The Standard

The Standard examines the pressures surrounding male body image and the ways society shapes ideals of masculinity through pop culture and social media. My work reflects the anxieties I have experienced in trying to conform to these expectations and the constant push and pull between self-perception and the idealized body I hold in my mind. Through painting and sound, I explore how external voices and cultural scripts impose themselves on the body, creating tension between acceptance and self-worth.

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The work is rooted in personal memory. I recall sitting alone in my first apartment after seeing Captain America: Civil War, wondering why my arms didn’t look like Chris Evans. We weighed the same, but his body seemed more defined, more masculine. In my naivety, I believed that enough push-ups, protein shakes, and discipline could get me there. For years I counted grams of chicken breast and timed every rep, convinced that if I gained enough muscle, I would finally feel confident, attractive, respected.

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Looking back, it feels almost absurd—and yet the pressures remain. Even now, I sometimes glance down and think my arms are too small, that missing a workout has erased years of effort. The question lingers: was I striving for health, or simply to embody an ideal of masculinity that was never my own?

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This tension—between the real and the ideal, the body lived and the body imagined—drives the work.