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| Simi Liu in shape for his role os Shang-chi and Kumail Nanjiani, ready for 'The Eternals.' |
During the Unforgettable Gala honoring the work of AAPI actors and others in the entertainment industry, part of the entertainment was a comedic bit where host Simu Liu, Blues Clues host Joshua Dela Cruz, Grey’s Anatomy star Alex Landi and online personality Eugene Lee Yang all took the stage to comment on mostly shirtless pictures of themselves from social media.
The six-pack, muscled torsos of the actors drew applause, ooh's, ahh's and nervous laughter at the apparent antithesis of the sexless, nerd stereotype draped on Asian men.
While shattering that stereotype is a worthy venture, we may be overreacting to that stereotype. We should be careful to not be promoting an image and standard that is impossible for most men to achieve. Like women have had to live up to the standards of skinny models with perfect skin promoted by fashion magazines, men can get hurt trying to attain a new body image.
As if to underline the danger of living up to movie-star standards, a few days after the Unforgettable Awards, Kumail Nanjiani posted pictures of shirtless torso which drew a lot of "likes" from women and comments of approval and surprise at the previously healthy-but-normal bodied Nanjiani, who plays a tech nerd in Silicon Valley.
Nanjiani said he wanted a new ripped bod in order to look heroic for his upcoming role in Marvel's The Eternals. Along with the shirtless photos, Nanjiani made sure to let followers know that it took a lot of work and sacrifice to attain his new body.
"I would dnot have been able to do this if I didn't have a full year with the best trainers and nutritionists paid for by the biggest studio in the world," Nanjiani wrote.
"I'm glad I look like this, but I also understand why I never did before," he continued. "It would have been impossible without these resources and time."
The desire to look like hyper-muscled supeheroes has also come at a cost: Male body image issues are on the rise, even among young kids.
The BBC reported in 2015 that health experts were worried about muscle dysmorphia, or so-called "bigorexia," among men.
"Muscle dysmorphia is a preoccupation with the idea that one isn't big enough, isn't muscular enough," Rob Willson, chair of the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation, told the BBC.
“We know about 10 percent of men in the gym may have muscle dysmorphia,” he said.
Dr. Michele Kerulis of Adler School of Professional Psychology told The Daily Mail that rate may be even higher: She claimed as many as 45 percent of frequent male gym goers male suffer from disordered body image.
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| Jason Momoa's Aquaman body (left) vs. his normal everyday physique. |
A few months ago, when photos of Aquaman's Jason Momoa appeared online that showed him with less than a six-pack, several trollers began body shaming him, calling his physique a "dad's bod," (to which I took personal offense).
To Momoa's credit, when TMZ pressed the Aquaman star if he was “offended” about the body-shaming at all, to which he responded, “No. Not at all.”
“Tell TMZ I’ll show ‘em my dad bod soon,” patting his stomach.
In order to get into shape for Aquaman, Momoa has to undergo a grueling workout regime and stick to a high-protein, no-fat diet, which is not sustainable, not to mention, unhealthy for long periods of time.
When Henry Golding took off his shirt in Crazy Rich Asians, women in the audience swooned and judging from the admiring tweets in response to Nanjiani's new physique, that "look" is appealing to a lot of people. We need to realize and accept that most men find themselves between those two extremes. Not all of us look good in spandex. And that's OK.
What's wrong with a "dad's bod," anyway?
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