肌肉情结和形体困惑 让人欢喜让人忧

“Should I lose some weight?” “How do I look in these clothes?” “Am I sexy enough?”

“我要不要减肥？”“我穿这些衣服看起来怎么样？”“我性感惹火吗？”

Sound familiar? You’ve probably heard your female friends or roommates asking themselves such questions while looking in the mirror. But it’s not just women who worry about their looks. Men are becoming more conscious of their body image, too. According to studies, more than 50 million men in the US have body image issues.

听上去很耳熟？你可能曾听到闺蜜或舍友照镜子时这样自言自语。然而，关注外表不再只是女性的专利，男士们也越来越注重自己的身材与外形。相关调查显示，超过5千万的美国男性遭遇“形体困惑”。

“From a historical perspective, people have focused more on female body image because women are perceived to have more body image issues,” Heather Hausenblas, a University of Florida psychologist, told NBC’s Today morning TV show website. “But that’s not necessarily the case.”

“从历史角度来看，人们更加关注女性的外形，因为在他们眼中，女性更容易遭遇形体方面的困惑,”来自弗罗里达大学的心理学家希瑟•奥桑布拉在接受NBC《今日秀》网站采访时说道。“而事实却并非如此。”

A survey by Today found that 53 percent of men said they felt insecure about their appearance at least once a week, and that they worried about their appearance more than about their health, family, relationships, or professional success.

《今日秀》发起的一项调查显示，53%的男性每周至少会对个人形象焦虑一次，比起健康、家庭、爱情或事业成就，他们更担心自己的外表。

Research by the American Psychological Association showed that 25 percent of men with a healthy weight think they are underweight. This is related to a condition called muscle dysmorphia, or bigorexia, in which a person is obsessed with the idea that they are not muscular enough.

美国心理学会调查显示：具有标准体重的男性中有25%的人认为自己偏瘦。这种状态被称为肌肉上瘾症（或“健身过度症”）。这些人痴迷于健身，认为自己的肌肉不够发达。

Millennial men, those born after 1980, are particularly at risk of such problems, which can lead to depression, low self-esteem, excessive exercising, misuse of body-enhancing drugs such as steroids, and eating disorders.

出生在80后的千禧男士尤其容易遭遇此类问题，从而导致抑郁、自卑、运动过度、滥用类固醇等增肌药物以及饮食不规律等状况的发生。

But what is causing body image dissatisfaction among men? The reason is that the cultural expectation for men’s bodies, as portrayed in the entertainment industry, has evolved to unrealistic standards over the last few decades. From magazine covers and music videos to movies such as 300, men are constantly exposed to “ideal” representations of the male body that are nearly impossible to attain.

然而，究竟是什么原因导致男士们对自己身材的不满？答案是：在过去几十年中，娱乐圈所描绘出的完美男性形象，使得人们对于男性身材的期望达到了一种离谱的地步。从杂志封面、音乐录影带、再到《斯巴达300勇士》这样的电影中，男士们常常以一种近乎完美的身材现身，而在现实生活中，要想保持这样的身材几乎是不可能的。

George Gerbner, founder of the Cultural Indicators Research Project and former dean of communications at the University of Pennsylvania, told Seed magazine that “What we see on TV and in magazines eventually becomes our standard of reality and desire; failing to meet it is perceived as deficiency.”

文化指标研究项目创始人、美国宾夕法尼亚大学(安南伯格传播学院)前院长乔治•葛本纳在接受《Seed》杂志采访时表示：“我们在电视和杂志上看到的身材最终成为了现实的标准与期望，无法达到这样的身材就被认为是一种缺憾。”

San Francisco State University psychologist Deborah Schooler added that “People see the same images over and over and start to believe it’s a version of reality. If those bodies are real and that’s possible, but you can’t attain it, how can you not feel bad about your own body?”

来自旧金山州立大学的心理学家黛博拉•斯谷乐补充道：“人们不断地看到千篇一律的健壮身材，从而相信这是真实的。如果那样的身材是真材实料并且可以实现，无法拥有该身材的你怎能不对自己的身材感到沮丧呢？”

Writing for The Huffington Post, freelance writer Kate Fridkis used the example of a Marvel Comics superhero: “In the Captain America story, we fairly cheer when the slender, delicate hero is transformed into a strapping, muscle-bound fighting machine. He can save the world now, because he’s jacked. Before, there was no chance. He had to switch bodies to succeed.”

在发表于《赫芬顿邮报》上的一篇文章中，自由撰稿人凯特•弗里迪斯以漫威漫画超级英雄形象为例写道：“在《美国队长》丛书中，我们十分乐于看到瘦小柔弱的英雄化身为身材魁梧、肌肉健壮的作战机器。现在他可以拯救世界了，因为他已经全副武装。而之前，他毫无胜算。要想取胜，必须先变成大块头。”