Ideal Self

The concept of ideal self and actual self is so important for individuals in recent times. As result of the increase of social media and the media itself, individuals are frequently comparing themselves to those around them and, as is the case for most, coming up short. Self- concept can influence nearly every aspect of our lives, our tastes, our hobbies, the way we interact with others and the world around us. In this dissertation I hope to find how self -concept, or more particularly the idea of actual self and ideal self, affects males in the consumption of fitness. To do this, it is important to focus on the idea of self- concept but also look at fitness and the consumption of it and trends that appear. Then it will also be important to look at the theory behind masculinity and how males consume fitness activities and finally how their self-concept can affect this consumption. The idea of the ideal self-image is increasing in popularity as now, thanks to the media, people are being exposed to the perfect image. Individuals are being lead to believe that they should look a certain way and if they do not then they are not deemed ‘beautiful’ or ‘good-looking’. These individuals therefore create an ideal-self. An image they strive to achieve. This has led to an increase in many practices such as plastic surgery etc. But the industry that has also seen the increase in popularity is the health and fitness industry.

At the present time the notion of health and fitness are being brought to the fore front of people’s lives. It is fast becoming more important for people to be aware of their health. Individuals are looking after themselves now by eating healthy and most importantly by keeping fit. Recent studies have shown that while o...

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... them a good self-image, they rely on them to hold symbolic meaning for them and they also rely on them for their functional utility also. This is why it is important for companies to keep up with the ever growing demands of their customers. ‘Consumers are increasingly looking to the market to provide resources and technologies that will enable them to achieve rewarding and sustainable states of ‘being’’ (Shankar and Fitchett 2005). Customers are looking for more motivation to buy products nowadays and in fact it is deemed ‘short-sighted’ for companies not to realise this. ‘The belief that markets are secure because consumers will continue to be motivated to have an ever-greater array of goods and services is short-sighted and erroneous assumption’(Shankar and Fitchett 2005). Consumers are looking for so much more from their products and marketers need to be able