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“Guys with Big Muscles Have Misplaced Priorities”: Masculinities and Muscularities in Young South Korean Men’s Body Image

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Lawrence Monocello at Washington University in St. Louis
Lawrence Monocello
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Men’s body image is an issue of increasing importance as related illnesses continue to grow in prevalence around the world. However, cross-cultural attention to men’s body image experiences has been relatively understudied. Based on data derived from cognitive anthropological methods of cultural domain analysis, I develop the concept of “muscularities” to more effectively examine the expectations inherent in multifarious models of body image men continuously navigate. Related to but distinct from “masculinities”—the recognition of culture-bound hierarchies of ways of doing-being a man—“muscularities” attends to the culturally particular ways in which muscles are conceived and evaluated as indices of socioeconomic status, intelligence, social skills, and professionalism, to name a few. Young South Korean men’s experiences of chan’gŭnyuk (“small muscle”) and manŭn kŭnyuk (“large muscle”) challenge universalist assumptions about the kinds of muscles people value in global perspective, demonstrate the necessity of recognizing multiple muscularities in research, and encourage new directions of inquiry that attend to the consequences of variable embodiments of muscularities.
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
“Guys with Big Muscles Have Misplaced Priorities”:
Masculinities and Muscularities in Young South Korean
Men’s Body Image
Lawrence Monocello
1
Accepted: 22 February 2022
©The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer
Nature 2022
Abstract Men’s body image is an issue of increasing importance as related ill-
nesses continue to grow in prevalence around the world. However, cross-cultural
attention to men’s body image experiences has been relatively understudied. Based
on data derived from cognitive anthropological methods of cultural domain anal-
ysis, I develop the concept of “muscularities” to more effectively examine the
expectations inherent in multifarious models of body image men continuously
navigate. Related to but distinct from “masculinities”—the recognition of culture-
bound hierarchies of ways of doing-being a man—“muscularities” attends to the
culturally particular ways in which muscles are conceived and evaluated as indices
of socioeconomic status, intelligence, social skills, and professionalism, to name a
few. Young South Korean men’s experiences of chan’gŭnyuk (“small muscle”) and
manŭnkŭnyuk (“large muscle”) challenge universalist assumptions about the kinds
of muscles people value in global perspective, demonstrate the necessity of rec-
ognizing multiple muscularities in research, and encourage new directions of
inquiry that attend to the consequences of variable embodiments of muscularities.
Keywords Cultural domain analysis · Male body image · South Korea ·
Masculinities
&Lawrence Monocello
ltmonocello@crimson.ua.edu
1
Department of Anthropology, The University of Alabama, Box 870210, Tuscaloosa, AL
35487-0210, USA
123
Cult Med Psychiatry
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-022-09784-3
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... Recently, cosmetics companies have even begun marketing lines of cosmetics for men performing their mandatory military service, such as less harsh camouflage face paint, and soldiers often share skincare tips with one another (Chae & Cheng, 2018), with the understanding that upon most men's return to civilian life their appearance would be taken into consideration in the job and dating marketplaces. Interestingly, late 2019 saw the emergence of a form of masculine bodily practice which combined large muscles and pretty faces, although participants at the time identified it as unrealistic for anyone other than Instagram models due to the time commitments required by all the beauty work (Monocello, 2023). However, social media and continued informal conversations with participants and colleagues suggest that valuation of muscularity has accelerated among young Korean men, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, although there remains emphasis on grooming and fashion. ...
... However, having large muscles is often derided in larger society, where cultivating the body to such an extent indexes misplaced priorities if not the incapability of following a more traditional scholastic path to success. Some even describe male bodies with large muscles as "disgusting," or associate their focus on physical cultivation with mental illness or traumas, preferring instead "small muscle" (chan'kŭnyuk) like that of swimmers (Monocello, 2023). ...
... Eating disorder measures often include items like "other people say that I'm too thin" to account for body dysmorphia, a common symptom associated with eating disorders, supporting the utility of this approach. The scale was developed using cultural domain analysis (Dengah et al., 2021) to select culturally relevant body image features (freelisting), understand the relationships between features at Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry the macro-level (pilesorting) (see Monocello, 2023), and select final items using cultural answer key scores greater than 1.5 following a rating task about how attractive Koreans tend to find each body image feature (cultural consensus analysis; Romney et al., 1986). It is written originally in Korean. ...
