Eating Disorders and Body Dysmorphic Disorders among men

[Corey_G]

An increasing number of studies into the matter of eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorders among men, have shown a stead increase in the number of reported cases within Australia. The increase in reported cases is likely to be a consequence of a number of factors including society's ideal version of a 'man' and/ or increased awareness of the issue, thereby assisting doctors in diagnosing and treating these disorders much more effectively than it had been previously.

Recently, the toy manufacturer, Hasbro, was criticised for its design of a 'Winx Club' doll, which featured 'stick-thin legs'. It was argued that such representation through the use of toys, which are marketed to children, creates an unrealistic idea of beauty, thereby contributing to the prevalence of such disorders. After hearing this story, it got me think about male action figures and how, if at all, could they be contributing to the increased prevalence of these body image disorders? For example, take the Hulk, whose aesthetic is excessively muscular and tough in character. Arguably, applying the same principle that was argued the 'Winx Club' dolls, could these action heroes, which children being young often idolise, be contributing to societies skewed perception of what a 'man' should look like. More specifically on the issue of muscularity, the concept of 'Muscular Dysmorphia' establishes the basis of a disorder in which a person becomes obsessed with the idea that they are not muscular enough. In this disorder a person is preoccupied with thoughts conceding appearance, especially musculature.  A few risk factors may contribute to this disorder: family disharmony, perfectionism, severe stress, aesthetics focus and negative influence of mass culture that promotes an idealised body. 

Do you believe that disorders regarding body image among men, could reasonably be attributed, in part, to children's action figures like the Hulk, particularly with respect to the physical aesthetics of such action figures . Also, if anyone has experienced pressure to change or modify certain features of themselves as a result of society's perception of what is 'normal' or 'acceptable' with respect to eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorders and what you believe contributed to your experience with the disorder?

[--Danny--]

Hi Corey, when me & my little brother were young...8-10 years of age, we used to watch the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Predator about 1 million times...Arnold looked big & muscley...powerful looking!! Growing up this mans physique was imprinted in my mind!! I lift weights every single day...my brother doesn't touch weights...what does this tell u? Some people get influenced, some don't...all the womens beauty magazines should be taken off the shelves...all the photo-enhancing & photoshopping...it is all fake...magazines are the worst in my opinion.....

[justinok]

Hey mate, I'm quite interested in this area, men get lumped with a whole lot of perfect body crap that women have had to put up with since forever. I flicked onto the radio last night, it was a sports station, and they were even talking about it, that how ridiculous is it that there's a magzine called 'Men's Health' that all it ever talks about is abs and has some ripped guy on the front.  It's totally unrealistic.

On the action figure thing, there has actually been a study done about it, you'll have to do some googling but they have looked at things like Action Man and GI Joe in the 60s and 70s compared to now and the amount of muscle on the modern figures if they were a real person, they wouldn't be able to stand up even, where the older figures used to look much more realistic.,