Take two random average-looking people: Jack and Jill, both 5/10 looking. Right of the bat, Jill's pool of partners is much larger than Jack's, based on men's expectations (and fbois of course), but let's leave that to the side.

Say these two are trying to widen their pool by improving their looks. Neither of them can change their fundamental look. You got an average face, then you got an average face. For Jill to get closer to the media's beauty standards, she mainly has to get lean. Most women actresses/models/influencers are plainly lean. Hypothetically, Jill could do a crash diet and get there if she is willing to put the effort. I'm no way expecting all women to get anorexia, this is just all hypothetical way of getting there quickly. Just this would get her 60% of the way. Some good make-up would give her another 20%. If she still isn't happy, there is a fix for everything. Small breast? implants. Small glutes? implants. The main point is all the effort that Jill needs to put is to get skinny and throw-on some make-up to get there 80% of the way.

Now say Jack wants to get closer to the media's beauty standards, just being skinny isn't going to help him much. He has to get lean and also add on muscles. A lot of muscles. In my experience, losing weight is easy. Losing fat and building muscles takes years/decades of dedication. Does that get him closer to the standards? No. The industry is filled with roided greek-god looking men like Chris Hemsworth and Dawyne Johnson. So unless Jack starts illegally cycling steroids and ruining his health and fertility, he is no way getting closer to the standard. And that's just one part of it. Can Jack wear make-up? No, that'd be too feminine. Can Jack get an implant? No, doesn't work for muscles (google synthol).

I frequently hear women cry about how unrealistic their beauty standards is and how men get away easily and all I could think is that men don't get to be a bitch. We bitch, we don't get respected. I am open to other opinions.