Steroids have existed for a long time, but the drug still feeds discussions on online body image.
Ailsa Chang, host:
In recent years, we have seen a peak in control over the appearance of famous people – more precisely, that they can be lost in weights like Ozempic or Zepbound. But, you know, another class of drugs also feeds discussions on online body image, and it is a drug that has existed for much longer. We are talking about men who want to gain muscle mass using steroids. Brittany Luse of NPR is the host of the Podcast It's at Minute, and every month, it brings us an overview of the neglected culture. Hey, Brittany, it's good to be with you again.
Brittany Luse, byline: It's great to be back, Ailsa.
Chang: OK, so as we said, steroids have been around for so long. So what made you want to look at the current conversation around steroids? As, has this conversation changed?
Luse: yeah. I mean, you mentioned Ozempic and drugs like that. And on social networks, you can often see people analyzing whether or not a celebrity takes the medication due to a sudden weight loss.
Chang: right.
Luse: Well, the same goes for the opposite. There are more and more analyzing content if a famous man began to use steroids because he is suddenly much more muscular.
(Soundbit of archived registration)
Unidentified person: in the past 24 days, look at the change in physics. He is small, then large. And what you will see is that it will become small, then large. What it often means is that they continue and outside cycles.
Luse: And in addition to that, there are much more content for young men on how to reach these type of muscular body, and that could have an impact on the self -image of young men. I spoke to Dr. Roberto Olivardia on this subject, and he is a clinical psychologist and professor at the Harvard Medical School, and he launched research on a specific type of negative body image which he calls muscle dysmorphia. Here's how he described it to me.
Roberto Olivardia: It is the guys who, although they are in good shape – could wear long -sleeved shirts per day to 90 degrees …
Luse: oh.
Olivardia: … because they think their arms are too puny or too thin. And when I talk about boys, I mean, I see this in boys as young as 12 years old, you know, 11, who …
Luse: wow, like the age of the college.
Olivardia: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I worked with boys as young as 13, 14, who made anabolic steroids.
Chang: Wow, it makes me so sad that the 12 -year -old boys could fight with that, because, you know, we think a lot about young women when we talk about body image problems, and I have the impression that we are all conscious at this stage of the pressure exerted on young women to look like a certain way. And I have the impression that we are not talking so much about how this same pressure is imposed on boys or men. What kind of ways have we seen this pressure take place? And have the standards evolved for the ideal male physique over the years?
Luse: I mean, yes, totally. Ideal of the male body, just like the ideals of the body of women – they always change. As, for example, in the 1980s and in the 90s, it was a question of being taken. Think, like a WWE wrestler, right?
Chang: Yeah.
Luse: yeah. And Dr. Olivardia has actually studied how these changing ideals appear in a subtle way, as in the action figures of popular films.
Olivardia: We obtained a figure in action from the 1970s from Luke Skywalker and the 1998 figure of action, and, as, it is completely different. I mean, the new figure of action of Luke Skywalker had her open dress, her very defined pectoral muscles, her smaller size, the more defined legs. And now we are talking about an action figure based on the same character who was, you know, manipulated to be much more muscular.
Chang: Wow. I mean, that makes me ask me, what is the ideal male body today? What do you think, Brittany?
Luse: Yes, when I questioned Dr Olivardia on this subject, he essentially declared that young men had a much more uncertain future today than they had done in the past, both in terms of educational and economic. For example, being the family support of the family is no longer a guaranteed position for them.
Chang: right.
Luse: Young men could feel threatened and want to reach a body that makes them threaten the world around them.
Olivardia: We called it in a way, like the theory of masculinity threatened, and I think that is what we see now. But I have patients who could have trouble, let's say, with social anxiety, and they feel so desperate because they are like, I want people to see me as a threat. I want people to consider me dangerous because internally, I feel so inferior. You know, I just met a man yesterday in the middle of their twenties, and he said, yes, if I build, like the perfect body, then I will be safe from any type of rejection. And I said, unfortunately, this is not the case.
Luse: Yes, Dr Olivardia has essentially summed up me like that. In the end, the body is not a shield for rejection.
Chang: No, this is not the case. Brittany, thank you very much for sharing this with all of us.
Luse: Thank you, Ailsa. It's always a pleasure.
Chang: It was Brittany Luse. She is the host of It's at Minute, an NPR show, a show on the exploration of what is happening in culture.
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