Due to the stigma that eating disorders are just a disease that affects the female population, the idea and picture of masculinity that society puts forward, what women think is sexy and attractive and the fear of being judged by other males, men with eating disorders have gone without treatment for eating disorders which allows for the idea that men don’t have problems with eating disorders and allows it to fade into the background of fighting eating disorders.

What is an Eating Disorder?

According to the Chicago Tribune, an eating disorder is “characterized by an unhealthy relationship with food and a distorted body image” (Tribune). The Chicago Tribune also put out a very informative graphic on their website  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-0711-male-anorexia-gfc.eps-20120710,0,2555846.graphic , allowing more people to become aware of the issue.The most popular ED’s (Eating Disorders) are Anorexia and Bulimia. When people think of eating disorders today, most people think of teenage girls and celebrities dealing with self-image set by society. But what many fail to realize is that men suffer from these diseases as well. From the same article about eating disorders, a graphic is used that about 1 in 4 diagnosed with eating eating disorders are nothing new, what is new is the alarming rate at which they are affecting men, sending health officials scrambling for answers.

What has causes the rise of men with eating disorders?

The question that many professionals in the health world that deal with is how did a disease mostly concerned with women start affecting males? The first reason that most health officials identify is the ideal behind masculinity. Men are taught to be tough, strong, athletic and stubborn individuals. With these ideas being put forward at a young age, what happens is that if you don’t fit these qualifications they are told that they won’t ever make it to manhood. Being told this as a kid, boys will spend their lives trying to acquire those qualities. (A number of men diagnosed with eating disorders report to being overweight as a child and being teased about this aspect of their life). This includes ignoring their body needs, trying to build up muscle and lose weight in unhealthy ways, leading to Anorexia and Bulimia. But whenever a man realizes that has a problem, the male society that he has grown up around tells him that if he goes to a center to get help that he is a “pussy, a fagot, weak, a woman”. This fear of being judged leads to men not getting treatment, which makes the reports of men with eating disorders seem small, while in reality those are just the men who get treated, which is the minority.

Another reason for the emergence of eating disorders is the idea of sexy and attractive males in the US society. When Arnold Schwarzenegger burst onto the stage, many men wanted to look like him. And why not? Being built like that would get you any kind of lady along with no one messing with you. But more importantly, you would have the respect of other men as a manly looking man. So men took it upon themselves to look that way, taking any means possible, whether that meant taking steroids, taking new supplements, changing diets and working out way more. But what this ultimately led to was men who changed the way they ate, way they worked out, everything about their lives just to be like these body builders, leading to eating disorders based on both physical and mental factors. Then when you look at the ads that companies put out today include men without shirts, perfect skin, everything fits perfectly. But when men go to these stores to try on the same clothes, they can’t possible fit the clothes the same way that the models do, making them feel inferior and ashamed of their bodies.

Another major cause of men being treated with eating disorders is the image of what women like. Men want to be respected by other men, but they also want to be seen as sexy and attractive to women. With Hollywood leading the charge, the idea of an attractive and sexy man have led toward a focus on appearance rather than personality. Movies like Magic Mike have set a standard for men: have washboard abs, perfect skin, ripped body, perfect smile etc. Even the romance movie where the theme is built around the guy being the perfect one, oh he’s taking his shirt off…. Abs for days! No wonders guys feel inferior. Women watch these movies and are given the idea that a perfect man will not only treat you right, he’ll look perfect too. But you don’t have to go to the movies to get this idea. Just look at any of the romantic books that women read today and on the front cover you’ll be greeted with a man with a perfect body who knows exactly how to please his woman. So now men are now expected to be strong, sexy, masculine, figures. Men are so eager to please women and earn the attention of the female sex, they will go to extraordinary lengths, many of which include unhealthy solutions.

What can be done?

When people look at the situation of men and eating disorders, they feel that because men have been so historically stubborn, there aren’t many things that can be done. One thing that most health officials agree on is that to start the change, we have to change the way we look at masculinity. Parents, especially dads, need to understand their children’s strengths and weaknesses and cater to those. Jacquelyn Ekern, founder of Eating Disorder Hope, suggests one way that parents can help fight this epidemic is to “Help boys understand that to fit in they don’t have to be muscle-bound and super-athletes. Boys need the same help as girls fitting comfortably into their genes” (Ekern). Another important step in reducing the amount of men with eating disorders is to change the way men are perceived in the media. This has been going on with the female side of things, starting with Dove commercials based around the idea of being comfortable in your own skin, and most recently with many clothing industries calling for real women to be used as models, especially those in the underwear business. But yet nothing has changed for the male side of things. Why is this? Why can’t we people rally together to call for real men to be used as models, not men who have spent all their time on perfecting their looks? Another solution that needs to be put into action is the call to Hollywood to make a movie with a real guy for once. Why can’t there be a romance movie about the everyday, normal guy working his not so masculine charm on a woman? Change the heroes from having chiseled bodies to just being an average looking guy. And ladies, if you really want to improve your love life with a guy, talk to him about it. Work together on what works for both of you and make sure that each other are comfortable in their own skin. Because as much as you want your man to be a rich, sexy, masculine CEO, it probably isn’t going to happen. Because that’s not what most men are.

To be honest, I struggle with the idea of self-image as well. I think that a lot of guys look into the mirror and think, “Man if only I had that six pack, or those rock hard pectorals…” or whatever they want to have and look down on themselves for not having these things. While I know that many men are still going to be stubborn and feel that if they get help it will signify that they are weak, I believe that if the view of men in society does change to a more accepting view of who and what a man is, more men will want to accept help and the fight against eating disorders and a distorted view of self-image can take the next step further.