Helping Men Accept Compliments About Their Bodies
Compliments about physical attributes can be tricky, but that doesn’t mean they should never be given.
Remember this statement?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Since my earliest memories, I never found the typical “alpha male” attractive. The overbuilt football players (not knocking all of them — I once married one), the big guys with big muscles, the first-to-mature bullies, the guys who prided themselves on sexual prowess — I didn’t find them attractive.
I couldn’t and still can’t understand what made virgin males unappealing to many females. For my female contemporaries, a male’s lack of experience typically is the kiss of death for a sexual encounter. I, in sharp contrast, loved and love giving a partner his first experiences of any/all things sexual. For me, it enhances intimacy.
Conversations about compliments often raise problems inherent in the double-edged sword of body-focused statements. If we are emphasizing something we like about a man’s body, we also have the opportunity (and the power) to criticize his physical self.
I find the male images in Maxfield Parrish’s paintings compelling. I prefer this artist’s rendering of rather delicate, lean, and…
