When we picture someone with body insecurities, we usually picture a woman, but women aren't the only ones guilty of bad body image
Men also get down on their looks — not for the same reasons, necessarily, but for their own that resonate not just with their own gender, but with women (and other non-binary genders) as well.
We spoke with five men — and found countless others on Reddit — about their biggest body insecurities.
Here's what some of them had to say:
[My biggest insecurities are] my height, my dick size, and other men I think are more attractive/taller or can attract girls more than me. There are things I've heard girls say about girth mattering for dick size, but honestly that's something I rarely think about; it's more about height and why the girls I go after aren't interested — and why girls always go for the same guy… [It] makes me wonder what I'm missing, and whether it’s looks-related.
My skin issues. You know when you look in the mirror and you’re like, ‘yeah, I look good today?’ I get that, but then there are a million little voices in your head just telling you otherwise.
Oh my god, my bald spot! I hate it more than anything. For a while my friends knew it bothered me and would tap on it, but now they are all losing their hair and it's not so funny! I'm married too, and I was losing it before then. Doesn't matter. My wife could tell me 13 times she doesn't mind it and I shouldn't either, but I hate it. It kills me…
When I was younger I had asthma and was on cortisone, and it made me kind of chubby — right around 12 years old, which is like the worst age for something like that. But even now that I’m older and I’ve grown out of it, I still see myself as that chubby kid. The other day a friend called me ‘scrawny,’ and the first thing I thought was, ‘what are they talking about, I’m the complete opposite.’ Sometimes you stay stuck in seeing yourself that way.
Dick size. And it’s not just about being self-conscious in the bedroom, but also in the locker room next to other guys. Or even when you watch porn and you see these guys with like, two-foot-long dicks. That, and my height.
Every man I spoke to for this article asked to remain anonymous — which really says something about how different genders perceive weakness or vulnerability in themselves.
The last Reddit user quoted also made a point to note, "Honestly, I'm pretty sure men have more insecurities then women do; women just stereotypically show it off more. But we're men. We aren't going to show it because we WILL get made fun of by other men, or vice versa."
Maybe we should all start talking about our insecurities. If everything's out on the table, then we'd realize we aren't the only ones who feel the way we do about certain parts of our bodies, and we could start loving ourselves again 🙂
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
