Vin Diesel generally sports a ripped body for his films. That bod is no joke and he works hard for it. So if between gigs, he eats a few slices of pizza or doesn’t work out every day, it’s not that big of a deal — it happens. But a viral photo of Vin Diesel showed him in less rock-hard condition and the media went wild with comments of Vin’s “dad bod.” This grabs onto the newish trend of objectifying men with “average” bods. These are the guys who don’t spend their entire lives in the gym because — presumably — they’re busy with “dad” tasks.
The inherent bias of the dad bod phenomenon, however, is that moms are still held to the same body standards as always. The dads are allowed to nurse their light beer addiction, but moms are expected to “bounce back” mere months after birth. In May, The Daily Show featured a mighty takedown of the dad bod by Kristen Schaal, who pointed out to Jon Stewart that “women will never be able to relax about their bodies the way that men can.”
Vin Diesel arrives with a different perspective. As a Hollywood star, he feels more body-image pressure than the average fella. Vin is not okay with being called out for a dad bod. He posted these photos with the following caption:
It is amazing the response from the journalists who I have been talking to for the last two days in New York. Today one wanted to see the dad bod. Haha … Body-shaming is always wrong!
Does Vin have a point? He’s stating truth — body shaming is never okay — but he’s also disproving the label with some beefcake shots. You be the judge.
