I agree that encouraging girls to focus obsessively on body image, and to imply that self-worth should be based on a "sexy" appearance, is every bit as bad as the similar societal encouragement for boys to judge their self-image on the basis of their level of athletic ability.

Of course, I was simply saying that the solution to the above problems--and they are problems, I certainly agree--is not to attempt to downplay or entirely stifle appreciation of female beauty or the merits of male physical prowess entirely, but simply to develop a strong appreciation for a variety of attributes when it comes to these concepts.

For example, many boys and men find females who are chunky, petite, or who have small breasts to be attractive and sexy, and these phenotypes should have a place in magazines and video imagery devoted to female appreciation of beauty as pervasively as the currently "normative" attributes of tall height, more developed breasts, and slim bodies (none of which ever made total sense to me). Additionally, society can set up ways of showing appreciation for boys whose talents lie more in the intellectual realm as well as those who show good physical prowess in sports competitions, and portray the former attributes as potentially attractive as those of the latter.