Beauty and maintaining a youthful appearance are often topics associated with women—the “fairer sex” and one half of the world’s population. However, men clearly have their own distinct beauty standards. The ideal male physique for modern men might be strong biceps and a chiseled six-pack. Yet, in the past, the standards of beauty for men were very different and constantly changing. The concept of “handsomeness” is not absolute; it’s heavily influenced by the era, the place of residence, and different cultures. Below are the standards of male beauty in the Western world from thousands of years ago to the present day:
Neolithic Period (12,000 – 8000 BCE)
From approximately 12,000 to 8,000 BCE, humans began transitioning from a hunter-gatherer society to one based on agriculture. Dr. Peter Janiszewski, an obesity scientist, stated that the ideal man at that time was as heavy as possible. Farming allowed those with power over land to host large feasts and thus gain weight easily. Therefore, the heavier you were, the more powerful and wealthy you were considered.
Ancient Greece (800 BCE – 146 BCE)
The ancient Greeks expressed their ideals of beauty in the artworks we still admire today. The ideal beautiful man was muscular and toned. In fact, they looked very much like the “hot guys” in magazines we see today. For example, in statues, gods were depicted with the “V-cut” abs that many 21st-century men dream of.
Middle Ages (800 – 1000 CE)
People often think that those who lived before the 20th century were shorter and weaker than us today. But Professor Richard Steckel offered a very different perspective. After studying thousands of skeletons over the past 1,200 years, he concluded that in the early Middle Ages, men were almost as tall as 21st-century men. However, human height then decreased by about 6.5 cm by the 1700s. Medieval art doesn’t provide much help in identifying the ideal male physique. What scientists can infer is that men of that era were more highly regarded if they were tall.
The 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, he precisely outlined the shape of a perfect body. It wasn’t just about being thin or fat, or having muscles; men had to have perfect body proportions.
Late 1800s – Early 1900s
Today, obesity is a disease, but before people had easy access to food, fuller figures were considered attractive because they demonstrated a man’s upper-class status: being wealthy, having plenty of food, and not having to engage in heavy labor. In the West at that time, there was even a Fat Man’s Club, which you had to weigh over 90 kg to join. They even held weigh-in competitions to celebrate who had the highest weight.
1950s – 1960s
With the war and depression over, men were less concerned with looking strong, but they wanted to look big. Men of this era tended to wear suits with broad shoulders to create a large, imposing silhouette.
1960s – 1970s
A less rugged, more androgynous male look became fashionable during this time. The most famous superstars were David Bowie and Mick Jagger, who possessed both masculine and feminine qualities. A lean, lanky physique became the aspiration for many.
1980s
The ideal male body went in two completely different directions in the 80s: one was to have a muscular physique, and the other was to dress femininely, as this was considered individualistic and artistic.
1990s to Present
Starting in the 80s, the idea of an ideal, muscular man gradually became more popular. To this day, we still value masculine beauty like that of Brad Pitt.