Hegemony Body Image

The study of body image is a broad topic that covers many subjects including gender. However, the study of body image has been focused mainly on females. This is because the physical shape and image of male bodies have not changed over the history. From the ancient Greek until the modern era, hegemony is the predominant stereotype of men. In sociology, hegemony means power and control (Gramsci, 1971). It is used when a socially powerful group uses their influence to control less powerful group in the absence of violence. In this case, the term hegemony refers to the dominant of social position of men (Connell, 1987). Hegemony traits include courage, independence and assertiveness (Judith, 2001; Murray, 2000). These traits of hegemony are also written on the

Gender also has been defined as " the social, cultural, and psychological traits linked to males and females through particular context (Pearson, 2008; 4). The term gender, therefore, is used to describe how societies assign sex categories based on the cultural meanings attached to males or females, and how they understand their identities. Judith Butler in her book (Gender Trouble, 1990) argues that gender is a performative, not tied to the bodily material, completely a social construction and has no genesis. Butler further argues that, the various acts of gender create gender and without these acts there will be no gender. From the above, it can be said that the term sex assigns people as male or female, while gender makes people masculine or feminine, which in turn is associated with being male (masculine) or female (feminine) and the socially mediated performance of hegemonic (or at least acceptable) manhood or womanhood. Thus, the sociology of gender focuses on how society and culture shape our understanding and perceptions of being masculine or feminine (Holmes,