I wrote a post related to this topic in another thread. In particular, cross-posting the following comment, which seems to reflect some common ground that seems to have been found here, r.e. “thirst”:
On another note:
Yes, there are problems with the expectations that are placed upon men, and yes, the way that male insecurity over penis size has been played for profit is cruel and too often damaging.
I recall an article on the rise of a trend in men adopting destructive (anorexic?) diets and working out constantly to achieve a “Van Damme look”, i.e. a perfectly lean, toned, yet muscular body, the sort of body that a lot of lead male actors put in entire 8-hour working days to attain before shooting for an action blockbuster (and it gets photoshopped to perfection anyway). You can probably google around to find this stuff. It’s an impossible and frankly unhealthy body image to aspire to, and it’s not good that, instead of alleviating analogous pressures on women, society has just started to place impossible body image pressures on men.
But the point is that all of this is terrible, not that both genders are now suffering so it’s okay.