By: Jessica Wang
“Stereotypical male aesthetics are no longer the ideal for younger people,” Alexander Edmonds, author and anthropologist, said.
In the West, the “ideal” man would be masculine: strong, aggressive, and handsome. However, over the past decade, these standards have started to change, fueled by the new generation. Thanks to TikTok, new trends, celebrities, and so on, our society is seeing changes in becoming more inclusive of different beauty standards and that it is acceptable to defy traditional beauty standards.
TikTok is one of the most popular social media apps, with over 700 million downloads and 1.2 million monthly active users, Business of Apps says. TikTok, as the number one most popular app for teens, even more than Instagram, makes it a huge influence over Gen Z. Generation Z, commonly known as Gen Z, is the generation born starting from mid to late 1990s to the early 2010s. Over the past years, TikTok has been the platform to showcase a diverse spectrum of male beauty standards, BBC says.
Lately, there has been a rise in plus-size models on TikTok. Model, activist, and TikTok star Ben James stands up against stereotypical beauty standards by showing the beauty in larger sized men. Having experience working with diverse models, James tells BBC that his job “gives comfort and confidence to boys and men alike, it tells them that they are wanted and worthy.”
Recently, male models have also been on the rise to be equal to their female counterparts. Tyson Beckford and Sean O’pry are famous male models you probably heard the names of. Beckford recently became the face of Ralph Lauren and O’pry became extremely famous after starring in Netflix film 365 days, one of the most popular films in 2020.
Ever heard of BTS? The world’s biggest K-Pop boy band also challenges Western beauty standards by introducing a softer male beauty to their Western audience. In Korea, men wear makeup, dye their hair, and wear earrings, qualities that are commonly denoted as feminine in Western culture. The rise of BTS has made these beauty qualities much more acceptable in the US, and even trendy, to an extent.
So what are modern male beauty standards? Gen Z champions androgyny, Edmonds tells BBC. But today, beauty standards are flexible, and however you feel beautiful is truly what is beautiful.