Gender Differences in Body Image

Vive La Différence: Gender Differences in Body Image

General Summary of Differences

Past research has revealed a consistent pattern of differences between male and female body image concerns with women usually having slightly greater concern. Overall, women have lower satisfaction with their bodies and are more likely to conceal their bodies. Women are sensitive to the social aspects of body image and engage in social comparisons of their bodies with those of other women. This is done mainly through “fat talk” with other women and upward comparisons where they look at a body better than their own. And they do these behaviors much more than men. Women typically experience higher levels of social physique anxiety because they are anxious about being criticized by others. Men fare slightly better than women because they typically don’t experience high levels of somatic distress until older age when they lose functional abilities including erectile consistency. There is no difference between men and women in their ratings of their physical attractiveness or the importance of that in their lives. They share approximately equivalent body image concerns through adulthood. As men and women pass through their 30s and 40s, they become the most vulnerable to body unhappiness and body image disorder. They tend to engage in more body change methods during this period including increased exercise, dietary control, and body modification such as tattooing, piercing, body concealment, and cosmetic surgery. A second developmental shift occurs in late adulthood in which men and women at about 50+ experience increasingly negative body image almost equivalent to the body image disturbance levels experience by 30-year-olds. In general, older people become less concerned with their appearance while engaging more in downward comparisons to others in worse shape than themselves (Davison & McCabe, 2005).

Now, to appreciate these findings, as well as what is detailed further below, and to gain a clearer picture of gender differences in body image, we must first start with some fundamental premises…

• Body schema is the experience of the body and it is mostly unconscious. Body image is the cognitive and emotional response to that experience and it is mostly conscious. These are the flip sides of somatic identity.
• Men and women have different body image experiences because they experience their bodies differently. This is the essence of the Body-Specificity Hypothesis (BS-H) (Casasanto, 2014; Tang, Lee, & Fang, 2021) and the Body Conceptualization Theory (BCT) (Franzoi, 1995). The BS-H states that the form of the body influences thinking, perception, and emotions. The BCT says that men tend to experience their bodies more as a process while women experience theirs as an amalgamation of parts. This centrality of the body-as-process in male body concept was demonstrated in a study by Tucker (1983) in which he found that college males’ degree of muscular strength was not only related to positive body esteem, but it was also related to more positive general self-esteem, social confidence, and self-satisfaction. Is it a huge difference? No, but more likely a difference that does make a difference even if a small one.
• Men and women do share a great deal of body image unhappiness with women experiencing a bit more than the men. This is the heart of normative discontent in which body image dissatisfaction is now pretty much the norm around the world (Rodin, Silberstein, & Striegel-Moore, 1985).
• Body image is an important factor because positive and negative body image have been linked to a host of health issues both physical and psychological. Healthy body image is the cornerstone of body appreciation, body satisfaction, and holistic well-being (Swami et al., 2015).
• That there are some basic gender differences in the male versus female body image is understandable because of differences in body structures and functions, but also differences in the cultural and aesthetic values influencing their respective evaluations. This latter factor is expressed in the Tripartite Influence Theory of Body Image which states that parents/family, peers/lovers, and the media all influence body image (Shroff & Thompson, 2006). Females experience messages from peers and parents as being more influential than males (Stanford & McCabe, 2002).
• The gender differences can be boiled down to seven essential aspects of body experience: body image perception, body awareness, emotional experience, body appreciation, body dissatisfaction, body-self evaluation, internalization of cultural body form ideals. There are more factors involved, but these are all directly related to the body schema/image.

Body Image Perception

Recent studies conducted with both men and women used a human body-figure rating scale with which test subjects rated which figures they (a) actually looked like, (b) wanted to look like, and (c) believed the opposite sex found most attractive. Men misperceived themselves as being both more overweight and muscular. They believed that women desire a male body that is more muscular than the actual ideal male body that the women did choose; meaning men overestimate what they think women find attractive (Olivardia et al., 2004). (See my blog-lecture “Women and Men Misperceive Each Others Wants” for a more detailed discussion of how men and women misunderstand each other’s desires.) It was also found that women usually overestimated their weight/figure size while underestimating what they thought was the male ideal of a female figure (Fallon & Rozin, 1985). These figure rating scales also showed that male body image concerns arise from a perceived lack of muscle while female body image concerns arise from judging themselves as too heavy. Men typically have a more positive body image over their life spans than women and once it develops it then becomes a part of the general self-concept and likewise for women (Davison & McCabe, 2005).

