BODY BEAUTIFUL-WHAT DOES HE THINK?
What he’s thinking when… you obsess over your body
OK people – full disclosure here. Most men like curves. There, I’ve said it. While we realise that a healthy lifestyle, shiny hair, immaculate makeup and an enormous wardrobe full of clothes that you’ll only wear once or twice is an essential part of your sense of wellbeing as a woman, we are NOT that interested in women who obviously spend most of their time looking in the mirror.
Reverse things for a moment. Yes, we realise that men with six-packs and sculpted arms are pleasing to look at, but think how they got that way. Like most men, I personally like to stay active and reasonably healthy. I exercise five or six times a week, lifting weights, playing sport, running or cycling. There’s a six-pack under there somewhere, but it tends to get covered up by all the other things that life offers. Good food, a glass of wine with my
wife when the kids are in bed, a few beers with friends occasionally.
However to shed five or so kilos and rediscover those stomach muscles that appeared so briefly at about the age of eighteen, I’d have to increase my aerobic exercise fairly significantly, stop eating the nutritious but standard foods that feed us all for an affordable budget, I’d have to start weighing my cereal in the morning, I’d have to move to soy milk for my coffee, I’d have to wax my body. Would I still have time to sit on the lounge and drink a glass of wine while pretending to watch “Farmer Wants a Wife” with the love of my life? I doubt it.
When we look at women who are plastered in makeup, toned to the point of being bony, spraytanned and dressed in such a way as to turn heads at the shopping centre, most men don’t stare at them and think: ‘Woah! Why doesn’t my significant other look like that?’ On the contrary, we tend to look and think ‘Man, she is trying too hard! I wonder why she is so insecure’.
And that is the crux of it. Just like men who spend their days in the gym, solarium and wherever men go to get waxed, anyone who so obviously feels the need to be stared at, is usually hiding a deep insecurity. Or they are simply very shallow and have nothing else to offer the world.
We realise that there are times when women feel down for some reason. They feel the need to address some issues with their look or their body. Men understand that and in fact even appreciate some extra effort at times. But there is no reason to obsess about your body image. A balanced lifestyle is what men want, someone who can help out in the garden in an old pair of jeans and then is comfortable getting all dressed up for a dinner date at the end of the day.
Yes, there are plenty of people in the world such as the ones I have described, who obsess about their weight, spend every waking moment at the gym, don’t eat anything remotely unhealthy for fear of adding 50 grams of fat to their frames but they usually find one of their own kind, who is equally self-absorbed. Trust me – we are not looking at them in ‘that way’, we are imagining the maintenance that goes into the whole package and shuddering inwardly.
Oh… the bit that I mentioned before about curves? It is all true.
Luke Frost has worked in a variety of media roles over the years including at Australian Geographic Magazine, the Foxtel TV channel TVSN and a long stint in book publishing at Allen and Unwin. He now writes copy for a diverse array of publications, as well as providing consulting services to some of the world’s leading technology companies. Luke is married with three children and currently living in a semi-rural suburb on the edge of Sydney.
Men are not that interested in women who obviously spend most of their time looking in the mirror. There is no reason to obsess about your body image.