CMV: Whether actively or passively, many men are internalizing women's body dissatisfaction and generalizing it to their external view of women.

I think we as men are internalizing women's body dissatisfaction and generalizing it in our external view of women.<br><br>Some young women are openly discussing and sharing their negative feelings about their bodies and their appearance, which I think is a double edged sword. If they didn't share this narrative, we wouldn't see anything actively and loudly calling attention to this sentiment, however young women would still feel this way and keep it private and inside, so at least the discussion is being aired in the open now.<br><br>But at the core of this sentiment is an inherent dissatisfaction and negativity, not only towards their own bodies and bodies in general, but a specific dissatisfaction with and negativity towards the standard societal ideals of beauty. (i.e. curves)<br><br>But also, the more women openly discuss these negative feelings of inadequacy, the more they young men internalize these negative feelings of inadequacy and then generalize them to their external view of all women. They think things like "curves are so gross, I'm so glad I don't end up with anyone like that", or actively seek out someone who doesn't have those features. For example, women who young men specifically seek out to date, and also the women who men objectify and fantasize about, tend to have less body fat, flat stomachs, flat butts, and flat chests.<br><br>By young women openly expressing their dissatisfaction towards their own bodies, they are also influencing young men to be dissatisfied with bodies in general. Women's negative feelings about women's bodies are the fuel that drives men's negative view of women's bodies.<br><br>I'm a 42-year-old man, and I remember being a young man and seeing a lot of voluptuous women as sex objects (e.g. JLo, Pam Anderson, Kim Kardashian). But it seems like today there is a prevailing sentiment that these women are disgusting and gross, and that women should look like 14-year-old boys, flat and shapeless.<br><br>I think a lot of the dissatisfaction stems from women's view of beauty being shaped by an unattainable standard of beauty, namely the standard of beauty that men find attractive. Men are attracted to curves, but the societal beauty standard is emaciated, so women view themselves as disgusting and inadequate.<br><br>We can convince ourselves that we don't care what women think, or that we should only care about what women think, but at the end of the day, the stances and attitudes we take towards women will impact how they view themselves, and how they view their bodies. And so I think the important question is, what kind of an attitude should we take towards women, and how can we do better?<br><br>That's my view.<br><br>**Edit:** Holy crap, this was unexpected! Some of you have great comments, while others are unreadable.<br><br>I'm going to address some of the comments in general.<br><br>First of all, I'm not "blaming" women, I'm just saying that women's sentiments and feelings are the dominant factor in shaping men's views of women's bodies. I mentioned that men find curves attractive, but that society has an emaciated beauty standard, which I think is the root cause of dissatisfaction. So, no, I'm not blaming women for men's views of women.<br><br>Secondly, I don't think many people understood what I meant by "curves". To clarify, I'm talking about a healthy, average, non-emaciated figure, not a "thicc" or "pear-shaped" body. I'm talking about the average "S-shaped" body you would see in a National Geographic photograph of a healthy, non-Western woman. I'm not talking about some porn star or "thicc" Instagram model, I'm just talking about a normal, healthy, average woman. I think you'd have a hard time finding a man who finds "curves" disgusting, and I think many men would agree that they are attractive.<br><br>Thirdly, just because some women have eating disorders, etc., doesn't mean that all women have them. Similarly, just because some men don't find curves attractive doesn't mean that most men don't find curves attractive. Think about it like personality traits; sure, there are a ton of different personality types out there, but if 90% of men prefer something, that means that 90% of men prefer that thing. It's not actively "hating" or "shaming" the other 10%, it just means that 90% of men prefer that thing.<br><br>Lastly, I want to emphasize that this isn't about objectifying women or treating them like objects, or dehumanizing them or whatever. This is about basic human attraction. This is about what turns men on, and what men find attractive. This is about what makes men happy, and what makes men satisfied. So if you think that men's attraction to curves is inherently objectifying or dehumanizing, then I think we fundamentally disagree on what attraction is.<br><br>And on another note, I'm not sure why people are bringing up transgenderism. That's actually a pretty relevant topic for today's society, so I'll share my thoughts briefly. I think the only relevant thing to this topic is that transgender men are attracted to curves, and transgender women are attracted to abs and pecs. Which actually strengthens my argument, since it shows that men are attracted to curves and women are attracted to abs and pecs. But aside from that, I don't see how transgenderism has anything to do with this topic.