Abstract:

There is a growing concern for men’s body shape, and male body ideal has changed accordingly. Researches indicated that with the influence of biological and sociocultural factors, male body ideal changed from muscular to lean and muscular. Biological factor related research demonstrated that groups of different gender, age and sex orientation own different male body ideals; while research based on the sociocultural theory of body image development posited that family, peer and media are transmitters of sociocultural pressure on conforming to male body ideals. Future work should endeavor to establish a body fat and muscularity dual way model of male body ideal by using a longitudinal study to validate the influence of biological and sociocultural factors, consummating theory system of male body ideal, and these could help providing a cogent theoretical basis to formulate the body image related interventions and policies.

Key words: male body ideal, biological factors, sociocultural factors