Feminists like to complain about unfair beauty standards (for women, of course) and objectification (of women) in the media. "Boobs and ass and hairlessness are all about looking young, ew men are pedophiles, childbearing, ugh patriarchy, amirite?????"

But what if beauty standards reflected something much deeper than just sex?

Take a look at the Roman statue of Laocoön. Or a Greek discus thrower.

Or Captain America, Thor, or Superman.

All of these, ancient and modern, have the muscular male as the standard of beauty.

As Little Red Riding Hood asked the wolf why his teeth were so big, we must ask why ideal men have such big muscles.

The better to hunt animals with.

The better to build things with.

The better to defend one's country with.

To mine coal, to drill oil, to compete against other men with.

Male beauty reflects our roles in society.

It was not the women in the phalanx. When Athens declared war, all the citizens understood that it was the entirety of the men who were to take spear and sword out into the field. Men who had spent years toiling on farms. Men who had grown hard and strong through physical labor. Voting to do so required the commitment of all eligible voters, so naturally, voting was restricted to the men who could afford arms and armor.

As the beauty standards of women (face, breasts, hips) reflect their fertility, beauty standards for men reflect our disposability. Who is more suited to the difficult tasks that keep a state functioning, to keep a state free, the strong one with big muscles, or the weak one without them?

As an addendum, beauty standards also reflect the amount of work that is expected from men and women. A woman simply is. How does a girl become a woman? She gets her period. Some cultures throw her a coming of age party when she turns 15, or 16, or 17, or 18. Simply aging is enough to make a girl a woman.

How does a boy become a man? In almost every society, age is not enough. He has a rite of passage. He cannot be passive in his journey to manhood, he has to force himself to go and do it. Difficulty is to be expected.

Look at the amount of work a man has to do to attain the ideal beauty standard. "Bench, Squat, HIIT..."

Look at the amount of work a woman has to do. "Don't eat like a pig and get fat."

No conspiracy of patriarchs invented beauty standards. Beauty standards were created because they represent the traits that make us best at our societal roles. A legacy of what got civilization to the modern world.

And yet, here the feminsts come, claiming that such things are bad for society.