
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 6, 1994                   TAG: 9409080032
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By DAVID FRIEDMAN/NEWSDAY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long

IT'S A SHAPE THING

THOUGH it now seems hard to believe, there once was a time when the human male was judged much the way a chef would rate a steak: The prime stuff came marbled with fat. Not to the point of obesity, necessarily. But paunchy - definitely paunchy. A mature man wore his prosperity, the product of his hard work and good judgment, under his belt - or, more likely, over it. To be skinny was to admit failure: Thin wasn't in; it signaled undernourishment and poverty. Girth, on the other hand, was something you earned, something you could afford, something you were proud of. Think of Winston Churchill and William Howard Taft, Babe Ruth and Ernest Hemingway, Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock. The list goes on and on.

That was then. This is now, a time when psychiatrists warn of ``Chippendale syndrome,'' a neurotic condition in which men get addicted to pumping iron and burning flab. This is a time when a million weight-obsessed American males have anorexia or bulimia, eating disorders long thought to be ``female.'' A time when more than 250,000 teen-age boys have used illegal steroids to build bulk. When one in seven plastic-surgery patients is a man. When American men spend more than $2 billion a year on cosmetics. And when the fastest-growing men's magazine is Men's Health, a clone of women's supermarket glossies that promises to teach its readers how to ``Lose Your Belly'' (July '94), ``Build a Mighty Chest'' (June '94) and ``Block the Aging Process'' (April '94).

Clearly, a cultural shift is under way as more and more men become more interested in and, some would say, obsessed with their body image and appearance. Say goodbye to portly and powerful, say hello to buff and tough - and by whatever means necessary.

Want a great set of pecs? Have them implanted. Same with calves and biceps. After all, who needs technique when there's technology? Hate that midriff bulge - but hate sit-ups even more? Have your flab pumped out through a liposuction tube. Is it any wonder a Los Angeles doctor doing penile-enlargement procedures gets 2,000 inquiries a day?

Score one for the plastic surgeons in the Battle for Sexual Equality: Vanity has become gender-blind.

This is not to say the male species was until now immune to this most self-referential of sins. Indeed, vanity was a competitive sport for privileged European males three centuries ago, when any courtier worth his wig routinely painted his face and lips and stocked his dressing room with curling irons, powder puffs, rouges and scent bottles too numerous to count.

But this is 20th-century America, where masculinity was defined by John Wayne and Gary Cooper, horse-loving, rifle-shooting, mirror-avoiding men who - on-screen, anyway - seemed far too macho to be distracted by such ``sissified'' pursuits as good grooming.

In reality, said Michael Lefavore, editor in chief of Men's Health, ``American men have always been vain. What's different today is that they're much more open about it. They want to look good in a bathing suit. They want a 32-inch waist. They don't want to look old. They want to look like Keanu Reeves.''

Some argue there's an economic determinant at work here. Good jobs are scarce, a lot of male middle managers are out of work, and they're quickly learning what women have always known - that the best jobs often go to the best-looking people. ``Men are starting to experience appearance-related discrimination in the workplace,'' said Debbie Then, a California-based social psychologist. ``They're competing with younger men - and with women. For many of these middle-aged men, a face-lift seems a small price to pay and an excellent investment.''

As are dues to the local gym, a place where every move is reflected in wall-to-wall mirrors. Indeed, the emphasis in some gyms seems less on health - though being in shape is clearly a healthy thing - than the appearance of health. ``My motto isn't, `Be Healthy,' '' said gym owner David Barton, a man with biceps the size of twin hot-air balloons. ``It's `Look Better Naked.'''

This era of gym-built bodies was launched ``primarily by gay men, who have always felt comfortable looking in the mirror,'' said Richard Martin, curator of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. ``Now straight men who work out or care about their appearance no longer feel inhibited by accusations of homosexuality or narcissism.''

But according to Ann Kearney-Cooke, a Cincinnati psychologist specializing in eating disorders, the current male obsession with body image is a symptom of gender confusion. ``Men don't know what it means to be a man anymore,'' said Kearney-Cook, who noted that one quarter of her patients are male. ``The male role has become totally blurred. It used to be that men knew what they were expected to be - the breadwinner - but now women share that role.''

So it's off to the gym men go, pumping, lifting, squatting, crunching. ``The struggle to get those huge shoulders, big chest and narrow waist,'' said Kearney-Cook, ``is a way of saying, `I look like a man, so I must be a man.' ''

Clearly, the ideal male body image has changed over the years, becoming slimmer, harder and definitely more muscular - the last value only recently denuding itself of a negative stereotype. Bodybuilding has always been around but, until a few years ago, carried a ``blue collar'' stigma. That changed, said Steven Levenkron, a New York City therapist specializing in eating and obsessive-compulsive disorders, in the mid-'70s, when women tired of thin, androgynous, hippie-style men. ```Blue collar chic' became the fashion,'' Levenkron said, ``and you saw educated women dating plumbers with pecs.'' Soon, the Darwinian urge to procreate led intellectuals to put down their pipes and pick up free weights. By the time the '80s ended, Charles Atlas had jumped off the back page of comic books and onto the cover of GQ.

Magazines, movies and TV have us believe that exceptional good looks are normal, real and easily attainable - which they are not.

Narcissus had it easy; he fell in love with his own reflection in a pond. Men today have to look at the movies, television and fashion ads - places where they don't see their own reflection. ``Many of my patients feel acutely frustrated,'' Kearney-Cook said. ``The more they work out, the farther they feel from their goal - which is perfection.''

by CNB