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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
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2 6 - 0 9 - 2 0 0 5 In search of male perfection
New beauty standards have young men battling eating disorders, low self-esteem
By CHRIS MORRIS FREDERICTON -- Michael MacKay could be the poster boy for the age of Adonis. With his shaved and bronzed skin, finely sculpted pecs and abs, his brilliantly white teeth and spiked blond hair, MacKay typifies a new generation of young men for whom the look is everything. They are turning up everywhere -- in classrooms, gymnasiums, on the beach and in the office. But they are most readily found in the pages of magazines like Esquire, Vanity Fair and GQ. MacKay, a 24-year-old financial planner in Fredericton, works out with weights five or six times a week, guzzles protein drinks and tans year round. "I was skinny in high school and I wanted to be bigger ... it's all about looking good for the ladies," he explains. But it is the effort to maintain a totally hairless body that has presented one of the biggest challenges in MacKay's pursuit of perfection. "I don't have hair on my body at all -- anywhere," he says proudly. "I've waxed and I've done some electrolysis. But I find shaving better because if I shave every two days, I can stay smooth." MacKay is preparing to shell out at least $1,000 for laser treatments to remove body hair once and for all. This is a major change in body image for men. NO MORE THICK PELTS For those who can still remember the lush, hairy chests of stars like Sean Connery and Burt Reynolds -- thick pelts a gal could curl up against -- these new developments are chilling. Psychologists have their concerns as well. Studies suggest media images of what men should look like are having potentially harmful side effects. Eating disorders, body obsessions and low physical self-esteem are becoming almost as common in men as in women. Jamie Farquhar, a fourth-year psychology student at Mount Allison University has recently completed the first stage of a research project looking at the role of the media in male attitudes towards their bodies. Farquhar looked at 30 years of advertising in magazines like Sports Illustrated and discovered a marked change in how the male body is presented. He says today's male advertising images are more nude, more posed and with more emphasis on body parts and the presentation of the male physique as an object. "If the media is teaching us to look at the body as an object, then it's no surprise we're being more critical and less satisfied with our bodies," Farquhar says. Clinical psychologist Roberto Olivardia, co-author of the groundbreaking book, The Adonis Complex, says he has treated boys as young as 12 for steroid abuse. He believes increased access to steroids has helped fuel the change in male body image. Olivardia says it's a doomed effort, since the ravages of time and age eventually will erode any body, no matter how pumped up. "We'll all get old, wrinkled and grey ... and if you have rested your self esteem on looking good, at some point you're going to be in trouble." |
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