Men!

Posted by Fiona Harrold | No Comment

I have received a number of emails from men in the past few weeks complaining that the site is geared so much towards women that they feel excluded.

As a coach I have worked with hundreds of men over the years and at the moment my male clients easily outnumber the female ones. I am acutely interested in the changing roles men are adapting to today and the particular pressures they face, especially as my son, Jamie, is a teenager!

For growing numbers of men the combined pressures of working the longest hours in Europe and the relentless demands of modern fatherhood are proving too much to sustain.

The pressure to be physically perfect that women have lived with is now shared by men. It is impossible to ignore the growing number of advertisements and fashion spreads that show half-naked men with bulging biceps, impeccable pecs and rippling six-packs. Toned and taut, they represent what is nowadays considered to be the masculine ideal.

Men, too, are now suffering from poor body image and are hooked on attaining the ‘body beautiful’. This has been dubbed the Adonis complex, where they believe they are insufficiently muscular and feel compelled to exercise more.

The race for equality has, thankfully, dramatically improved the lot of women. Nowadays girls do better than boys at school and although there’s a way to go, women are storming through in all areas of business.

Men want out!

Interestingly, a survey this week reported that only four in 10 men feel “career-orientated’ – a figure that for the first time puts them on a par with women.

Meanwhile, the same survey reports that many men long to stay at home to look after their families. Six in 10 young men say they find housework “satisfying” (strange but true).

Men are becoming more like women, that is to say less worried about status, power and money, and more interested in personal relationships. You could argue that women are becoming more like men. In 50 years time, will we end up with a generation of happy house husbands and ambitious, careerist female breadwinners coming home from a long day at the office? Isn’t life grand!