A few years ago it became customary to mock middle-aged men, celebrities and regular guys alike, if they were gaining weight as opposed to their once lean and mean selves. The “dad bod” consists of a bit of a belly and maybe even man boobs. If you desire to have a dad bod, just drink one or two beers every night and drop physical exercise. You will get there quickly.

Aging is a fact of life. I do not think that every middle-aged man is doomed to look bad, however. In fact, with a solid workout routine you can maintain a great body well into your 40s. Heck, there are some videos floating around of guys in their 60s and 70s who look better than your average soy boy in his 20s. Yet, if you slave away in your cubicle 60 hours a week, suffer a lengthy commute, and have a wife at home who can’t cook and therefore serves microwaved ready-made dinners, you are facing quite an uphill battle.

A big reason why the “dad bod” is not your destiny is that men have firmer skin than women. Can men even suffer from cellulitis? In contrast, the skin of a woman tends to sag relatively quickly. The difference between an 18-year-old and a 28-year-old woman is staggering. There is nothing they can do about it. With guys, there should be no obvious difference if you are in shape.

Then there is the issue of body fat. In general, the baseline level of body fat of women is higher than the one of men. As women age, this only snowballs. I see a relatively high number of women who are overweight to obese. The number of men with that condition is rather modest in comparison. The older women get, the more their body approximates the shape of a pear. I am not talking about a ripe pear, but one that has spent a few days too many in the fruit basket.

Given that the “mom bod” is much more obvious than the dad bod, you may come to the conclusion that there is something off. The dad bod is largely invisible. If such a guy did not take his shirt off, he would not look nearly as bad. On the other hand, pear-shaped women do not have that luxury, even if they do not walk around in clothes made for women who have a much more appealing body shape. This means that you have to look out for the dad bod — it took paparazzi shots of some celebrities to prove that they are out o shape. Yet, to diagnose the “mom bod” you do not need to see a woman in a bikini. Her regular clothes are enough. A quick look at her thighs suffices. They can’t hide it.

If the mainstream media was even just remotely objective, they would certainly also mock women for the “mom bod“. That is not what is happening. Instead, you have websites and magazines claiming that some wall-hitters look “spectacular”, even though the exact opposite is true. If you are not yet convinced that the mainstream media is biased and largely only uses men to make fun of them, then look no further than the “mom bod” issue. Unlike the “dad bod”, it is a much more serious issue due to the health implications of excessive overweight, but of course we can’t tell women that they have to eat less and exercise. That would be oppressive.

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