The Cultural Consonance Space: Multiplicities and Enactments of Male Body Ideals in South Korea
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Cultural consonance, defined as the extent to which one is able to approximate a given cultural model in one’s own life, is a highly adaptive theory and method which anthropologists have used for decades to demonstrate direct connections between individuals’ variation in relation to meaning systems and their health outcomes. However, it has been limited by use of a “cultural consonance score” which treats cultural consonance unidimensionally. Because people enact cultural models in multiple ways, cultural consonance may be better operationalized multidimensionally. Applying correspondence analysis to young South Korean men’s responses to a cultural consonance scale measuring their approximation of the local ideal male body, cultural consonance is rather demonstrated to be a multiplicity. In the case of South Korean men’s body ideals, two dimensions—men’s overall attractiveness and whether they pursue a “flower boy” or a “beastly man” embodiment—are identified. These two dimensions are also significantly associated with university prestige and sexual identity, and predict disordered eating beyond body dissatisfaction. These data suggest that well-being in relation to cultural consonance is a product of its assemblage: both of degree of approximation of a cultural model and the manner by which individuals enact it.
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... While hegemonic Western knowledge structures and the US media scaffold the rapid global emergence of fat stigma, globalized messages of "fat = undesirable" and "thin/muscular = desirable" are filtered through existing local cultural models and framed by social-politicaleconomic structures, shaping their internalization across societies (Monocello, 2023;SturtzSreetharan et al., 2021). For example, Anderson-Fye et al. (2017) found that urban Nepalese participants stigmatized weight in relation to taking up space on public transportation but were confused by questions about body size and marriageability, as they were culturally unrelated. ...
... So, although men's body ideals can comprise dimensions of both fatness and muscularity, neither can be taken for granted and require explication within their cultural settings. While we focus on fatness in this investigation, the muscularity concerns among Korean men have been addressed elsewhere (Monocello, 2023). ...
... Bodies are valued for their ornamentality rather than instrumentality. Furthermore, in contrast to the United States, Korean male body ideals and masculinity norms actively devalue muscle mass (Monocello, 2023;Monocello & Dressler, 2020). ...
A cultural models approach to understanding body fatness perceptions and disordered eating in young South Korean men
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Objective The eating disorders field has been limited by a predominant focus on White, Western women, and there is growing recognition of the need to understand cross‐cultural variation in key constructs (i.e., ideal body types). A transdisciplinary, cultural models approach systematizes the incorporation of an “emic” perspective (a culture's own understandings of phenomena) into assessments of relationships between body shapes and eating disorders. Method Eighty‐one young South Korean men aged 19–34 years living in Seoul participated in this research. A cultural model of body fatness was identified using cultural consensus analysis during 18 months of ethnographic, mixed‐methods fieldwork. Participants also completed questionnaires assessing age, height, weight, sexual identity, university prestige, body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms, and cultural consonance with the Korean cultural model of the ideal male body. Variation in these factors was analyzed using a series of chi‐squares and analyses of variance with the culturally defined categories of body fatness as the independent variables. Results Cultural consensus analysis found that young South Korean men are consistent in identifying categories of “too thin,” “balanced,” and “too fat.” The “balanced” category contained the lowest proportion of high‐prestige university attendees and the highest average cultural consonance. The “too fat” category was characterized by the highest levels of body dissatisfaction and dieting, as well as proportion of probable eating disorders. Discussion A cultural models approach identified culturally important factors and patterns in disordered eating among young South Korean men and may be effective for understanding eating disorders in other populations not typically studied. Public Significance This study applies a systematic, “emic” perspective to young South Korean men's body ideals. Young Korean men share a cultural model of body fatness, and this model frames how they experience risk for eating disorders. This study demonstrates a method for incorporating culture into research on eating disorder risk.
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... Consequently, research and treatment strategies often assume men's experiences of body image and eating disorders are the same as women's, resulting in invalid and unreliable findings (Strother et al., 2014) and potentially self-stigma-invoking interventions (Bunnell, 2021). Research also focuses on muscle dysmorphia (Pope et al., 2000) and muscularity-oriented disordered eating (Cunningham et al., 2021), despite "Western" cultural attitudes toward muscularity and masculinity not being universal (Monocello, 2022b). Reasons for differences in disordered eating as related to sexual orientation are also not well understood (Convertino et al., 2021). ...
