Masculine People and Body Image - How do We Really See Ourselves?

https://youtu.be/qZoNJ0NOetw

Man Enough is a series created by Justin Baldoni in which he challenges himself and all men to question the traditional standards of what it means to be a man.

In this video, he and the men at the table of various experiences discuss body image among their identities and the connects this has to their overall experiences of manhood. In the discussion of the male/man body, it was also wonderful.

I personally resonated with Prince Ea and Aydian Dowling, feeling both that I am too skinny and that I must overcompensate my physically sense of masculinity another way because I am transgender.

I am at a point where I am overall content with my body, being a little over a year on hormones and being almost 6 months post top surgery at the time of making this post.
However I have noticed a rise in issues with my body image, especially as it pertains to fetishization of my body as a trans person.

For myself, I feeling this need to compensate for my size and my transness. I must have a more "ideal" masculine shape; having broad shoulders, minimizing the size of my hips and even feeling self conscious for the size of my larger thighs and butt. These things being attributed to "ideal" feminine bodies along with my lean and smaller frame, I feel disgusted by my body at times, being told my body is ideal for things that I do not identify with or that completely reduce me to a sexual object by people I'm not attracted to (in my experience this has usually been from cisgender men regardless of sexuality).

So I greatly encourage people, especially masculine people and men (or people who aren't men!) to watch this series because its a needed dialogue to get men to develop a healthier sense of self and embody masculinity in a positive manner.