Surprised by male beauty standards throughout history

Men's beauty standards are just as strict and varied as those of women .

Male beauty standards through history

Beauty and beauty maintenance are always topics associated with women - the other half of the world is also known as the fairer sex. However, it is clear that men also have their own beauty standards. The ideal male body for modern men today may be strong biceps and a 6-pack body. However, in the past, beauty standards for men were also very different and constantly changing.

The concept of 'handsome' is not absolute and is greatly influenced by the era, place of residence and different cultures. Below are the standards of male beauty in the West from thousands of years ago to now:

Neolithic period (12,000 - 8000 BC)

From about 12,000 to 8,000 BC, humans began to transition from a hunting and gathering society to an agricultural life.

Dr. Peter Janiszewski, a scientist specializing in obesity, stated that the ideal man at the time was to be as heavy as possible. Farming allowed those with power over land to throw large feasts and thus gain weight easily. So the heavier you were, the more powerful and wealthy you were.

Ancient Greece (800 BC - 146 BC)

The ancient Greeks portrayed their ideals of beauty in art that we still enjoy today. The ideal handsome man was muscular and toned. In fact, they looked a lot like the hot guys we see in magazines today. For example, in statues, gods were depicted with V-abs that many 21st century men dream of.

Middle Ages (800 - 1000 AD)

People often think that people who lived before the 20th century were shorter and weaker than we are today. But Professor Richard Steckel has come to a very different conclusion. After studying thousands of skeletons over the past 1,200 years, he concluded that in the early Middle Ages, men were about as tall as men in the 21st century. However, people then shrank by about 6.5cm in the 1700s.

Medieval art doesn't give us much insight into the ideal male figure. What scientists can tell is that tall men were considered more desirable.

Renaissance (1450-1600)

Leonardo Da Vinci made it easy for us to define what a beautiful man looked like during the Renaissance. With his drawing of the Vitruvian Man, the artist accurately sketched out what a perfect body should look like. It wasn't just about being skinny or muscular, but about having perfect proportions.

Late 1800s - early 1900s

Today, obesity is a disease, but before people had easy access to food, plump bodies were considered attractive because they showed a man's upper-class status: rich, with plenty of food and no hard labor.

In the West, there were even Heavy Men's Clubs, where you had to weigh over 90kg to join. They even held weighing competitions to celebrate who weighed the most.

1950s - 1960s

Now that the war and the depression were over, men were less concerned with looking strong, but they did want to look big. Men of this era tended to wear suits with broad shoulders to create a large, imposing figure.

1960s - 1970s

A less rugged masculine look became fashionable at this time. The most famous superstars of the time, David Bowie and Mick Jagger, had a look that was both masculine and feminine. A lanky figure became the dream of many.

The 1980s

The perfect male body went in two completely different directions in the 80s: One was to have a muscular body, the other was to dress femininely because it was considered individualistic and artistic.

1990s to present

Actor Henry Cavill

Actor Brad Pitt.

Starting in the 80s, the idea of ​​a muscular, ideal man only became more popular over time. Even now, we still appreciate masculine beauty like Brad Pitt.