The Problem with the “Superhero” Body

 By JoJo Buckley

It has been known for a long time that the media, from advertisements to movies, influences our ideals for what a “desirable body” looks like and, in turn, affects our own body image. This has been seen, often, in women, particularly Caucasian women, being portrayed as skinny. This is often achieved through photoshop and unhealthy eating habits. It’s widely known and recognized throughout American culture that this phenomenon is common for women. 

            

(Marvel, 2019)

In the past several years, there has been an increase in the portrayal of the desirable male body. From shirtless superheroes to high fantasy heroes to intimate scenes, we’ve seen an increase in seeing males on screen with six packs abs, veins and muscles popping out from his skin and barely any body fat. It’s hard to pin down whether this portrayal came from a demand from consumers or from a perception by executives who believe this is what consumers want to see. Regardless, it is becoming more normal to see this type of body on television or in movies. I will refer to this body type as “the Superhero Body” because almost every superhero movie made within the past 10 years has a moment where they portray this body type in a shirtless scene, though more movie and television franchises feature it as well. Not only are these bodies glorified on screen, but they’re praised during press junkets and media interviews, with interviewers praising actors for being in such “amazing shape”. However, how these men achieve this body type is less than desirable. Moreover, this phenomenon seems to be more subtle and is less widely recognized by American culture as problematic, although it is. The portrayal of this body type is not only harmful to those watching the movies and TV shows that glorify it, but harmful to the actors themselves who get their body to look like this. 

(MarvelSource:Whimn)

            The first problematic aspect of the Superhero Body is that the actors who often must achieve this body type do not normally lead a lifestyle that would allow them to have this type of body. Instead, they must lose or gain weight to achieve the chiseled six pack ab look and they’re often only given a few months to do it. This leads to weight cycling or weight yo-yoing, which tends to have negative effects on one’s health (see below). The methods which they use to obtain these bodies in those few months are also not particularly healthy. They often have to eat the same diet everyday with only so much variety. For example, Michael B. consumed chicken at multiple meals in one day while gaining muscle for Black Panther (Thorp, 2020). The protocols, too, often involve exercising multiple times a day in order to build muscle.  

            In addition to the months of build up to shirtless scenes, actors also have specific protocols a few days before the scenes to get their muscles to stand out for the shirtless shots. Often, this process involves dehydrating oneself for at least 3 days before the day the shirtless scene is shot. Then, on the day of shooting, they have to keep themselves dehydrated so that their skin basically shrink-wraps around their muscles. Benedict Cumberbatch described this process for Dr. Strange as involving drinking coffee and eating Skittles on set so that he would be dehydrated enough that his muscles would stand out for his shirtless scene (Singh, 2018). 

            These diets and protocols are also problematic because they are glorified by the larger media. Actors are praised by interviewers and media members (Thorp, 2020) for how great they look. Many webpages explain to consumers how the actors got in such great shape and how you can, too (Kantor, 2020). Additionally, these movies and television shows reach very large audiences, larger than almost any fitness influencer could reach by themselves. For example, Thor: Ragnarok, which features Chris Hemsworth’s ripped torso and arms (seen to the right), had a world-wide box office gross of $853,977,126 (Thor: Ragnarok). In the United States alone, it grossed $315,058,289 (Thor: Ragnarok). The average ticket price the year it came out was $8.97. This means that around 35 million people in the US alone saw this movie that glorified a chiseled, dehydrated body type. And this is just one movie. There are many movies and television shows that themselves reach extremely large audiences across the world that portray this type of body as desirable or healthy. This leads general audiences to believe that these methods are a great way to get in shape and that it is normal to have a very low body fat percentage. 

(Everett Collection, 2019)

            It’s very clear that this portrayal of desirable male bodies is not healthy. While it might be easier to identify how this can mislead and harm consumers, I’m going to start off discussing its effect on actors. 

            First, this idea that your body must look good for your job and for consumers objectifies actors and can seem to separate one’s body from health, which is impossible. It can make it so the actor is their body. In addition, this portrayal and process of getting a superhero body can make one look healthy through unhealthy means. The general process is unhealthy because, first, it often involves either losing or gaining large amounts of weight in a short amount of time. It is recommended that one should only lose 1-2 lbs at a time at the most. If an actor has to lose 50 lbs in three months, this means he has to lose more than 4 lbs a week. Losing weight at a rate faster than 1-2 lbs per week for 6 months is recommended to avoid losing vital protein tissues but instead reduce fat stores over time (Mahan & Raymond, 2016). It also helps avoid a sharp decline in rest metabolic rate that comes with rapid weight loss. Gaining weight quickly is not as dangerous as losing weight quickly, although it still may have negative effects. Most importantly, if one gains weight quickly, it’s very possible that not all the weight gained will be muscle. (This is why actors must dehydrate themselves before shirtless scenes - to expose the muscle.) There are many diseases that correlate to excess body fat which can be a problem if an actor gains excess body fat along with muscle. Only 500-1000 calories a day should be added to one’s diet to achieve positive energy balance to gain muscle (Mahan & Raymond, 2016). Gaining and losing weight for roles throughout their careers means that actors change weight often throughout their lifetimes. Research is still emerging about weight yoyoing, or losing and gaining weight in cycles, but this pattern may have undesirable metabolic and psychologic effects (Mahan & Raymond, 2016). 