... A major barrier to understanding eating disorders among men in South Korea is that Koreans' cultural models of the male body tend to differ from those of the predominantly white, "Western" assumptions that underlie men's eating disorders research (Monocello and Dressler, 2020). Koreans foreground an ideal male image known as the kkonminam (꽃미남), or "flower boy," which is marked by a thin (not bulky) defined physique (called "small muscle"), attention to fashion trends, and makeup and cosmetics use (Maliangkay, 2013), as well as a distaste for highly muscled bodies (Monocello, 2022b). Importantly, these body ideals are part of the model of hegemonic masculinity in South Korea (Connell, 2005;Jung, 2011;Woo, 2019), and do not conflict with local heteronormative ideologies (Lim, 2008). ...
... An emerging, hybrid masculinity in the form of the helch'ang (헬창gym-whore), attempts to combine facial beauty and fashionability with heavier musculature. However, even many of those pursuing a helch'ang form expressed concerns about becoming "too" muscular and looking uneducated, unprofessional, or gang-involved (Monocello, 2022b). ...
Cultural consonance, body image, and disordered eating among young South Korean men
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Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses, but little research explores non-Western men's cultural experiences of body image and what affects their risks of disordered eating. Drawing on data collected over 17 months (August 2019 to January 2021) of fieldwork in Seoul, South Korea, the lens of intersectionality is employed alongside multiple regression and moderation analysis to understand how two axes of identity which emerged as important from the ethnography—sexual identity and university prestige—shape the ways in which young Korean men's cultural consonance with their local model of the ideal male body, influenced heavily by the kkonminam (flower boy), relates to risk for developing an eating disorder. Among young Korean men, intersections of university prestige and sexual identity frame embodiment of cultural models of male body image as a strategy for the making and maintenance of social relations and the advancement of social status in a precarious neoliberal economy.
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... " Although our study did not focus directly on analyzing muscularity, the observed differences between Polish and Turkish players may indicate that culturally driven norms of masculinity-including expectations related physique and musculature-significant shape body image. Researchers developing the concept of "muscularity" emphasize that in various cultures, muscle mass can be viewed as an indicator of attributes such as socioeconomic status, intelligence, or professionalism [39]. Meanwhile, in our study, the changes in appearance perception noted among PL may result from maturation processes and the internalization of specific cultural norms that may not necessarily be analogous among Turkish athletes. ...
... Meanwhile, in our study, the changes in appearance perception noted among PL may result from maturation processes and the internalization of specific cultural norms that may not necessarily be analogous among Turkish athletes. These observations suggest that male body image is a multidimensional construct, deeply rooted in cultural contexts [39]. ...
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... Interestingly, body dissatisfaction was lower among underweight males than normal-weight males, which contradicts typical body norms for males that favor a lean and muscular physique (6). However, Monocello's research indicates that dominant masculinity, characterized by strong, bulk muscles, is not universally embraced (67). The study revealed that young people in South Korea often admire men with "smaller muscles," referring to slim, defined muscles associated with swimmers, models, and K-Pop idols. ...
Gender-based analysis of body dissatisfaction among youths in Singapore: findings from the National Youth Mental Health Study
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Introduction Body dissatisfaction, often arising from the disparity between the perceived ideal and actual body, is prevalent among young individuals and is linked to various mental health issues. Previous research consistently indicates notable differences in body dissatisfaction between males and females. This study used data from a nationwide study to determine the prevalence of body dissatisfaction among young individuals in Singapore. It also aims to identify associated sociodemographic, health-related, and psychosocial factors using a gender-based approach. Methods Data were obtained from 2600 youths aged 15-35 who participated in the National Youth Mental Health Study. Information on sociodemographic background, body dissatisfaction, childhood trauma, BMI, self-esteem, and social media use was collected. Weighted multiple logistic regressions were performed to identify the sociodemographic variables, as well as other health-related and psychosocial factors associated with body dissatisfaction, stratified by gender. Results 20.2% (25.7% females; 14.8% males) reported moderate to marked body shape concerns. Among females, younger ages, Indians (vs. Chinese), those with diploma education (vs. university), those with overweight, those with childhood trauma, and those with greater daily social media usage were more likely to report moderate to marked body shape concerns. Among males, those with primary education and below (vs. university), those with overweight, and those with greater daily social media usage were more likely to report moderate to marked body shape concerns. Discussion These results emphasize the importance of creating specific public health programs that consider the different experiences and challenges related to body dissatisfaction based on gender. These programs could help promote body image positivity, increase self-compassion, and encourage critical engagement with social media content.
