Are Celebrities the New Influencers for Body Image?
Have you seen Apple’s new advertisement for Apple Music? Take a look at the video below.
This advertisement stars Drake, popular music artist, and has been a huge success gaining millions of views. He is first seen lifting weights in the gym with his trainer, who, for some reason, is topless revealing his bulky chest and big arms. Even Drake shows off his arms and shoulders, which adds to the humorous juxtaposition of his Taylor Swift song choice and the “manly” gym environment.
It is evident that the fitness and gym industry have become part of our everyday culture. The epitome of the modern man is to have a muscular physique, portraying strength, power and so-called masculinity. Whether you’re into weight training or not, it’s pretty hard to avoid this representation of the idealistic male, you will find it practically everywhere including in films, music, entertainment and art.
Think about it. Is there even such existence of a superhero who doesn’t possess these traits?
The new trailer for the upcoming remake film Baywatch, featured on YouTube, stars the actor Zac Efron, now known for his transformation into a ripped, lean muscleman, and Dwayne Johnson, famously known as The Rock due to his extremely large, muscular build and from his previous professional wrestling career. Here, take a look…
The trailer shows these two men with defined muscles as lifeguard heroes, rescuing damsels in distress from danger, and clearly gaining attention from plenty of women. If this doing scream “I am a man!”, then I don’t know what does.
Dwayne Johnson had been teasing his role in the film for a while, but finally, he announced it on his social media pages by sharing the trailer. For perspective, his fan base on just Facebook exceeds over 57 million, which is almost equivalent to the whole population of Italy! So, you can see he can be a huge influencer.
Online content empowers celebrities to play a more important role in shaping public attitudes towards body image and become arbiters of what is right and what is wrong. This is because a celebrity accumulating a large following online is a lot more effective than a television show with high ratings, for example, as their fans are given the opportunity to be active and feel more engaged with the star; allowing celebrities to be trusted.
Another example of a company using celebrity power is with stand-up comedian and actor, Kevin Hart. He’s been dedicated to his training regime for around three years and is now turning into a fitness sensation – featuring in Nike’s campaign #MoveWithHart, aimed to start a movement to inspire people to get motivated and participate in fitness to reach their goals (see advertisement below), as well as releasing his own line of trainers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mvtisYYy04
“Before that I was in fake shape,” Hart joked. “I looked like I was in shape, but then you’d take off my shirt and it was like, ‘No, no, no.’”
In another YouTube video, Kevin Hart joins television host and comedian, Conan O’Brien, to work out in the gym. In this show, Hart pokes fun at Conan for their differences in fitness levels and body appearance. He says things such as “Stop throwing the ball like a pussy, throw the ball like a man” and “You have the body of a Dutch women”, causing all the audience to laugh. A comment, made by Shaddowkhan, on the YouTube video quotes “Dutchman here can confirm, Conan does have the body of a Dutch woman”, which has become the top comment gaining hundreds of likes.
The ability to communicate online has its advantages, however, the Internet can also provide a thriving environment for hate comments for a number of reasons. Commenters are given the option to remain anonymous and thus can claim free of trolling. Additionally, writing unpleasant comments is much easier than expressing it in speech or face-to-face, as well as not having to worry about being within close distance of the target, allowing people to be more confident and expressive online.
Therefore, posting content in relation to the male body, on the Internet, instead of perhaps television, opens a platform for comments that can be hateful and judgmental, contributing to the pressures men face on achieving the idealistic body.
As mentioned previously, it is very difficult to stay away from messages indicating the idealist male body – most of them are subliminal anyway! And yes, the Internet has stimulated these pressures men encounter to fulfil expectations, that have been drilled into society, by giving celebrities more influential power and allowing online content to be subjected to public opinion, opening up a platform for judgement.