The photo is of actor Timothee Chalamet in BRITISH VOGUE Magazine, 2022. Not only do I think he’s beautiful, I find it so affirming to see a naturally thin, dare I say skinny, young man playfully posing, show-cased as beautiful. I too was once young and very thin and would have loved back then to have seen this kind of male imagery being respectfully, joyfully highlighted everywhere.
Everyone needs to witness affirming imagery of their own unique body type, not just a very select few types (namely skinny women and buffed up men) being glorified everywhere over and over again.
The Practical, Fanciful Pagan 
He certainly is a good-looking young man!
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Agreed!
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Wow, nice pic!
I, too, have been encouraged to witness a slow (painfully, glacially slow) shift in media that images beautiful/sexy/alluring/healthy/stylish etc. etc. (for years one of the classes I taught to adolescents was on body image and human beauty—the extent to which our perceptions and conceptions are shaped by the media– especially advertising– and perpetuated in the various cultures we inhabit: family/church/age-cohorts/etc.)
The repeated takeaway every year was that for the vast majority of young folks, what they looked like was totally no-win situation. Even those who would be thought of as “model” types hated so many things about their bodies and wished to change. And there were students who hated things about their own looks that were the very things other students longed for. (Yikes it was powerful stuff for 9th grade English classes!)
Even with slowly broadening presentations of bodies-beautiful, I wonder how much really changes. the underlying messaging of advertising (that drives media) weaves into the generalized (and yes a stereotype too) American culture and they perpetuate one another—Both, for different reasons, beam out the same messaging: “You’re not good enough yet.”
Just to offer an ironic coda to extend my point—“skinny” young assigned-male-at-birth people often feel inadequate, yet don’t realize that their looks are far more attractive to some than are the big-guy muscly six-pack types…(eg my younger offspring is almost exclusively attracted to very tall very thin men).
I wish wish wish there were much more education about the body offered to children starting in pre-school and continuing through high school! But geez, we can’t even manage to get decent health or sexuality classes in place, much less something that might actually help kids live (even though it can’t be assessed via standardized instruments). That’s a rant that has no place in response to your post though.
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I resonate with everything you say here, Jazz. Your experiences you share here are interesting, informative, and somewhat saddening. Still, as you mention at the beginning of your comment, there has indeed been a “painfully, glacially slow shift. I’ll take it, while pushing for more, faster change/shifts too.
I don’t think your “rant” is out of place in response to my post. I’m glad whenever my bit of writing inspires further, deeper discussion, wherever that may branch off into.
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I can’t seem to edit my former comment to add some other thoughts. So, here’s another reply. I hear you about your offspring and some others being attracted to tall and thin men. And while I wasn’t and am not particularly tall (5′ 11″), as a skinny young man, I was often tallish in proportion to my thinness. I enjoyed being viewed as attractive to others a fair amount, but the push by both the media and my parents (along with a few other family members now and then) to be more muscular constantly drove home the message that my body as it was was not enough or good enough; something was wrong with my body. This was so frustrating and sad to experience, experience that was in the mix of a large number of people’s experiences feeling similarly about themselves. This was thanks, hugely, to awful societal messaging to “strive to be more,” etc. Modern materialism and capitialism fuel this, so people keep feeling the urge to purchase more stuff and services, including to “improve” their bodies. These days, I’m simply committed to keeping my body healthy and not worrying or caring about what others think of my appearance. It’s taken a long time to arrive there and I realize I’m quite privileged to be able to get here.
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Yes it must have been terrible to experience—and especially with the added confusing conflicting messaging. What a journey of healing you have made to free yourself of societal pressures and choose your own priorities about your appearance.
I, myself, have never really managed it. Part of me never cared because I knew I could never look like I wanted to anyway, but the parts of me that were vulnerable to all the influences around still do!
Your comment that you inhabit a place of privilege gave me pause…then I began to consider how many individuals have careers in which there is intense pressure to look (and behave) in ways dictated by society/media/advertising…and some may have no alternatives. And others, even more disturbingly, are involved in personal relationships with partners who expect them to look/dress/behave in these ways.
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I agree with your last paragraph! I watched an ACES film where they had classes to discuss child abuse, etc. to get the kids to talk about what was going on at home. I was very happy to see that there were schools addressing the matter. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
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