Finally, women experience lower negative body image perception during recreational activities. While the cause for this remains unknown, it may be that engaging in physical movement activity changes the way a women perceives her body. Seeing the body as a functional instrument rather than as an object for public viewing does enhance body image (Brennan, Lalonde, & Bain, 2010).

Body Awareness

Interoception–especially its accuracy–is related to emotional response. A brain scan study of 73 men and women revealed that the female body experience seems to be more nuanced meaning that the female brain is generally more sensitive to most body sensations. This stronger experience of body sensations in women comes from multiple brain sites. This means that the feminine body experience is mediated by several cortical areas and several of these are related to the sense of self (Longarzo et al., 2021). It is possible that since women have more powerful attention toward body sensations this may, in turn, give them a stronger affirmation of their sense of self (Alfano et al., 2023). (The main brain area for the sense of self is the Default Mode Network. See my blog-lecture “Massage the Brain” for a more detailed discussion of the DMN.)

Other studies, however, show that when compared to men, women exhibit lower interoceptive accuracy across a number of physiological functions including blood glucose levels, respiration, blood pressure, nicotine level, sexual concordance, and gastric activity. Yet again, women traditionally outperform on the interpretation of nonverbal communications especially the interpretation of facial expressions and vocal qualities (Prentice et al., 2022). One potential problem limiting the body awareness acuity of men is their adherence to traditional masculinity standards. Conformity to conventional masculine norms correlates to diminished interoceptive experience (Grunewald et al., 2022).

Emotional Processing, Interpretation, and Articulation

Body awareness and emotional processing acuity in women appear related to their sense of self and this all may be augmented by their superior ability in emotional experience and verbal communication. Women are better than men at using emotion language to describe their own emotional states and the states of others around them with more complex and differentiated language than men (Barrett et al., 2000). And, as women are far more sensitive to their own emotional states, they demonstrate a much higher level of emotional intelligence (Prentice et al., 2022). Part of this may come from the greater emotional freedom allowed by society for women. Studies show that a group of emotional responses is is more closely associated with women than men: disgust, distress, embarrassment, fear, guilt, happiness, love, sadness, shame, shyness, surprise, and sympathy. Male emotional expression is mainly associated with anger, contempt, and pride. Amusement, interest, and jealousy are gender-neutral. Part of this female freedom includes displaying both positive and negative emotions while men are more confined to negative emotions related to dominance and power. Both the freedom and limitations contribute to gender stereotypes. One difference is in African-American culture where both women and men tend to express anger in equal amounts and at a level about equivalent to Caucasian males (Shibbley-Hyde, 2007).

Men are emotional, but are hampered by a restrictive emotionality from gender standards that say males may only express themselves within a limited range of emotions. This problem is further exacerbated by the male vulnerability toward alexithymia: the inability to identify and express emotions. Milder forms of alexithymia often occur in the general male population and so much so that it has been argued that there is a normative male alexithymia associated with traditional masculine gender roles. One theory is that it beings in childhood when boys are sanctioned by their parents, peers, and other authority figures for expressing their emotions, primarily the softer ones. They are encouraged to express aggressive and lustful emotions as these are more gender-congruent. These boys then suffer from emotional deficits regarding the more sensitive emotions such as hurt, sadness, fear, and feelings of intimacy and vulnerability as they enter adulthood (Levant, Allen, & Lien, 2014; Levant & Pollack, 1995).

Ironically, both sexes report about the same level of emotional experience and this is confirmed by skin conductance tests. Electrical studies show that men may not express emotions verbally or facially, but their skin conductance levels tend to be higher than women. Men show greater reactivity to anger and fear while women react more strongly to sadness and disgust. The difference is that women are allowed to externalize them and men confined to internalizing them (Shibbley-Hyde, 2007).

Body Appreciation

Body appreciation is the acceptance of the body via having positive attitudes toward it and treating with respect. It is a key component of positive body image which, in turn, is the foundation for personal well-being. It is also the most widely studied aspect of body image (Linardon et al., 2022). Positive body image is considered not just the inverse of negative body image but a distinct construct with its own unique components (Tylka, 2011). These include:

• Positive body attitude (“I’m in pretty good shape overall”)
• Self-acceptance (“I accept my body the way it is despite it not being perfect)
• Body self-respect (“My body is a temple”)
• Body image defenses (protective thinking that rejects information that may negatively affect body image)

