Male Eating Disorders

The question, whether men suffer from eating disorders at all, seems rather superfluous – of course they too suffer from eating disorders. However, that question needs to be asked, because eating disorders have always been associated with women. After all, it is women who have been considered to be too focused on their bodies, and how they look.

However, this is a myth that is exploding rapidly – men too are equally concerned about how they look. And subsequently, this has led to the awareness that men too suffer from eating disorders. The numbers are fewer, compared to the number of women patients – eating disorders are still considered to be diseases that afflict women mostly, but there is acknowledgement that men too suffer from these disorders.

The Social Burden of Male Eating Disorders

In the United States, it has taken a while for this truth to be accepted in society. The fact is that culturally, eating disorders have, in the US, been viewed exclusively as something that is for women. The image of the male has been always stereotyped as the macho masculine, be it as the guy taming the Wild West in the early days or as the high school football star of today.

The initial definition of anorexia given by the American Psychiatric Association is a surefire pointer to the stand that was prevalent in America till recently about eating disorders. The American Psychiatric Association provided the standard diagnostic for anorexia as a physical condition that was characterized by ‘the absence or lack of three continuous menstrual cycles’, thereby standardizing it as a disease that could affect only women, since men cannot have menstrual cycles anyway!

This is a definitive indicator of the burden that men with eating disorders face socially. Not only are they burdened with a disease that does not stand up to the macho notions of ‘manliness’ or ‘maleness’, they are also faced with admitting to a disease that has obvious feminine connotations.

Male Eating Disorders - The Causes >>