Hello and welcome back to the Miss Amanda Chen Show. It’s the first Wednesday of 2021 and I’ve got some new episodes for the 100 Masked Men series, where we unpack what lies behind gender roles, the meaning of masculinity, fear and self worth with 100 interviews of anonymous men from all walks of life.

This week we’re talking about body image and the expectations we feel we need to fulfill in society. So why not go to the source and ask someone who works in the entertainment industry?

Masked Man # 15 is the Masked Entertainer. Coming from a background in dance, he reveals a lot of discrepancies of the body image expectations between boys and girls, how young the sexualization of women’s bodies begin, and how much the entertainment industry is focused on looks over talent. We even get into some dangerous territory on what YouTube videos might falsely portray about how perfectly some performances might appear, when in fact they’ve probably rehearsed it for weeks. I think it’s also interesting to note that this is coming from a gay man’s perspective and how that can be wildly different coming from a straight man. I hope you enjoy the show.

I think it’s interesting how this man goes against the norm but is curious about how a straight man feels about his own toxic traits when following certain norms? we talk about this concept of being a man and what masculinity means overall in lots of episodes on the show - which masked men have resonated with you the most so far? Or the least? Let me know and again, if you’d like to be on the show or know of someone with a unique perspective, slide into my DMs at @missamandachen on Instagram and see you next Wednesday with more episodes of 100 Masked Men.