Men’s Body Dysmorphia Is On Track To Overtake Women’s | Mike Thurston

Duration: 13:53 2697 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

The podcast opens with a striking observation regarding men's body dysmorphia, which Mike Thurston suggests is on track to overtake female body dysmorphia within the next few decades due to the pervasive influence of social media and the unrealistic standards set by hyper-fit individuals. The conversation highlights how even elite athletes who are naturally "jacked" and shredded often edit their photos further to accentuate muscle definition, such as widening lats or narrowing waists, using optimal lighting and professional photography. This creates a distorted reality where average people compare themselves not just to others' natural states but to heavily curated images that combine genetic potential with technological enhancement, leading to feelings of inadequacy among those who cannot replicate these results without similar resources or editing tools. Thurston shares his personal experience as a former competitor, noting how he struggled by comparing himself in the mirror to his own peak condition achieved after competitions rather than comparing himself solely to others. He emphasizes that men often use their past selves as a barometer for current worthiness, leading to discomfort when recovery slows or physical performance declines with age. While acknowledging fears about aging and mortality, Thurston argues that men have an advantage in this regard; unlike women who may experience more rapid physiological changes after twenty-five, men can continue to look good even as they develop gray whiskers and wrinkles, suggesting that self-worth should not be entirely derived from physical appearance or peak performance metrics. The discussion then shifts to the complex relationship content creators have with social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram, where algorithms often reward distraction over productivity through "doom scrolling." Thurston admits his own struggle with getting sucked into these loops despite intending to use them for educational purposes, leading him to become more selective about what he consumes. A significant portion of the dialogue addresses how audiences can negatively influence creators by fixating on controversial topics such as steroid accusations or hair loss rather than lifestyle content. This dynamic was particularly evident when Thurston faced relentless criticism in the comment sections regarding his natural status and thinning hair, prompting him to pivot away from gym-specific videos where he felt unfairly judged despite offering helpful advice. The hosts also explore the nature of online toxicity, specifically how anonymity on platforms like TikTok allows strangers to be more mean without accountability due to what is described as an "anonymity equivalent" of the bystander effect. When individuals believe they will not be identified or held responsible for their actions, such as posting hate speech or using coded language regarding sensitive issues like anti-Semitism, they are emboldened to act out aggressively. This environment creates a challenging landscape where even likable personalities and peaceful dispositions can face unfair attacks, leading some creators to adopt defensive strategies or limit their exposure to drama while others, like the host James Smith mentioned in relation to calling people out for unethical behavior, find themselves open season on critics who feel justified in attacking those they perceive as hypocrites. Ultimately, the episode concludes with a call for better education on how society can navigate criticism from strangers and manage expectations regarding physical appearance in an age of digital perfectionism. Thurston reflects that while he cannot escape being present online to maintain his career or community engagement, he has learned to develop "thick skin" against anonymous trolls who exploit the lack of consequences inherent in burner accounts. The conversation underscores a broader societal issue where everyone is now vulnerable to public scrutiny and judgment, whether they are elite athletes posting workout routines or regular users sharing videos of their pets, necessitating a shift toward more resilient mental frameworks that separate self-value from external validation and online noise.