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... The perfect figure of idols always reflects gender differences in ideal body image. Male idols are expected to be thin but muscular (Pope et al., 1999), while female idol always receives an expectation of being 'thin and light' in body shape and weight (Jackson et al., 2021;Monocello, 2023). Under these aesthetic tendencies, men experience their muscles as ornamental, while women are dissatisfied with their normal body and always aspire to be thinner and slimmer (Hoodbhoy et al., 2015;Jackson et al., 2021;Kim and Han, 2021). ...
The effect of gender in binge eating behavior in Chinese culture: the serial mediation model of body dissatisfaction and self-acceptance
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  • Dec 2023
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... The soft masculinity of kkonminam is "antithetical to hard, physical and hypersexual masculinity" (Lee 2020, p. 111). As BTS is a global representative example of kkonminam masculinity (Monocello 2022), their replaced masculinity in Indian fanfictions indicates that for Indian fan writers, the reality of heteropatriarchal masculinity supersedes the mediatized soft masculinity of Korean men. ...
Clutching on to Gendered Tropes? Framing of Gender Roles and Power Dynamics by Young Indian Writers of BTS Fanfiction
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As more young girls write stories online thanks to the increased amount of publishing platforms, their fiction becomes a means to explore if they are offsetting prescribed practices of patriarchy in their gender constructions. Often, young women interrogate gender and recontextualize their experiences by writing fanfictions. In the age of transmedia storytelling, various online fan communities are rich data sources, as transnational female fans prolifically write fiction featuring icons from music and movies belonging to another country. We examined how young Indian girls frame gender roles and power dynamics in their fanfictions of BTS, the South Korean boyband, on Wattpad. To know if conventional gender frames are upheld or challenged in fanfiction stories revolving around non-Indian celebrities, we performed a textual analysis on forty-four BTS fanfictions. We found that in these fanfictions, existing gendered tropes used to depict masculinity and femininity are mostly normalized, with minor alterations reflecting a power imbalance typical in Indian patriarchal households. A subversion of tropes was found in framing men as emotionally expressive, arguably drawing from the soft masculinity projected in the home country of BTS–South Korea. Grounding these findings in self-categorization theory implores us to situate the construction of gendered identities within the socio-cultural conventions of fanfiction writers.
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Culturally Local Perspectives Are Imperative to Scientific Excellence and Health Equity in Eating Disorders Research: Commentary on Monocello et al. (2024)
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Cross-cultural research into body image often takes for granted the cultural differences in body ideals that may account for variations in body image experience. Male body image across cultures is also poorly understood. Applying methods of cognitive anthropology to cross-cultural male body ideals, this paper tests whether universalist or particularist approaches to body image better account for cultural variation. Results suggest that Americans and South Koreans draw from different cultural models in determining which features of male bodies warrant attention, as predicted by a particularist approach. Moreover, elements important for Korean male body image were found to lack emic validity among Americans, and vice-versa. Considering significant variations in the elements of male bodies attended to, cross-cultural body image research should more closely examine the cultural assumptions about bodies implicit in measurements to ensure that measurements are not just translated correctly, but also emically meaningful.
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Purpose of review: Androgen abuse is more prevalent among gay and bisexual (i.e. sexual minority) men than heterosexual men. We review recent research about androgen abuse in sexual minority men and provide relevant social, cultural, and historical contexts. Recent findings: Androgen abuse among sexual minority men is shaped by the intersections of sexuality, desirability, masculinity, and race. Muscular male bodies are desired and - in erotic settings especially - prized as literal embodiments of masculinity. Racist stereotypes unjustly diminish the desirability and masculinity of sexual minority men who belong to racial minorities, especially those who are Asian or Black, and the higher rates of androgen abuse among these racial minorities may reflect a compensatory motivation for these diminishments. The historical context for sexual minority men - decades of subjugation alongside stereotypes of masculinity-compromising effeminacy - further complicate the intersections of sexuality with androgen abuse. Harm minimization efforts led by empathetic endocrinologists stand the best chance of achieving positive outcomes for sexual minority men who use androgens. Summary: More dedicated research on androgen abuse among sexual minority men is needed as this population requires thoughtfully designed research that is incorporative - at a minimum - of the complexities of sexuality, desirability, masculinity, and race.
