Social construction of Masculinity for Male Bodies

This picture is from an add that was sponsored on my Instagram feed. It was an advertisement for an app that allows you to edit your body. It's called the "manlyapp". It then played a video of a guy at the beach who didn't have a beach body. It went on to edit his picture giving him rock hard six pack abs, broad shoulders, and a bigger chest. This add is playing on the gender norms of men's potential insecurities in what is to be considered the "perfect male body". This stereotypical form of the male body is very hypermasculine, big muscles, perfect abs, no fat. This is the body that has been socially constructed in our society as what should be the goal of man to look like. This is so much ingrained in our society that there are now apps that exploit this expectation of men to the point where companies are making profits off of individuals who feel this societal pressure to fit the norm of what the "perfect male body" should look like. This add is conforming to hegemonic masculinity and is supporting this view on what it means to be a "man". All of these terms, hegemonic masculinity, gender norms, and hypermasculine, on what defines a "man" are a result of the systemic institutionalized social construction in our society.








Rothenberg, P. S. (1998). Race, class, and gender in the United States: An integrated study. New
York: St. Martin's Press. Part 1, Ch 1, 2, 5, 6. Part 2, Ch 2, 4. Part 4, Ch 2.
 Manlyapp

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