It Isn't Just a Girl Thing

Worries about fat thighs, too many helpings of FroYo topped with generic sugary cereal and the wish that the dreaded ‘freshman fifteen’ phenomenon were accurate (that College weight gain stops after the first year, and after fifteen pounds)—these are all concerns we might be tempted to associate with female undergrads. Yet, while the female population is brimming with disturbed weight and body image concerns, these problems are spilling over the gender barrier; the incidence of eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder—a pathology characterized by preoccupations with an imagined physical defect—is on the rise among the male populations in Western societies. Unfortunately, the general population remains all but oblivious to those men who suffer from disorders more readily linked with Mary-Kate than Bob Saget. A greater awareness of disordered eating and body image disturbances in the male population is therefore in order if the misconceptions, stigma and under-diagnosis bulging at this health concern’s sides are to be slimmed.

The past decade has seen increasing numbers of men pursuing a muscular body which, if not sculpted to Schwarzenegger proportions, would hopefully never land them the title of “girlie man.” This quest can dip into the danger zone, however, as perceptions of one’s body and ideals of attractiveness become warped. This is especially true in Western countries, as was evidenced by a research team led by the Harvard undergraduate Chi-Fu Jeffrey Yang ’05 in a study published last week in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Comparing Taiwanese to American and European men, the research team found the Western group to be more preoccupied with a heavy build and more likely to overestimate the “ideal” level of muscularity deemed attractive by the opposite sex. The study further noted the greater incidence of “undressed men” in Western magazines, suggesting a possible connection between the media’s portrayal of the masculine ideal and levels of body disturbance.

Certainly, women outnumber men in cases of eating disorders and body image disturbances, but this asymmetry is only exacerbated by the under-diagnosis evident in the male population and the feminization of these health concerns. At the hands of cruel irony, it is the men most likely concerned with the “masculine” routine of weight lifting and anabolic steroid popping who frequently succumb to distorted bodily perceptions most often associated with female anorexic or bulimic patient.

This lack of public knowledge not only burdens the male sufferers with shame, but feeds directly into general stereotypes of eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder. Anorexia nervosa, for example, has permeated the parlance of the general public to the point that it is now being tossed around as an adjective pinned to any women with a bird’s appetite or waif-like body. By recognizing that men are not immune to distorted body perceptions or disturbed eating habits, one is acknowledging the multi-dimensionality of these illnesses, and thus the need for greater research and public education before any assumptions are made.

Few girlfriends would complain about their boyfriend’s newly found calling of protein shakes and the weight room. And which athlete wouldn’t welcome the extra strength that comes from a teammate’s newly sculpted upper body? Still, everyone should be equipped with the understanding that these external changes in appearance and behavior could be indications of something more severe. This insight should further be accompanied with sensitivity to the pressures faced by men: Impressionable thirteen-year-old girls are not the only victims of airbrushed models glossing over the cover of Vanity Fair. Indeed, until these pathologies are consistently perceived as the unisex issues that they are, the stigma, severity and failure to diagnose will increase in tandem with the biceps of a budding bodybuilder who silently bears the weight of an untold disorder.

Rebecca J. R. Steinberg ’07, a Crimson editorial editor, is a psychology concentrator in Quincy House.