by Shawn Tucker:
We all love being guys all of the time and would never want that to be different and we love everything about being a guy (and if not, we have our male code of silence to prevent us from admitting otherwise).
One of the many, many reasons we are glad we are guys is because we don't have those body image problems that women have. None of us. Ever. (Okay, we all know that that is not true at all. In fact we all feel unattractive many times. Feeling unattractive makes us feel undesirable and maybe even unlovable. Good thing we never have to talk about it.)
It is always great being a guy because you can play shirts-and-skins to distinguish teams and you never feel self-conscious about it. (I pretty much always felt some shame taking off my shirt. As a teenager I felt that I was scrawny and chicken-chested. Now I feel fat and like I have a forest of disgusting, troll-like chest hair/fur.)
I never worry about my weight, height, or penis size. (Dude—we all know that isn't true!)
Since I'm a guy and never have those body-image hang ups, why would I need strategies to deal with it? (So recently I did something that has changed the way I feel about my body. I took time to thank my Heavenly Parents for every part of my body. I started at my feet, thanking them for all of the blessings that my feet have brought me. I took time to name and reflect on each and every part. Every part. I thanked Them for my knees, my shoulders, my penis, my ears, my scrotum, my thumbs, etc. Yep, every part. It has been amazing to me how differently I see my body after doing that. I see each part as a unique blessing. I feel like I compare my body much less to other bodies, real or imagined. I feel deeply, deeply grateful for the one I have, and I feel less desire to have something different. I feel a deeper desire to take care of it and see it flourish. I feel much more comfortable and blessed in my own skin, skin that I love much more now. This love dispels a lot of fear.)
As guys we might joke about "love handles" or balding or whatnot, but we are just kidding and we never need help or others or feel the need to "talk about it." (Yah, right!)
Shawn Tucker grew up with amazing parents and five younger, wonderful siblings. He served as a missionary in Chile during the Plebiscite and the first post-dictatorship election. After his mission, he attended BYU, where he married ... you guessed it ... his wife. They both graduated, with Shawn earning a BA in Humanities. Fearing that his BA in Humanities, which is essentially a degree in Jeopardy, would not be sufficient, Shawn completed graduate work in the same ... stuff ... at Florida State University. He currently teaches at Elon University in North Carolina. He and ... you guessed it ... his wife have four great children. Twitter: @MoTabEnquirer. Website: motabenquirer.blogspot.com.Image credit: Rakshmi.
