Youth: Researchers in Finland suprised to learn teenage boys worry about their looks

Researchers in Finland have said they were surprised to find that teenage boys are as concerned about their looks as young women.

Researchers at the University of Helsinki, looked into the attitudes of under 20-year-olds and discovered that boys are increasingly feeling the pressure of having to look good.

Researcher Maarit Valtari, speculates that all youth are feeling the increasing importance society places on beauty.

Am I missing something here?

Having been a teenage boy long before her respondents were born, I know full well that boys felt the pressure to have the right "look" even then. If you didn't have a Ben Sherman shirt in my school, you had no chance! Nor does it take too many rejections from teenage girls to realise that a boys looks are something they seriously consider - especially if they happen to tell you directly what they think about your looks!

I am surprised that she is surprised at the findings! The word "increasing" is not needed either. It has always been that way and always will.

I have a passion for old newspapers and over the years I must have read thousands of microfilmed newspapers from Australia, UK and U.S., dating back to the very early 1900s. Like so many other things that society is quick to attach variations of the word "increasing" to, it is hardly something new.

Her choice of words leads me to wonder what it is she actually wants to claim with this survey.