A brave man let graphic designers from 19 countries around the world Photoshop him into their culture’s ideal of male beauty.
The project is inspired by Esther Honig’s Photoshop series, where she was retouched to artists’ native beauty standards, but with the male form as the subject.
Research conducted by Superdrug Online Doctor, who carried out this project, found that 40% of men felt pressure and anxiety about having “perfect” bodies, showing it’s not just women who suffer the effects of impossible beauty standards.
So here’s the American dream man.
And this is Australian male beauty. Apparently they care less about chiseled abs than America.
Pakistan’s designer gave the model a longer face and seriously chunky shoulders.
While Bangladesh just slimmed him down a bit (and were the only ones to change his shorts, incidentally).
China’s male beauty sees the model as much skinnier and a fuller head of hair.
And the Filipino designer made the original much slimmer and gave him abs to contend with America.
Russia fancied longer, blonder locks, bigger eyes, and some serious pectorals.
And the main difference we could spot here was the smile. Isn’t that nice?
Egypt’s Photoshop left the model almost unrecognisable; he’s much more muscular with thicker hair and a darker skin tone.
The Indonesian designer slimmed the original’s face and body and seems to have given him much hairier legs.
Portugal’s vision of beauty has a thin face and flat stomach. They trimmed the hair on his torso and shaved his toes, hilariously.
And Nigeria again made the model much darker-skinned, slightly thinner and, like Colombia, a little bit more smiley.
The Superdrug Online Doctor website states, “Men suffer equally with women around low body confidence as many strive to attain a standard of ‘attractiveness’ that is both unobtainable and, as shown, driven by cultural perceptions and advertising ideals.”
Guys, we hope you feel reassured that it wasn’t all six-packs and bulging biceps. So celebrate your beauty, even if you have to move to Indonesia.
You can see the full report here.