No. I think there are pressures on men. But I don't think they are subject to the same level of constant scrutiny and analysis as a gender as women are.

There isn't the same level of cultural anxiety around what makes a man as there is around what makes a woman. Though there is now some anxiety around what is a man, and that makes it seem like a very big question. But the reality is that the question of what is a woman is neverending, always present and only really waxes and wanes in terms of the levels of anxiety and prescription.

Nope.

Well, maybe about careers.

Yeah, I was going to say that men are under pressure to provide an ever-increasing salary, be very handy with tools, and maybe play baseball outside with their kid every afternoon. But I don't think they have to deal with image pressure at all. If anything, they get anti-image pressure, because if you care too much about your image, it's implied that you must be gay.

Think about the sexualising children debate. Is it really a debate about children? or is it actually a debate about sexualising girls? There is absolutely no corresponding debate about sexualising boys.

The question of what is a girl is fundamentally more important to us as a culture than the question what is a boy? That's one of the reasons boys who don't fit the picture become so culturally downgraded. because by not being like a boy they are being 'like a girl'. The emphasis is not on what a boy should be, but what he should not be: ie, like a girl. The core definition involved is ....what makes a girl.

The bigger woman looks more healthy and generally sexy but I wouldn't turn either one away.

If you refer to the same "men's" magazines that idealize unattainable body types, you'll find plenty of paranoia about hairlines, pecs, and abs. Thing is those are magazines for early twenty somethings, hardly men yet, who are really lost about their place in the world, not having figured out what is truly important to them and are easily swayed by advertising as they come out of the teenage fog of testosterone induced irrationality. The media blitz continues against women though, well past the age they seem to give up on men, Cialis not with-standing.

I don't think those magazines play as prominent a role in young male culture as the equivalent do in young female culture. It's also less all encompassing. It's in the lads mags. But it isn't everywhere they look all the time from their toddler years onwards.

It is hard, but we have to teach our girls to be skeptical of media images. That is just another reason to turn off the tv if you're raising kids.

Don't just turn it off. Throw it out the window.

... and shoot it twice before it hits the ground.

It's OK. Kids are rejecting TV in spades.

http://www.7x7.com/tech-gadgets/how-...-and-ecommerce

What's TV? Do they still have that?

Women are viewed by men as potential breeding partners (Sex Objects)
Men are viewed by women as potential providers (Success Objects)

Or as my friend's step dad says:

"There's two things that make the world go 'round, money and pussy. The money is chasing after the pussy and the pussy is chasing after the money."

Now you can go get an advanced degree in gender studies at some fancy university and put that simple truth in all sorts of fancy terms or you can just acknowledge it and put that bit of wisdom to work in your favor.

Women, that means use your pussy to its highest purpose to find the money to make you comfortable.
Men use your money to its highest purpose to find the pussy that makes you happiest.

I dunno...

I think they're just getting their ads in different places. And beyond that, some of the differences are just age:

They're comparing young kids to adults, not young kids to an earlier generation when they were also young. Hippies thought they weren't going to let "the man" tell them where to shop either, but now they walk into Target just like everyone else.

Women are view by women as competition.
Men are viewed as men as just another dude.

The women are comparing themselves to the other women... but the men are comparing their woman to the other women, too.