A lot has changed in the last century.
Cote and his contemporaries failed to predict how vastly different people would look by the new millennium.
Let’s take a peek at how men’s body types have evolved through the decades, shall we?
The 1900s: we’re fat and we’re making the most of it!
According toNPR, the club only accepted men who weighed a minimum of 200 pounds.
There was also a $1 entrance fee, a secret handshake, and password.
They were concerned that their weight would send a “symbolic message of laziness and moral failure.”
Nationwide, people had slimmed down.
The timing really could not have been worse for a new major industry to find its footing.
Yes, Hollywood had arrived.
As a result, Americans became even more “image-conscious” than before.
By the beginning of the 1920s, Hollywood was already synonymous with thin, attractive movie stars.
Outside of Hollywood, men began to follow the trend.
According to his research, some people were “endomorphs”: round and soft individuals.
Others were “mesomorphs”: people who were square and muscular.
And others still were “ectomorphs”: thin and fine-boned.
But Sheldon didn’t just stop at classifying body types.
No, he also assigned personality traits to the different types.
Endmorphs tended to have “viscerotonic” personalities, meaning they were extroverted and comfortable.
Mesomorphs were often “somotonic” or assertive and aggressive.
Ectomorphs tended to be introverts who were thoughtful and sensitive, or what Sheldon dubbed “cerebrotonic.”
Didn’t anyone ever tell him not to judge a book by its cover?
Yet and still, Sheldon’s research was considered groundbreaking at the time.
BeforePlayboy, though, there wasEsquire.
In the ’50s,Esquirecontinued on alongside Hefner’s magazine.
At times, companies would actually require him toonlysubmit candidates who were a minimum of six feet tall.
Handy himself concluded that “the big man is preferred because ‘he has a certain presence.'”
In 1969, only 30-some marathons were held across the United States.
By the mid-’70s, however, there were about 200.
With each subsequent film, the muscles of Sylvester Stallone’s character only grew.
Outside of Hollywood, Mr. Universe (later,Mr.
Olympia) competitions also reigned supreme in Reagan’s era.
Even Ronald Reagan himself demonstrated what political author John Orman dubbed the"macho presidential style."
What didFreddie Prinze Jr.,Luke Perry, andJared Letoall have in common?
They were thin, yes, but all decidedly average.
By the late ’90s, men with small-framed builds also started packing on muscle but not Reagan era muscle.
Instead, it was all about looking lean.
Even as we transitioned into the 21st century, men were still desiring this body pop in.
A survey of about 2,000 people conducted by Planet Fitness (viaShape) echoed Bribiescas’ findings.
Hmm, maybe riding seahorses isn’t all that far-fetched after all.
