Dadbod: Soft-Bodied Men Embrace Their Curves (But Women Still Aim For Beach Bodies)

You may have noticed the celebration of the 'dadbod' creeping around the internet recently.

If you haven't, the dadbod is the slightly flabby, less-than-perfect, skipped-the-gym-for-beers-a-few-times male physique as seen on Seth Rogen, Jason Segal and even modern-day Leonardo DiCaprio.

And according to a college student in the US, women go wild for it. So, unsurprisingly, men are embracing their semi-beer-bellies with glee.

But the appreciation of the slightly flabby chappie happened to come in the very week that women were asked if they were had their 'beach body' yet (by Protein World). And sadly this is not a similarly soft, belly-embracing look that bounces gently as we run along the sand.

There's been a huge effort in recent years to encourage diversity when it comes to body types - in influential advertising and modelling campaigns as well as a grass-roots effort on social media. And it looks like it's had an impact - on men.

We've seen the rise of plus size models including #EffYourBeautyStandards Tess Munster and others whose image doesn't conform to the standard super-slim look we expect to see from the glossy plages of magazines, or modelling the clothes we want to buy online.

But when it comes to women, who've traditionally been those most judged on their percentage body fat, nothing has changed.

In fact the very article that brought the joy of the dadbod to our attention admitted that one of the main reasons it's a hit with the ladies is because it makes us look skinny by association.

Student Mackenzie Pearson explains in her article for The Odyssey: “We love people saying ‘they look cute together.’ But we still like being the center of attention. We want to look skinny and the bigger the guy, the smaller we feel and the better we look next to you in a picture.”

Sadface.

It's great that there's an appreciation of, shall we say, a 'low-maintenance' body type. It shows that the dadbod's owner has more going on in his life than the gym, that he's going to be up for going on the lash midweek rather than going home to eat his carefully portion-controlled dinner that he pre-made at the weekend.

Hell, he did not premake anything at the weekend (except mid-week drinking plans).

And it's great that men aren't feeling pressurised to bulk up or skinny down to a size and shape that's not natural for every single man - that they're being reminded that they're hot just as they are.

But what about us too? If we had tried to get the 'mumbod' trending, there would be outrage, and though it seems we can appreciate a few fat rolls on men, we can't cope with them on ourselves.

It's a fine line. Some of these blokes with their dadbods are on the border between laid-back and lazy. And when they fall the wrong side of beer belly acceptability they may find that their legions of adoring fans don't particularly like their beerbod.

But for us ladies, perhaps we don't need a new mashup word to help us promote diverse body types that don't take an intense green-shake-drinking, HIIT-obsessing, alcohol-banning lifestyle. Or that do, if that's what you enjoy.

Let's just carry on trying to widen modern beauty standards to include all of us, yeah?

[Rebel Wilson On Being A Reluctant Plus Size Role Model]
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