BOSTON -- Since the 1960s, male action figures appear to have been on a steady diet of steroids, beefing up to inhuman proportions and giving boys a skewed definition of masculinity, a psychiatrist says.
In a study published this week in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Harrison Pope said male action hunks are sending boys the wrong message, much as Barbie gives girls a twisted picture of perfection.He said his studies have shown increased emphasis on muscular males over the years, and the latest analysis continues the trend.
"We chose to study the toys because we could measure them and they were good examples of the trend," Pope said. "We talked to many kids and the toys they liked the most were very muscular figures."
Researchers measured the circumference of GI Joe's waist, chest and biceps at different stages of development over the years.
The original GI Joe from the 1960s, scaled to human dimensions, had a biceps circumference that equated to about 12 inches, similar to an ordinary man.
But a GI Joe Extreme from 1997 had a biceps circumference of more than 26 inches, almost the size of a small man's waist. In comparison, the biceps of real-life home run slugger Mark McGwire measure about 20 inches.