Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man is generally considered to be one of the finest artistic studies of man's proportions.

Michelangelo's David is widely considered to be one of the finest artistic portrayals of a man.

Photograph of a nude man by Wilhelm von Gloeden, ca. 1895.

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Men

A man is a male human. The term man (irregular plural: men) is usually used for an adult, with the term boy being the usual term for a male child or adolescent (sometimes also applied to adult men). more...

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However, the term is also used for a male human regardless of age, sometimes even extended to more primitive humanoids then the present species Homo sapiens sapiens, as in apeman.

Age

Manhood is the period in a male's life after he has transitioned from boyhood, at least physically, during puberty. Many cultures have rites of passage to symbolize a man's coming of age, such as confirmation in some branches of Christianity, bar mitzvah in Judaism, or even just the celebration of the eighteenth or twenty-first birthday.

A boy is a male human child. For many, the word man implies a certain degree of maturity and responsibility that young men in particular often feel unprepared for; yet they may also feel too old to be called a boy. For this reason, many avoid using either man or boy to describe a young man and prefer colloquial terms such as bloke, lad, chap, fellow or guy.

Biology and sex

Humans exhibit sexual dimorphism in many characteristics, many of which have no direct link to reproductive ability, however most of these characteristic do have a role in sexual attraction. Most expressions of sexual dimorphism in humans are like height, in that there may be an obvious tendency, but there is overlap between the sexes. That is, men tend to be taller than women, but there are many people of both sexes who are in the mid-height range for the species.

Some examples of male secondary sexual characteristics in humans, those acquired as boys become men or even later in life, are:

deeper voice
taller height
facial hair or beard
diamond shape pubic hair pattern
increased body overall
thinner layer of subcutaneous fat
male pattern baldness
coarser skin
darker skin tone

The sex organs of a man are part of the reproductive system, consisting of the penis, testicles, vas deferens, and the prostate gland. The male reproductive system's function is to produce semen which carries sperm and thus genetic information and deliver it so that it can unite with an egg inside of a woman. Since sperm that enters a woman's uterus and then fallopian tubes goes on to fertilize an egg which develops into a fetus or child, the male reproductive system plays no necessary role during the gestation. The concept of fatherhood and family exists in every human society. The study of male reproduction and associated organs is called andrology. Most, but not all, men have the karyotype 46/XY.

In general, men suffer from many of the same illnesses as women. However, there are some sex-related illnesses that occur only, or more frequently, in men. For example, autism and color blindness are more common in men than women. As well, some age-related disorders such as Alzheimer's disease appear to be more common among men, though whether this is due to a genuinely higher incidence or because men have lower life expectancies than women is uncertain.