            The dehydration in order to get their muscles to “pop” on screen is also harmful to the actors. Excessive dehydration can lead the following symptoms depending on percentage of body weight lost: discomfort; loss of appetite; increased effort in physical work; nausea; difficulty concentrating; difficulty in or failure to regulate excess temperature; dizziness; increased weakness; muscle spasms; wakefulness; delirium; decreased blood volume causing an inability of blood to circulate normally; and failing renal function (Mahan & Raymond, 2016). Are these symptoms worth looking good on screen? I would argue that they are not.  

            This relationship of using diet and exercise solely to achieve a specific, desirable body can also lead to a toxic or negative relationship with food. Food does, of course, play a role in weight management. However, tightly controlling your diet to the point where you cry on cheat days (Colbert & Skarsgard, 2016)

(Baum, Cycles of an Eating Disorder 2019)

in order to maintain a very specific body type or image within a short amount of time is not a healthy way to control your weight mentally as well as physically. This type of behavior could lead to someone manipulating their diet so that their body looks a certain way, rather than eating for nourishment and overall health. This relationship with food can eventually lead to disordered eating, irregular eating patterns that do not fit within the guidelines for a specific eating disorder, or even an eating disorder, a diagnosable psychiatric disorder characterized by severe disturbances in someone’s behaviors, thoughts, and emotions related to eating. Disordered eating can have harmful effects such as bone loss, electrolyte and fluid imbalances, gastrointestinal disturbances, low heart rate and blood pressure, increased anxiety, mental and emotional stress (Anderson, 2018). Eating disorders are more severe and often accompanied by other psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, panic disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (Parekh, 2017). A cycle of eating disorders can be seen above. It illustrates how restrictive eating patterns can lead to or be a symptom of issues not involving food (Baum, 2019). Because these actors’ diet protocols often involve exercising multiple times a day, it’s worth mentioning that exercise can be a form of purging in binge-purge eating disorders. 

(Zac Efron  2019)

More broadly, controlling your body through rigorous dieting and exercise will almost certainly take a mental toll. Actors such as Zac Efron and Richard Madden have spoken about how mentally unhealthy having to have a six pack for the camera is. Zac Efron spoke about worrying about water under skin turning his six pack into a four pack and stressful it was to maintain a body like that (Alexander, 2020). Richard Madden has gone even further, speaking out not only about how difficult mentally it is to follow a  strict diet to have a six pack that shows up on screen, but also about the harmful judgement that comes from those on set to look good for the camera (Edwardes & Maitland, 2019). This type of pressure can fracture one’s relationship with food. Health not only includes looking great, but also includes feeling great as well. As mentioned above, food should be used to nourish oneself and to support one’s health. This not only means eating to avoid disease, but also eating to support one’s mental health. Constantly thinking and worrying about how food is going to affect your weight or your appearance is not mentally healthy and therefore not healthy generally. 

(Wilson & Getty Images, 2019)

            As mentioned before, a portrayal of this type of chiseled, “perfect” body is not only harmful to the actors themselves, but to the consumers of the media in which these bodies are depicted. Whether they are aware of it or not, it is natural to compare your body to someone who is on screen and who you hold in a place of honor. By having actors playing superheroes, action heroes, and other types of protagonists have these types of bodies, Hollywood is sending the message that someone who is successful or heroic has a chiseled six pack with barely any body fat. Because of this, audiences can easily internalize that these types of bodies are what is desirable. It perpetuates the myth that this type of body is what healthy looks like, at least for cis men. However, while eating generally healthy and moderately exercising 30 minutes a day for 5 days a week is necessary to avoid diseases related to poor nutrition, we in the nutrition world like to emphasize that what your body looks like does not necessarily portray how healthy you are. It is your actions that determine your health. Additionally, those who subscribe to the mindful eating approach say that you decide what health is for yourself. But when constantly being bombarded with images of ripped men as symbols of success, consumers tend to expect that this is what healthy looks like and that they can follow these diets to “be healthy” and look good. This, again, can lead towards poor body image and possible disordered eating. If actors on screen were allowed to look the way they normally do when living their normal lives, audiences might better receive the message that health, success, and heroism doesn’t have one look, and that these are decided by their actions, not how they look. 

            Many actors do stay in shape and try to stay healthy in their lives. It has led some of them to lead healthier lives than they had previously. This is not a problem. But using extreme tactics to get actors to reach a peak “desirable” body is not. While these adverse effects have not necessarily been documented, it is important to recognize that this is unhealthy for both the actors and the consumers. It is important to emphasize that actors are not their bodies. They are their personalities and talents, as all of us are. They are their uniqueness and personal energy that they bring to the screen to entertain us, challenge us, and transport us to a different world. The best solution for this problem is for actors to show their bodies on screen as they are, without going to extreme measures to look good and to normalize this practice to make actors feel comfortable in their bodies, regardless of how they look. This would help the actors maintain a healthy relationship with their food and their body image while also normalizing body positivity for consumers and culture at large.

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