Eating Disorders and Gender, Essay Example

The issue of eating disorders has been a consistent concern in recent decades, and for good reason.  Essentially, such disorders are psychological impairments generating self-harm; young women and men suffering from them do lasting damage to their bodies,  sometimes resulting in death, because they feel compelled to do so.  Not unexpectedly, then, a significant focus goes to what aspects of the culture or the individual’s life may encourage this self-destructive behavior, and in particular regard to girls.  What typically emerges is an emphasis on how modern culture, particularly in the West, so stresses an unhealthy body type as desirable that young females develop obsessive and unrealistic perceptions of themselves, and literally starve themselves in order to conform to the cultural ideal.  This has not been my personal experience, but I have felt the pressure of society in these ways and I know I have made unhealthy choices because of them.

At the same time, males are subject to such influences, even as the culture places different demands on the male in terms of attractiveness.  Boys, in plain terms, suffer from eating disorders for reasons at least partially removed from those influencing females.  I know one young man who has had this experience.  What then follows is an account of how eating disorders have touched my own life, with data provided to support the realities and conclusions I have reached.  The same strategy will be used with my friend, with both revealing that gender plays an enormous role in how such illnesses are generated and conducted.  Gender is pivotal to the subject of eating disorders because it is the perception of idealized gender in the culture, inestimably promoted by the media, that so drastically influences both the male and female.

Personal Narrative and Assessment

Before the differences in eating disorders (EDs) identified in terms of gender may be comprehended, it is necessary to note how certain realities go to the disorders for both genders.  As mentioned, the ED exists in how diet is altered and the body is harmed, but the root is clearly psychological.  On some level, both the girl and the boy developing the ED have extreme views of their own physicality as inadequate.  This in turn relates to how children perceive themselves as overweight and/or suffer from obesity. Obese children are far more likely to experience low self-esteem, persistent sadness, and anxiety than non-obese children (Strauss, 2000, p. 2).  This was my own story; from the age of six, I was both overweight and extremely anxious about it. I was not obese and only a little “heavy,” but this was more than enough to generate real concerns on my part of being different. Moreover, it is found that, with the onset of adolescence, both males and females who are obese turn more to alcohol and smoking, and are notably more vulnerable to EDs (Strauss, 2000, p. 3). This was not an issue for me, fortunately, but my perceptions about myself as overweight very much had a negative impact.

Linking the genders, and in keeping with the obesity subject, is self-esteem.  Significant research has investigated the implicit, or less conscious form, as opposed to the explicit, or that which is based on external perceptions shaping the esteem.  What is suggested is that the two types are not mutually exclusive, and that implicit self-esteem actually alters as males and females age because it is influenced by the explicit.  More to the point, self-esteem in general correlates to EDs: “Negative self-evaluations and overly critical body evaluations are features of anorexia and bulimia that have received

considerable attention from psychodynamic perspectives” (DeHart, Pena, & Tennen, 2013, p. 110).  The trajectory is basic; overweight, or believing themselves to be overweight, boys and girls are more likely to maintain negative self-images and low self-esteem.  This is precisely what happened to me in childhood.  My idea of myself was consistently negative and I had a sense of having less value as a person because my body was heavier.  Depressed, I ate more and resisted efforts to change. With adolescence, widely recognized as the stage in life when external perceptions take on great meaning, boys and girls feel it crucial to establish a correct gender role, in terms of conformity to gender norms (Chan, Ng, & Williams, 2012, p. 357).  It is then probable that obese boys and girls would respond to their own esteem perceptions by seeking to alter their bodies.

As I aged, I began to reflect some of these behaviors.  In plain terms, adolescence terrified me because I was aware of how my role was changing, and I believed I was being judged even more severely.  There is some evidence that hormones dictate likely behaviors.  For example, research suggests that testosterone is a causal agent in Tourette’s Syndrome and OCD behaviors.  Similarly, estrogen has been associated with EDs, with the increased levels during puberty seen as partially accountable for the greater incidence of female anorexia and bulimia (Hines, 2011, p. 76).  Far less subject to debate, however, is how girls in modern culture are literally inundated with media presenting an idealized – and unhealthily thin – ideal of female attractiveness.  This is seen in films, videos, advertisements, and even through the disseminating of these media through social forums online.  All of this was strongly felt by me during early adolescence; I wanted nothing more than to look like my favorite models and actresses, and this is when I began dieting so extreme, it bordered on an ED.  I had no plan and I was aware of my choices, but I began cycles of literally going hungry as long as I could, and then indulging.