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Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women and Children (4th Edition)
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  • Nov 2021
Fully revised and updated, Body Image 4th Edition provides a comprehensive summary of research on body image in men, women, and children drawing together research findings from the fields of psychology, sociology, and gender studies. The new edition presents all the latest research on body image including work on technology and body image, interventions to reduce body dissatisfaction, and links between body image, BMI, and clothing availability. Including data from interviews and focus groups with men, women, and children who have spoken about body image and its impact on the rest of their lives, the book explores a range of important contemporary issues, including the effects of social media and selfie-taking on body image, the work of activists and academics who are trying to change how the fashion industry presents women’s bodies, and new work investigating impacts of whole-body scanning technology and game-play avatars on appearance concern. Reflecting the direction of research on body image from a range of disciplines since the previous edition, the book also includes an increased focus on body image in men, looking at studies on pressures to be more muscular and toned, and evaluating the possible impacts on health-related behaviors such as exercise and body-related drug use. The only sole-authored text in the field, and integrating work from several disciplines, this is essential reading for students and researchers in psychology, sociology, computing science, sport and exercise science, and gender studies, with an interest in reducing body dissatisfaction in men, women and children.
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Muscularity-Oriented Disordered Eating in Boys and Men
Chapter
  • Apr 2021
To date, there has been a pervasive inattention toward men in the eating disorders (ED) field. Consequently, our knowledge of these conditions among men has largely been extrapolated from our knowledge of how EDs manifest in women. Men and women often report distinct idealized appearances, which, conceivably, has the potential to precipitate distinct spectra of unhealthy eating behaviors, each designed to move one closer to attaining these body types. Namely, men often report a drive to acquire a physique characterized by overt muscularity, which is in stark contrast to the overly thin body ideal often pursued by women. And while we have a far richer understanding about the maladaptive eating and exercise behaviors one may engage in to become increasingly thin, a relative paucity of research has been devoted to exposing those associated with the pursuit of muscularity and their consequences. Tellingly, in its current state, our conceptualization of disordered eating as it pertains to most men may be profoundly limited. As such, this chapter will synthesize the available literature to provide an overview of what we currently understand about muscularity-oriented disordered eating among men. In achieving this, we first provide the reader with an appreciation of the specific medical challenges facing boys and men driven to enhance their muscularity. Second, we describe the muscular physique pursued by many men and the prevalence of concomitant body dissatisfaction. Third, we underscore the unique array of ED pathologies which could accompany the pursuit of muscularity. Fourth, we raise issues regarding existing recognized and gold-standard ED assessment tools in adequately indexing muscularity-oriented concerns and related ED pathology. Finally, we close the chapter by offering a number of important directions for future research, particularly related to improving our understanding of muscularity-oriented disordered eating in clinical populations, and further consideration about how to best incorporate this knowledge into widely used ED assessment and treatment efforts to better address this nascent clinical phenomenon.
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Man Made Beautiful: The Social Role of Grooming and Body Work in Performing Middle-aged Corporate Masculinity in South Korea
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This article examines how middle-aged urban men in South Korea relate to age-relevant ideas of beauty in a society in which youthful muscular bodies are increasingly presented as the ideal or, arguably, even as a norm. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 13 male participants aged 36-56 years residing in the Seoul metropolitan area, it seeks to outline what role grooming and aesthetic labor play in their everyday social interactions. The findings suggest that men's aesthetic practices in the workplace are strongly linked to considerations of in-group harmony, com-petency at work, and maintaining social hierarchies. Rather than being motivated by a desire to emulate hegemonic masculinity embodied by male celebrities of similar age, men in this age group engage with body work primarily for the homosocial gaze of other men in their workplace in order to embody their membership and belonging to it. These micro-contexts of men's aesthetic labor help to illustrate how not all aesthetic labor can be explained in terms of considering the body simply as an object of investment. The participants' reflections also illustrate how men's bodies as neoliberal objects in the contemporary Korean workplace are not interpellated by
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