Men Have Been Obsessed With Six-Pack Abs for Hundreds of Years menshealth.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from menshealth.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
When Men Started to Obsess Over Six-Pack Abs
It goes all the way back to the ancient Greeks.
By Conor Heffernan, Assistant Professor, UT Austin Apr 1, 2021
The cultural obsession with six-pack abdominals shows no signs of abating. And if research into male body image is to be believed, it will likely only grow, thanks to social media.
Today, there’s an entire industry centered on obtaining and maintaining chiseled abs. They’re the subject of books and social media posts, while every action movie star seems to sport them. Pressure is also mounting on women to sport six-pack abs as body ideals for athletic women have evolved.
Men Have Been Obsessed With Getting Six-Pack Abs for Centuries Conor Heffernan, Assistant Professor, UT Austin
The cultural obsession with six-pack abdominals shows no signs of abating. And if research into male body image is to be believed, it will likely only grow, thanks to social media.
Today, there’s an entire industry centered on obtaining and maintaining chiseled abs. They’re the subject of books and social media posts, while every action movie star seems to sport them. Pressure is also mounting on women to sport six-pack abs as body ideals for athletic women have evolved.
All of this raises the question, when did the six-pack craze start? It may seem like a relatively recent phenomenon, a byproduct of the fitness culture boom in the 1970s and 1980s, when Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rambo reigned, and men’s muscle mags (yes, like
Men Have Been Obsessed With Getting Six-Pack Abs for Centuries msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Men’s obsession with six-pack abs started long before Rambo and Terminator
It may seem like a relatively recent phenomenon, but a part of this obsession stems from a renewed European interest in ancient Greece. A still from Tarzan.
The cultural obsession with six-pack abdominals shows no signs of abating. And if research into male body image is to be believed, it will likely only grow, thanks to social media.
Today, there is an entire industry centred on obtaining – and maintaining – chiselled abs. They are the subject of books and social media posts, while every action movie star seems to sport them. Pressure is also mounting on women to sport six-pack abs as body ideals for athletic women have evolved.