It must be known that so far research on gender differences in body appreciation is inconsistent because the study is still in its infancy. Thus, there will be contradictory findings. A number of studies have reported that males have a higher level of body appreciation than females (Alcaraz-Ibanez et al., 2017; Atari, 2016; Gillen & Dunaev, 2017). One recent meta-analytic study of 40 research articles published between 2008 and 2019 found the same overall results (He et al., 2020). This gender difference is in line with most previous research. Then, there are a comparable number of studies showing that males and females are equal in body appreciation (Brown, 2009; Marta-Simões, Ferreira, & Mendes, 2016; Meneses et al., 2019). A single study thus far has found a higher level of body appreciation in females (Jovic et al., 2017). Some of the variation may be from uncontrolled variable that modify the body appreciation experience such as gender differences, socioeconomic status, educational level, age, and ethnicity (Kertechian & Swami, 2017). (See my blog-lecture “The Universal Nature of Body Appreciation” for a more detailed discussion of this concept.)

Body Dissatisfaction

As noted at the beginning, both men and women experience chronic body unhappiness, but women usually experience it at higher levels than men. Women also tend to focus on the interpersonal aspects of body image in that they compare their bodies to those of others more frequently than men. They also experience greater social physique anxiety—showing one’s body in public—which means they are anxious about having their bodies criticized by others (Davison & McCabe, 2005). (See my blog-lectures Do You Think She’s Prettier Than Me?” and “The Relational Body Image for more detailed discussions on these two topics.)

Body-Self Evaluation

When men and women are shown images of attractive and unattractive bodies of their own sex with their faces on the bodies, men more so than women rate the attractive bodies as being more desirable. This indicates that men tend to value and identify with ideal bodies more than non-ideal ones (Voges et al., 2019).

People tend to see the entire, global totality of an object first and then the parts and details later. The female body, however, violates this rule because several of its parts are highly sexualized, specifically breasts, waist, legs, and buttocks. Viewers of female bodies, both men and women, have a sexual body- part recognition bias in which they see women’s sexual body parts in isolation from the entire body. The same viewers, however, see the male body as a whole rather than its sexual parts (Gervais, Vescio, & Allen, 2011; Gervais et al., 2012; Seitz, 2002; Tanaka & Farah, 1993). Women are subject to a disproportionate focusing on their physical traits in both their everyday lives and in the media (Archer et al., 1983; Kozee et al., 2007). This leads to self-objectification and objectification by others (Gervais, Vescio, & Allen, 2011). (See my blog-lectures “Oh, The Vanity of Men” and “Are You The Rock Or The River?” for more detailed discussion.)

Internalization of Sociocultural Ideals of Physical Appearance

Women tend to score high on the internalization of sociocultural appearance standards than men would be a large answer to why women always seem to have lower body esteem scores than men (Cash, et al., 2004). More research needs to be done to determine if men are more likely to internalize societal appearance standards than they were in the past, and if women are somehow becoming less susceptible (Brennan, Lalonde, & Bain, 2010).

In general, women want to be smaller while men want to be larger and, the more they psychologically identify with the sociocultural standards of what makes for a desirable body, the greater their body image disturbance (Ozbek, Greville, & Hooper, 2023). There are strong correlations between Body-Mass Index (BMI) and ideal body image ratings for both males and females (Goldberg et al., 1996). Women with stable weight levels within their optimum range have the highest self-esteem (McAllister & Caltabiano, 1994). Most females indicate an ideal body size smaller than their own while males offer a wider range of body size responses. Most males select a larger ideal body than their own while a substantial minority choose a smaller body while others don’t give a discrepancy between their actual and ideal body (Brennan, Lalonde, & Bain, 2010).

Media influences are a primary source for the drive to be thinner in both men and women. A secondary source for women is social pressure while for men it is their degree of internalization of the cultural male body idea (Fernandez & Pritchard, 2012).

Closing Thoughts

This article was intended to compare and contrast the body image experiences of men and women while bringing together what I consider the three most important theories in somatic psychology: Body Specificity Hypothesis, Body Conceptualization Theory, and the Tripartite Model of Body Image Influence. My take-aways—to use a cliched expression I actually don’t like but seems to work here in this moment—is that embodiment leads to both joy and despair, to pleasure and pain, and those pleasures and pains are shared by all, but experienced in slightly different ways depending on the subtle variations in the form of our embodiment. Men and women are more same than different, but differences do exist and they are both noticeable and measurable and must be understood to be respected and honored.

Vive la différence, as they say.

Paul Shane, Ph.D., LMT

Director, Academic Content

References

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Revised on 03-20-25.