肌肉情結和形體困惑 讓人歡喜讓人憂

“Should I lose some weight?” “How do I look in these clothes?” “Am I sexy enough?”
“我要不要減肥？”“我穿這些衣服看起來怎麼樣？”“我性感惹火嗎？”

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.
聽上去很耳熟？你可能曾聽到閨蜜或舍友照鏡子時這樣自言自語。然而，關注外表不再只是女性的專利，男士們也越來越注重自己的身材與外形。相關調查顯示，超過5千萬的美國男性遭遇“形體困惑”。

“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.”
“從歷史角度來看，人們更加關注女性的外形，因爲在他們眼中，女性更容易遭遇形體方面的困惑,”來自弗羅裏達大學的心理學家希瑟•奧桑布拉在接受NBC《今日秀》網站採訪時說道。“而事實卻並非如此。”

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》發起的一項調查顯示，53%的男性每週至少會對個人形象焦慮一次，比起健康、家庭、愛情或事業成就，他們更擔心自己的外表。

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.
美國心理學會調查顯示：具有標準體重的男性中有25%的人認爲自己偏瘦。這種狀態被稱爲肌肉上癮症（或“健身過度症”）。這些人癡迷於健身，認爲自己的肌肉不夠發達。

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後的千禧男士尤其容易遭遇此類問題，從而導致抑鬱、自卑、運動過度、濫用類固醇等增肌藥物以及飲食不規律等狀況的發生。

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，究竟是什麼原因導致男士們對自己身材的不滿？答案是：在過去幾十年中，娛樂圈所描繪出的完美男性形象，使得人們對於男性身材的期望達到了一種離譜的地步。從雜誌封面、音樂錄影帶、再到《斯巴達300勇士》這樣的電影中，男士們常常以一種近乎完美的身材現身，而在現實生活中，要想保持這樣的身材幾乎是不可能的。

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.”
文化指標研究項目創始人、美國賓夕法尼亞大學(安南伯格傳播學院)前院長喬治•葛本納在接受《Seed》雜誌採訪時表示：“我們在電視和雜誌上看到的身材最終成爲了現實的標準與期望，無法達到這樣的身材就被認爲是一種缺憾。”

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?”
來自舊金山州立大學的心理學家黛博拉•斯谷樂補充道：“人們不斷地看到千篇一律的健壯身材，從而相信這是真實的。如果那樣的身材是真材實料並且可以實現，無法擁有該身材的你怎能不對自己的身材感到沮喪呢？”

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.”
在發表於《赫芬頓郵報》上的一篇文章中，自由撰稿人凱特•弗裏迪斯以漫威漫畫超級英雄形象爲例寫道：“在《美國隊長》叢書中，我們十分樂於看到瘦小柔弱的英雄化身爲身材魁梧、肌肉健壯的作戰機器。現在他可以拯救世界了，因爲他已經全副武裝。而之前，他毫無勝算。要想取勝，必須先變成大塊頭。”