...are motivated to exercise for appearance-related reasons. In fact, exercising for weight loss, body tone, and attractiveness reasons has been shown to be related to disturbed eating (McDonald & Thompson, 1992), body dissatisfaction (Silberstein, Striegel-Moore, Timko, & Rodin, 1988), reduced body esteem and self-esteem (Strelan, Mehaffey, & Tiggemann, 2003), and lowered psychological well-being (Maltby & Day, 2001). Conversely, exercising for fitness, health, and enjoyment reasons has been found to be related to increased self-esteem, body satisfaction (e.g., McDonald & Thompson, 1992; Strelan et al., 2003; Tiggemann & Williamson, 2000), and general psychological well-being (Maltby & Day, 2001).

Most studies indicate that men are less likely than women to exercise for appearance-related reasons (e.g., Silberstein et al., 1988; Tiggemann & Williamson, 2000). This is not surprising, given that women have traditionally been viewed as more preoccupied with their appearance (Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999). However, much evidence is emerging to show that men, too, are becoming increasingly concerned about their bodies (e.g., Luciano, 2001; Parks & Read, 1997; Pope, Phillips, & Olivardia, 2000). For example, a recent survey indicated that the percentage of US men who express dissatisfaction with their bodies had risen from 15% in 1972 to 43% in 1996 (Garner, 1997). The main aim of the present study was to examine the extent to which those men who are preoccupied with their appearance view exercise as a means of addressing such concerns.

Understandably, much of the theorizing on the antecedents of, and responses to, body dissatisfaction have been oriented toward women. At present no explicit theoretical statement exists to explain why the same phenomenon is occurring more and more among men. Thus, a secondary aim of the study was to apply an influential theoretical account of the development of body dissatisfaction among women, Fredrickson and Roberts' (1997) objectification theory, to men.

According to objectification theory, Westernized societies sexually objectify or commodify the female body. Women experience objectification through constant evaluation (e.g., male gaze) and the entertainment and advertising media. The latter repeatedly send the message to society in general, and women in particular, that women are to be valued for what they look like, not for who they are. Specifically, a thin beauty ideal is constantly glorified, and women are encouraged to perceive that if they are to be valued by others they must attain this ideal. Objectification theory asserts that ongoing exposure to the sociocultural belief that women are to be judged by how they look leads women to internalize others' views of themselves. Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) refer to this process as self-objectification, whereby individuals come to believe that they are indeed objects or commodities to be looked at and evaluated. Self-objectification has been shown to result in appearance anxiety, body shame (Fredrickson, Roberts, Noll, Quinn, & Twenge, 1998; Tiggemann & Lynch, 2001), and, ultimately, negative psychological and health consequences such as depressive symptoms (Muehlenkamp & Saris-Baglama, 2002), reduced body satisfaction, lowered self-esteem (Strelan et al., 2003), reduced body esteem (McKinley, 1998), and restrained and disordered eating (Fredrickson et al., 1998; Muehlenkamp & Saris-Baglama, 2002; Tiggemann & Lynch, 2001).

Although objectification theory was proposed ostensibly to explain the source of appearance anxiety and body shame among women, we, and others (e.g., Morrison, Morrison, & Hopkins, 2003), believe that at least one of its basic tenets may be sensibly applied to men. We acknowledge that men may not experience evaluation by women to the same degree that women experience it from men. However, a growing literature does indicate that, as for women, a likely source of men's body dissatisfaction is the entertainment and advertising media. Men are increasingly subject to articles and advertising in magazines, and to role models in films and on television, that promote images of an ideal male physique that is muscular, mesomorphic, and sharply defined (e.g., McCreary & Sasse, 2000; Morrison et al., 2003; Morry & Staska, 2001; Pope, Olivardia, Gruber, & Borowiecki, 1999). As with the thin ideal for women, such a physique is impossible for most men to attain (Salusso-Deonier, Markee, & Pedersen, 1993). For example, Pope et al.'s (1999) analysis of the evolution of male action toys concluded that if one contemporary toy (the GI Joe Extreme) was life-size, its biceps would be larger than any bodybuilder could possibly attain.

Objectification theory would suggest that the proliferation of such images encourages men to believe that the idealized male body is valued by society, and, therefore, in order to be valued men must attain such a body. Accordingly, studies indicate that exposure to idealized images of male bodies in the media is related to men's body dissatisfaction (e.g., Harrison & Cantor, 1997; Lavine, Sweeney, & Wagner, 1999). For example, Morry and Staska (2001) found that men who read...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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