What's wrong with Ab Flab?

Men seem increasingly obsessed with having not just a flat stomach but a hard, muscular abdomen. Are we, like women before us, nothing more than media-manipulated fashion victims? Let's hear your views

Abs are absolutely everywhere. You certainly can't open a men's magazine without seeing them in the ads, the fashion shoots and, especially, on the fitness pages. Men's Health magazine is typical. 'A firm flat stomach! 15 New Fat-Busting Routines' promises the cover of one issue.

'Most men have two stomachs: one in their imagination and one above their belts,' says the article on the inside pages. 'This abdominals extravaganza explains how to turn the Virtual Stomach of the Mind into taut reality.' And there's a photo to demonstrate what the mag's 'super-efficient flab-melting routines' will do for you. A man, face obscured, is pulling up his T-shirt to reveal the 'perfect' torso. No hair, no fat, just the contours of his rectus abdominis and external and internal obliques. This, clearly, is how 21st Century Man should look.

The pollsters confirm what magazine editors and advertisers have already sussed. The stomach now tops the list of body parts men would most like to change, says a MORI survey, with almost half yearning for a smaller circumference. For confirmation of these findings, visit virtually any gym. You'll see men on benches or mats, or encased in machinery, straining their stomachs in a desperate search for that all-too elusive six-pack.

Search the back of men's wardrobes, moreover, and you'll no longer find the traditional chest-expanding bullworker. In its place there's now an abdominal trainer - essentially a lightweight frame that supports the neck and head while the abs are isolated and exercised.

And then there's cosmetic surgery - liposuction, to be precise - with private clinics now regularly advertising their body sculpting services for men. 'I had 1.8 litres of fat removed from my stomach by liposuction last year,' says one 27 year old man. 'It cost me £2,500 but was well worth it - the operation took two inches off my waist.' But losing over three pints of blubber isn't quite enough. 'I still want to lose another 20 lbs and have a six-Pack by the end of the year. I do 100 sit-ups four times a week plus regular boxing and weights training.'

But why have abs become men's route to absolution? Why is it that, in the last 25 years, men's focus of concern has moved downwards - from the arms and chest to the belly? There's undoubtedly more to the abdomania than a stomach-jerk reaction to the proliferation of pictures of men with washboards. The cult of the abdomen has far deeper roots.

One concerns the place where abs are most conspicuous by their absence: on the vast majority of men's bellies. This is, unquestionably, the era of the expanding gut. Manual labour has declined, daytime TV has been switched on, we spend our leisure time strolling round shopping malls and eating high-calorie burgers. The result, since 1980 alone, is stark: the proportion of men medically defined as overweight or obese has increased by an astonishing 46 per cent. Well over half of all men are now, to put it bluntly, too fat.

But why is abdominal fatness so feared? For some men, without doubt, it's because they want to look, and feel, healthy. At a time when lifestyle change is increasingly seen as the best way to guarantee a long life, because the abdomen is by far the hardest body part for men to get in shape, the flatness of a man's tummy has come to represent the extent of his efforts to hold disease at bay. And, in fact, there's an element of rationality in this since a big belly can kill. Because deep layers of fat inside the abdominal cavity are dangerously close to critical arteries, having a large waist circumference significantly multiples the risk of heart disease.

For most men, however, concern about a spreading midriff is due much more to an awareness that success, even survival, in the new world of temporary and insecure work seems increasingly linked to appearing youthful and vigorous, lean and mean. Layers of fat are seen to reflect nothing less than indolence and a lack of discipline. Men feel they have to 'downsize', 'delayer' and 'trim off the fat', just like the organisations they're increasingly likely to work for.

Men now have to compete for more than work, however. Women, increasingly financially independent and self-confident, are demanding more from their partners. An increasing number are drawing the line at naff haircuts, the fashion-sense of a jumble sale and bodies even Pavarotti would be embarrassed by. Men are also only too aware that women now have increasing access to - and a desire to see - sexualised images of men. It's easy for men to believe that the guy women are most likely to desire is the one with the washboard.

But tummy fat is also feared because of the special significance of the abdomen. it's the site of the umbilicus, the belly-button - the evidence that we were once babies, soft, gentle, helpless. Pre-birth, the abdomen's role was to anchor the source of our sustenance, the cord that connected us to our mother. It remains a symbol of dependence and vulnerability. Encasing it in hard slabs of muscle represents an attempt to deny or repudiate that softness.

Having a flat abdomen is significant, too, because it so fundamentally distinguishes men from women who have naturally more rounded stomachs. This matters at a time when the male role is unclear and, it seems to many, in danger of becoming increasingly feminised. Many men are attempting to hold onto at least the outward appearance of traditional masculinity through developing a lean, taut, muscular body.

The hard stomach also repudiates feeling. We talk about 'gut feelings' as being amongst the most fundamental feelings we possess. To feel 'gutted' is to feel devastated. Our belly moves in-and-out and up-and-down when we laugh or cry. Surrounding the abdomen with a ring of tight muscle is like wearing a corset - it holds the body in, it keeps it tight, rigid and under control.

Control is key for men. It is a central characteristic of the so-called 'real' man. He controls others just as he controls himself. But fat, especially around a man's belly, is soft and unpredictable. It's essentially 'feminine' and out-of-control. It has no fixed shape, no clearly defined edges, no obvious use or purpose. It sticks out, wobbles and slows a man down. It makes him vulnerable, a larger target, a potential victim. A big gut comes complete with passive-sounding 'love handles', although when it comes to sex with women, it's men who are 'supposed' to be the active partner, the one who does the holding and the thrusting.

The ab fad looks set to stay, even though the vast majority of men will never succeed in turning 'the Virtual Stomach of the Mind into taut reality', whether or not they read Men's Health. Despite their best efforts, their guts will remain obstinately in place. This leaves them with a sense of personal failure and inadequacy only too familiar to women who grow up surrounded by countless images of female 'perfection'.

It's conceivable that this could lead men to reject abdomania and turn to a more realistic diet and exercise regime. It's much more likely, however, that it will create an increasingly determined but ultimately fruitless search for what has unfortunately now become defined as the 'ideal' male body.

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By Peter Baker, director of the Men's Health Forum

Have your say about men's abdomens

Do you have a six-pack or would you like one? Why? Or do you think men should be less obsessed with how they look? Whatever your views or experiences, we'd like to hear them. All contributions will be published on malehealth.co.uk.

Read other men's views on six packs