Pressure can be witnessed, a force pressing upon another with clear consequence, but there are pressures intangible to vision, pressures that weigh down on its owner. For many boys this weight comes in 12 reps. The societal pressure for boys to change their body is not as copious as it is for girls, but there is still pressure none the less. Many young men and boys are cultured and conditioned to be physical and antagonistic, that from this comes respect, status, and reward. And the best way to achieve that is through increasing physical strength. A larger than life body has saturated boy culture in recent years; Everything from TV, movies, toys, to video games has a clear idealized male form. There is no bad in wanting to become a stronger and healthier person but when the motivation is to live up to someone else's expectation it is no longer motivation, but oppression.
My photograph represents the weight of societal pressure manifested in physical form. There are two meek and skinny hands that struggle to continuously lift and lower a weight that is too heavy too early, in front of idols that teach many young, ineffectual traits to grow up with.
3 comments:
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I really like this photo because it really does show the pressures that men go through that all women may not fully understand. The eyes of the wrestlers in the poster seem to be peering at the viewer which creates that sort of pressured feeling. I also like that the hands are at the very bottom of the photograph. I feel like by doing this it creates the sense that the wrestlers at the top are what he is working toward even though he is starting at the very bottom. I feel as though these pressures that men face to have these strong, muscular bodies is just as harmful as the extremely skinny bodies that women are expected to have. In this case, I can truly feel the struggle that these men and boys are going through in the same way the boy in the photo is struggling to become what everyone else expects him to be.
This photo really shows the pressures society holds over boys to be strong and aggressive; to be powerful. Women are not the only ones who are faced with the barrage of the unattainable when it comes to exterior looks. The collage of men in the background of the image, men whose careers depend on their muscles and physiques, expertly portrays the unhealthy ideals that males in our society face everyday. From so young are boys told and shown these ideas and images, they grow up believing that is how it should be. How they should be. I like how this image shows what some may see as weaker hands clutching a weight far too heavy for them, but to me it also shows the conflict that a lot of men have inside of them: Be strong on the outside and hide the true battle that is happening within, for men do not feel, or emote, and they certainly are not weak.
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