It's a scary feeling for me to have my face on even a fake magazine, let alone a real one. If I were to be in a public media outlet like a magazine, I would immediately be worried about the comments and feedback that I would be subjected to. For example, GQ is usually about good-looking, handsome men, which is obviously quite wonderful. The only problem is that if there are men within the section pertaining to the handsome men, they're immediately placed under the public's microscope. Are they really as hot as the magazine says? Who is on the list? What standards does the magazine use when curating a list of men for the final draft?
Although women do receive an awful lot of scrutiny within the media about body image and self-esteem, men also receive a substantial amount of criticisms about their image. Whether people comment on a man's body hair or lack thereof, his weight, his face, his facial features, his fitness level, or even his ethnicity, the moral of the story is that, within advertising and other media, all individuals receive their fair share of criticisms on a daily basis already, and when this is compounded with media influence, it's no wonder eating disorders and mental illness have become more relevant over the years. Are media messages really who we should be answering to, or are we smarter than the machine?
