used as a sexual object, for example in the 1965 'James Bond- Thunder ball' film poster where the male is holding a weapon and is surrounded by half naked females. This shows that there has been a rather large evolution of how the male body image is represented within media texts.

In the television show 'Reggie Yates- Extreme UK' it shows how a healthy lifestyle can lead to addiction in many different ways including the use of steroids injections to wanting the perfect body through over exercising. Gauntletts theory that states "Identity is now consciously constructed, and the media provides some of the tools to help us contract our identity. The media contains a huge number of messages about identity and acceptable lifestyles. At the same time the public have their own diverse set of feelings. The media and media consumers are engaged in a dialogue in which neither over powers the other". This links with how the public/ normal people such as the ones in this television show are affected by how the male body is currently being shown in the media, as the message is that having a fit body is what is acceptable for men. This can also be seen in mens magazines such as mens health and in product advertisement for example the diet coke advert, both show attractive overly sexualised men which is leading the public to think that its the most acceptable form of identity for men.  

Personally, I believe that the representation of the male body image has changed dramatically to show men more as sexualised objects in todays media.