The Male Body

There is not a single facet of human life that has not been affected by gender stereotypes, assumptions, and social cues.  The intellectual, academic, emotional, sexual, and social lives of men and women have been coerced and manipulated by cultural expectations for generations.  Fortunately, Western civilization has shed a great deal of its former sexist nonsense.  There remain aspects of the lives of men and women that are not emphasized, even by those who otherwise fight against gender-based discrimination and conditioning.  In the case of men, one such aspect is the male desire to be attractive and to be considered attractive by others.  Whereas female beauty is emphasized to the point of blatant superficiality, male beauty is often ignored, trivialized, or denied.

Men and women alike are expected to notice and compliment the appearances of women, but the same societal expectations are not directed towards men.  Furthermore, men are practically instructed by social cues to find women to be generally attractive.  In romantic relationships, it is expected that they will think that being aesthetically and sexually attracted to their partner is of extreme importance, but they are not expected to want this attraction to be reciprocated.  Women allegedly tend to possess an inherent beauty simply by virtue of being female, and men are supposedly not concerned with their appearances in the way that women "should" be.  When men care about being attractive and being perceived as attractive, only relatively minor societal factors encourage them.

Men can desire to be and feel attractive, just like
women can.

If a woman compliments the appearance of another woman, she is acting exactly as she is "supposed" to, despite the utter superficiality that the practice has collapsed into.  However, if a man compliments the appearance of another man, he might be suspected of harboring homosexual feelings, and the ordeal is considered humorous by many.  This double standard helps preserve a status quo where men are viewed as somewhat abnormal for aesthetically appreciating the bodies of other men.  In turn, this reinforces the perception that men are largely unconcerned with their looks.  It also means that men do not necessarily feel attractive.  I, however, want to have a significant other who is attracted to not only my intellect and personality, but also to my body.  Societal variables encourage men to not vocalize such desires.

The male body, in contemporary American culture, is often regarded as comedic or utilitarian--a thing that is not associated with beauty or sensuality, but with functionality.  Every time that people laugh at or makes demeaning jokes about men's bodies, men might internalize the fallacious notion that their bodies are mediocre or unappealing things, and this can produce discontentment and frustration.  But this position is far from historically normal.  Ancient Greece held to an inverted version of the American stance on the matter, viewing the male body as the pinnacle of physical beauty, as evidenced by the large number of Greek statues portraying the male form.  It is not as if American ideas about the male and female hodies are universal across time and geography.  While some Americans might be visibly puzzled at the reversed aesthetic preferences of the Greeks, the Greeks would probably be quite confused by American emphasis on the female body.

Contradicting the cultural assumptions of modern America, the Bible is explicit about referring to certain men, such as Joseph, David, and Absalom, as being physically attractive [1].  It also contradicts the ancient Greek perception of the human body, calling certain women like Abigail, Bathsheba, and Rachel physically attractive.  The Bible does not treat the beauty of one gender as if it is greater than that of the other.  Instead, it describes various men and women alike as having beautiful bodies.  The Old Testament in particular acknowledges that both men and women have bodies, and that the human body--not just the female form--is good (Genesis 1:31).

The truth is that the sexist aesthetic ideas of both present America and ancient Greece are purely based on circular reasoning, non sequiturs, and red herrings.  Some men are attractive, and some women are too; neither gender has a monopoly on beauty.  Just as it can be deeply liberating for women to affirm that they are far more than just attractive bodies, it can be deeply liberating for men to affirm their physicality and capacity for aesthetic or sexual appeal.  After all, individual men will find that few will affirm these things on their behalf.  Denial or ignorance of a person's longing to be aesthetically admired does not mean it does not exist.  Female and male beauty need to be celebrated.  When the beauty of one gender is trivialized or overemphasized, both genders suffer.

[1].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-beauty-of-both-genders.html