Eating disorders in men: How societal and gender norms pile on the pressure

I’d like to preface this piece with a trigger warning: this article explores themes of eating disorders, obsessive exercising, depression and anxiety.

If you, or someone you are close to, is struggling with any of these themes, this is your sign to talk, to open up, and to seek help from your GP, mental health professional, or mental health charity such as Beat.

You’re not alone. There is help, support, and someone to talk to, just one conversation away.

Eating disorders in femmes – where did the association come from?

Eating disorders are serious mental and physical illnesses that are formally diagnosed as psychiatric conditions including, but not exclusive to, anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder.

Eating disorders affect all genders with almost equal proportions. But I bet if I asked you to imagine a person who was affected by an eating disorder, I can almost guarantee you’d imagine an individual who was clearly female/femme-identifying, right? And I can see why you’d do that.

Growing up as a girl in the 90s and early 2000s, heroin-chic size 0 female models were all the rage, and my generation was surrounded by media images of tiny waists and thigh gaps on every magazine page and music video.

It’s really no surprise that these images imparted normative body discontent into many women living in the Western world. This discontent encouraged a societal connection between the female-identifying population and body dysmorphia, weight loss, and ultimately, eating disorders.

Pressures on men and the non-femme identifying

If you take anything from this article, let it be this: men and non-femme identifying individuals also get eating disorders, and they can be as life threatening (if not more so) and as serious as those affecting women and femmes.

Depending on the exact diagnosis of eating disorder, one-quarter to one-half of individuals formally diagnosed with eating disorders identify as male or non-femme. However, with males or non-femmes, cases of eating disorders are more likely to be under-represented, under-diagnosed, and under-treated compared to women/femme cases.

Why is this the case? There’s a plethora of reasons why males with eating disorders may go undiagnosed, but one big issue is stigma. In traditional Western society, we were (so wrongly) taught that men should not show weakness or vulnerability, particularly if they want to portray the stereotypical ‘manly’ personality traits.

Cultural biases further confound these stereotypes, and mean that men and non-femmes are typically less likely to speak up about their mental health concerns in general.

We also can’t forget that we live in an increasingly visual culture.

Media, in particular portable social media, is ever more intrusive in our everyday life, and consistently feeds us the importance of image, looking good, and being ‘in shape’, which are portrayed as being conducive to happiness and success.

Social media showcases visual archetypes of hyper-masculinity, such as men having an ‘ideal’ lean body type with visible abs and clear muscle definition. It’s easy to see how repeat exposure to such imagery can induce a feeling of body dissatisfaction, further perpetuating a desire to attain the ‘ideal’ male body standard.

And it starts young, with studies in scientific literature reporting how even teenage boys have goals of ‘bulking up’ (gaining muscle mass and size) in order to achieve this body type.

Bulking up may be conducive to binge eating and tracking food intake, which can segue into disordered eating patterns and habits.

Gym culture and eating disorders in men

One of the most brilliant, if not alarming, documentaries exploring the association between eating disorders, gym culture, body dissatisfaction, and muscle dysmorphia (a pathologic preoccupation with muscularity and leanness) in men and non-femmes is Dying for a Six Pack by Reggie Yates.

During the documentary, Reggie explores the pressures some individuals feel to achieve a hypermasculine body type, and these individual’s relationships with restrictive eating, steroid use, and extreme exercise. If you have a spare hour, I highly recommend you give it a watch.

As much as I love the gym community, controlled or portioned eating and hard physical exercise are both quite common, with many keen gym-goers passing through phases of bulking up and leaning out as part of their normal fitness routines.

Not that I’m saying this is atypical, or that all gym-goers have eating disorders. They don’t, and many are able to complete these cycles with a non-pathological mindset.

However, this normalisation of atypical eating and exercising can mean that some symptoms of eating disorders go unnoticed, or are even praised by fellow gym-goers for getting the individual extreme results, further perpetuating the disordered behaviour.

For example, someone with a binge eating disorder may use extreme exercise as a compensatory behaviour for their calorie intake, which may result in them gaining muscle mass faster.

Vulnerabilities

It’s also important to note that men and non-femmes who are part of the LGBTQIA community have an increased risk of developing eating disorders. This is thought to be due to the increased psycho-social risk factors and discrimination, which interact with these individual’s experiences of eating and self-image.

There can also be increased barriers to seeking and accessing support for members of the LGBTQIA community, making it even more important to help others when you recognise signs of an eating disorder.

Other vulnerabilities to developing an eating disorder include stressful life events, difficulties in relationships, bereavements, exams, mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, and working pressures.

Getting help with eating disorders

If you are concerned that you may have an eating disorder, first of all, you are not alone. There are thousands of men and non-femme individuals who are diagnosed with eating disorders, and you can, and will, get help.

Don’t ignore it. Seek help by talking to someone you trust, someone you feel you can rely on for help, and someone who has your best interest at heart. If you need advice talking to someone about an eating disorder, Beat has a useful page dedicated to this topic.

If you are worried for someone you know, again, please don’t ignore the signs. The earlier you can catch an eating disorder, the better the treatment outcome will be. If you are close to the individual, talk to them, and ask them those important questions about their mental health.

Let them know that you are there to support them and here to help if they’d like you to. Ask the person how they are feeling and what they are thinking, how can you help, and don’t make assumptions.

Useful resources are at: Beat, Mind, EatingDisordersSupport, and your own regular GP.

Athletes around the world are increasingly harnessing the power of plants to improve their performance – just like these vegan footballers!

Featured image credit: Klebercordeiro via Getty Images