The Inadequacy Industry

Unmasking the Inadequacy Industry and its impact on men’s body image and self-esteem

Deductive reasoning: what is wrong with me?

The Inadequacy Industry¹ encompasses the social, cultural, and business forces that keep you from ever being truly comfortable with yourself. It could be a religious interpretation telling you you’re a bad person for being your authentic self, commercials demanding that you need to eat this or wear that or go there to be truly loved, or imagery that shows you how a societally-valued human should look and be. It is the misery that keeps the economy running and the powerful powerful. And we struggle to identify it because we were born into it, marinating in its juices from the moment we access cultural knowledge, which is usually from the moment adults speak to us as babies. One might say that The Inadequacy Industry is the quintessential groomer, for without unwitting marks it would die.

I was victimized by The Inadequacy Industry between 1999-2001 when I made a go at acting just out of college. I moved to Los Angeles. Having been a happy-go-luc…