The ideal physique has changed thanks to bodybuilding.

Although women bear the brunt of societal pressure to look this way or that – what many don’t know is that men have been following the same societal cues for quite sometime. Throughout American history, there’s been certain ideals of what it means to be a “man”. One of the most important aspects is the physical form, the “Greek God” if you will.

While the 1900’s were sailing along, a little comet called bodybuilding came along and “SMASH” – tore up the scene. That’s right – the little  niche sport of bodybuilding changed the image of America and masculinity as a whole. No longer just freak show business, it made the image of the mass monster attainable – boys now wanted to look like the incredible hulk not Carey Grant. People often talk about how the “freak factor” size of bodybuilders doesn’t connect with the “average Joe.” But if we take a look at this official 2012 study reported by Lammily – it reveals that the big BOOM of bodybuilders (and Arnold as an action star) in the 80’s completely changed what the “average Joe” expected themselves to look like.

Maybe everyone relates to bodybuilding more than they realize. Let’s take a look back at the “ideal” body type of each decade to see the huge difference the big boom of bodybuilders had society.

The 1870’s

In the 1870’s most people were simple and their diets even simpler. Not because they were pious, God fearing folks, but because food was not produced on the mass scale it was today and a meal wasn’t as easy to come by.

Because of this, plump males, with a wide waist were seen as attractive as it was seen as a sign of affluence and wealth. While we now know you can easily get that type of physique by being poor and eating horrible foods, until the 1930’s this was America’s Fabio.