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male body dysmorphia is on track to overtake female body dysmorphia within the next few decades does that surprise you no I think it's always been a thing but especially now with how big social media is and how jacked so many people are uh I think of course it's a it's a big problem but do you know there's a guy who's really good at calling people out for editing their photos have you seen that guy I don't know his name but he's got quite a big social media following and basically anybody who has photos shops their photo or videos M he gets them oh wow so he's doing a good job he's making sure that people are being truthful with the things that they're posting but that makes you think how many people are editing even people who are literally jacked and shredded they are still editing their photos further to bring in their waist bring out the lats and just it's crazy so especially with women as well imagine how bad that is for the average person who's comparing M themselves to all these people and a lot of those people are actually still editing their photos to look moreable peaked they've just trained they've got a pump they're in good lighting they've got a good photographer a good camera good lens they've got a tan blah blah blah and then on top of that they're editing their photos as well yeah it it's you know I think that that's it's one thing that messed me up a little bit when I competed so I competed twice and obviously when you compete that really is the best that you are going to look probably in your life especially for me in terms of how low I got my body fat percentage so when I would look in the mirror particularly after the show when it was like more memorable I would be like pretty fat because you had yourself because I was comparing myself to the sub 10% body fat person that I was looking in the mirror which is like that says it all that not only can you have other people out there in the world for guys and girls that make them feel uncomfortable about their body or they're taller or more jacked or more whatever but you can also be that for you too you know this is I wanted to talk about this like you know you're 34 33 33 I'm 35 and we're getting to the stage where we're like right okay you know recovery from workouts takes a little bit longer recovery from nights out takes an awful lot longer a couple more wrinkles on the forehead my photographer keeps reminding me of that cheers Rob don't listen to don't listen to them uh yeah just thinking about as that happens you almost use yourself as well I used to be X or Y as I used to be this able to get up and and train hard or lift this much or be this lean or eat this many calories or whatever and then you can't so you use yourself as your own barometer and you know the discomfort that's associated with that of not being as jacked as you used to be not being as able to recover from work as you used to be it's like a harsh realization like the the body smoria I think with me in particular I've I've not really been that person that's always compared myself to others but more so I'm always comparing myself to myself and how good I have looked in the past that's what I'm always comparing myself to and you're right I think fortunately for me now I still feel like I'm I I don't know if I have peaked I think especially if I was to fine-tune a few things M the peak is still yet to come but when I do have these thoughts of okay well Sony downhill from here yeah that I'm like you do know that I I think about that and this whatever you want to call about it like aging gracefully as a man whatever that means right uh probably not taking all of your selfworth from the way you look might be a good place to start and I think God you know how difficult it's going to be recovery from the workouts and not being as Jack not being the fastest guy in the room or the strongest guy in the room or whatever but then you realize that that's like women from age 25 yeah I think we we as men have got it good like we can we can get older and age and get the the the gray whiskers more wrinkles and if anything it's still kind of it might even make you look better like I remember I looked back at some footage from when I was even like 20 27 28 and I feel personally I look a lot better now like I had like maybe it didn't help that I was like clean shaving myself all the time but I looked you grow into with your style a little bit but yeah you know for for all that I can be chronically fearful of my own mortality and getting older and all the rest of it thinking yeah but the speed of descent isn't as rapid as it is for yeah women so yeah the male body dismorphia thing being on track to overtake female body dysmorphia kind of doesn't surprise me I think you you probably have to be careful with who you're following and who you're comparing yourself to like if if you were an average guy and you are following the like top 1% of athletes in the world the top 0.01% of course you're going to feel pretty small in comparison to them so it depends like for someone like me if I am following like the elite you trained with Kai green this morning yeah so but in town at the moment so if I if I'm following them I'm the type of person that gets inspired by it like I get motivated by that but other people can take it the opposite way and be like oh that's unachievable I'll never get there and I feel worthless yeah what's your relationship like with social media now oh I think I would love to not have to be on it so much but I know it's something which I need to be doing regularly more than ever like you especially with what we do in today's day and age you have to be everywhere um even to this day I don't like how I still get sucked into it every single time in terms of the the Doom scrolling I go on there to do a task then I get distracted by something and then I'm scrolling then I still haven't done the like oh 15 minutes hell hang on I didn't do the thing I supposed it so you have to go back onto it again so I think um yeah from that point of view I hate how good it is at just sucking you in and rewarding you for just getting like a notification or whatever um in terms of like YouTube and stuff I'm I'm I'm quite selective with what I consume like I when I go on to YouTube I like to watch things which I'm going to No Doubt get educated by I like to watch a lot of podcasts anything which I'm going to learn something by Instagram as well it's it's it's a bit of a mess I have it I like now to employ as many people as possible to just run the platform yeah so that I don't have to go onto it I still still actually it's a recent thing I don't look at comments anymore okay that used to still mess with your head I think particularly like with the the gym related videos I would do a gym workout or try and do an educational video talking about like uh how to do this exercise or whatever and then the comment section is all steroids steroids steroids steroid steroids why you lying to us fake Natty and it's just like I'm I'm trying to help people yet the the whole conversation is about whether or not I'm natural and it used to annoy me so much that I actually pivoted away from making gym videos because it was so annoying that because no one's talking about your supposed steroid use in a lifestyle Vlog in Marb yeah so like the the less gym related stuff in it there's kind of less uh negativity dude I mean that's that's something that's really true that the audience gets to influence the direction of the Creator in a lot of ways and if they make them feel very uncomfortable about whatever it is that they're doing going to start to lean away from that typee of content was one of the reasons why I got hair transplant cuz when I was losing my hair and it was thinning really badly when I look back at it now I was like like it was pretty bad and I was like I don't ever remember it being that bad I was there was a a six-month phase where probably should have just shaved it like you know how when everyone's losing their hair they try and just cling onto it and you just got like little strands just you know it's looking pretty pathetic and lonely and the whole comment section was just about ah he's losing his like oh the steroid again and it was just like I'm making these videos yet all everybody wants to talk about is the hair loss yeah well we spoke about this the last time that I had you on I I mentioned that I admire the fact that you've chosen to stay out of Internet drama yeah as best you can I think that's partly both yours and my disposition which is I'm just not very conflict person I quite like having been chill and and peaceful and relaxing and I'm not in it for the beef but there's certainly it feels extra unfair if you haven't done made a career out of like James Smith right my partner in neonic he made a career calling people out for like Fitness advice or for lying about stuff or for editing photos or for do being you know unethical it's kind of Open Season for him because guess what like that the way that you went about think I knew like as we were in the buildup launching this drink and he started doing call out videos about Prime and everything else and I was like James you do know that by doing this you're just making it open season on us but anyway for him it's like all right well you know if you've spent a lot of time criticizing other people it's kind of Open Season on you that's not to say that people who've never criticized should be insulated from any criticism but it's just like hang on what have I done to you why you dragging me into this yeah in a way I was it's kind of good in one sense because it's exposure but when it is a person of authority talking about you then they have a a huge audience who do listen to every word that they say big influence and it's kind of a it's a only one argument is being put forward of course you could do a response video and give your side of it but where does it end and then they're like yes he I've got him I've got him yeah yeah but I think you know even for the people that aren't content creators every everybody especially with Tik Tok Tik Tok is so the number of followers you have basically doesn't count if you put an insane video on Tik Tok guess what there's a million likes on it you know if it's really really good and you catch the algorithm at the right time etc etc which means now that everybody content creator or mother that happens to take a funny video of her dog doing something is open to the entire internet saying oh that's that's animal abuse or whatever you know what I mean like there's just everybody's open to criticism and I think some kind of education about how to deal with criticism from strangers on the internet would probably be a pretty good thing yeah for everybody to learn yeah uh well I remember when I started with YouTube I think whenever you're on a platform that people can post anonymously they'll go harder they'll be more Relentless with what it is that they want to say and I think that took me a bit of getting used to and I almost had to learn okay I got to develop thick skin here in order to just carry on with doing it I mean even the people who are like the the nicest guys ever that you would just and girls you just think how can you not like this person like such a likable person they're still getting hate for something tons and tons of distaste yeah well there's an idea called the bystander effect have you heard of this no so um you have a a crime let's say somebody's being attacked right in the um Courtyard of a bunch of FL Flats somewhere and everybody that lives in the flats hears the attack going on and there's someone you know screaming for help or saying please ring the police or whatever all of the people think that one of the other people will do the right thing and call the police or whatever bystander effect and there's kind of a an anonymity equivalent here which is when you know that you're not going to be found out you can almost lean in and be a little bit be way more mean no one's going to come after you you're not going to be held accountable for the things you say it's a burner account on YouTube like you know I mean so dude some of the stuff like anti-Semitism and stuff that's happened this year on on like random comment threads and I'll see people talking in code about like or like you know whatever reverse anti-Semitism crazy crazy crazy stuff this episode is brought to you by element element is a tasty electrolyte drink mix with everything that you need and nothing that you don't it's a healthy alternative to sugary electrolyte drinks it's got a science-backed electrolyte ratio of sodium potassium and and magnesium you might ask what do I want with an electrolyte drink well it'll regulate your appetite it'll curb Cravings it'll help improve your brain function best of all it tastes phenomenal first thing in the morning this 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