It must be noted that, while vast research has been conducted regarding how media affects body image thinking in females and actually encourages EDs, there remains debate.  Some argue that the media is targeted, not because it is a consistent and validated influence in EDs, but because it provides a “villain” to explain the condition.  What is interesting here, however, is that studies not focusing on media nonetheless do so indirectly.  That is, those who deny the import of media will often assert that peer influences are the strongest effects on girls’ body dissatisfaction, and there is extensive research supporting this (Ferguson, Winegard, & Winegard, 2011, p. 15).  This ignores, however, the powerful dimension of how these peer influences themselves are created.  A trajectory seems likely, in fact; as girls and adolescent females take in the media presentations, they adopt these and convey them to others.  My own experience confirms this. Girls at school, I believed, pitied or ridiculed me, but even then I had a sense that we were all locked in a larger influence, and that their behaviors were only extensions of my own thinking as to what we should physically be.  There is in fact an awareness in many young girls as to the reality of advertising as skewed.  One study of Asian girls, for example, found that the majority of these adolescents referred to advertising images as unnatural and unhealthy-looking.  At the same time, these images had powerful influences; the girls identified the marketing agenda but were nonetheless drawn to the images (Chan, Ng, & Williams, 2012, p. 365).  This all then goes to that broader influence of which I was aware. I could not identify it exactly in these years, but I knew nonetheless that even the thin girls I knew were victimized by media, even as many would laugh about how ridiculous some body images were, or joke about who was “photoshopped.”  What matters here, however, is that girls are profoundly swayed by media images unrealistically idealizing thinness, and promoting the belief that only through being thin can they be attractive women.

Then, other research indicates how eating disorders in adolescent and young adult women are fueled by psychological frustrations and/or dissatisfaction with the self.  Multiple studies correlate that females of any age who place extreme dietary restraints on themselves are also prone to binge-drinking and other self-destructive behaviors (Stewart et al, 2000, p. 80).  I was, again, not involved in these behaviors, but my eating habits remained extremely erratic throughout junior high school.  I resisted exercise and sports because everything I saw around me supported that attractive girls did not even make such efforts; it was all about genetics and diet in my eyes, and I emphasize that this was a constant worry all through these years.  Entering into adulthood, it seemed like a new “competition” was in place, and I even knew that some thin and attractive girls were friendly to me because I was no threat.   Before high school, however, I became friendly with an adult young woman; she worked where I had a part-time job.  She helped me to realize, and through only friendly support, that I was engaging in self-destructive behavior.  More to the point, she led me to understand that my interests were better served by not worrying, and by simply exercising a little care in my diet.  As I had no real ED, this alone was effective, even as I realize that her influence was based on her not being a peer or a relative.  In plain terms, this was a representative of the real, adult world, so I trusted her thinking.  In very little time, lack of anxiety led to weight loss because I stopped the cycles of starving and over-indulging.

Male Eating Disorders and Narrative

As noted, it is usual to think of EDs as largely a female disorder, and there is reason for this.  At the same time, approximately one-quarter of all cases of EDs occur with adolescent males (Darcy et al, 2012, p. 110), and this then leads to the need to understand why.  After all, media would seem to be inapplicable here; films and advertisements certainly do not promote an idea of a hyper-thin male as attractive. The critical point, however, is that there is nonetheless an idealized male figure, which supports that males develop EDs for reasons both reflecting those influencing females and distanced from them.  The young boy or adolescent male is as exposed to a cultural ideal as the female; it merely takes another form, and quite literally.  This was and is the case with John, a young man I have known most of my life.  As we have discussed these issues, he has been candid in expressing why he has consistently suffered from extreme dissatisfaction with his body, which has affected his eating habits all his life.

As noted, the vast majority of cases of female EDs are based on obsessions to lose weight and attain a perceived optimal thinness.  With males, half of EDs go to desires to be physically larger and present a more “masculine” shape.  The young male with an ED, for example, will not want the flat stomach desired by the female because his goal is a more shaped, muscular six-pack (Darcy et al, p. 111).  For John, the struggle has always been in developing a certain male body type: broad shoulders, larges arms, and a thin waist.  His physicality, however, does not go to this; all the men in his family, for instance, have narrow shoulders and lean builds. John has then always eaten more, believing this will increase his mass and allow him to develop the muscle and shape he desires.  He is muscular, but his body remains lean and he is unhappy with this.  In his own words, he is “not giving up until I get the jock body.”

John also reflects how boys with ED also differ in how they practice disordered behaviors, which is believed to result from a lessened self-consciousness with being seen eating than is the case with females.  Males tend to be less secretive about their dietary practices, even when extreme, because eating does not have the same degree of social import for them (Darcy et al, p. 113).  John has no issues whatever in being seen eating; in fact, he believes this reveals his efforts to change his body, and in an admirable way.  At the same time, males with EDS often express what is considered “reverse anorexia,” or body dysmorphia.  Because they feel the need to be more muscular, they lose the ability to realistically perceive their bodies and believe themselves to be thinner and less muscular than they are (Murray et al, 2012, p. 193).  This too is the case with John.  He is muscular but he is unable to appreciate this because it is not the exact muscularity he wants.  If the ambitions are different for males, the underlying reality then remains that males develop EDs for the same reason that females do: a psychological and urgent perception that their bodies are not satisfactory.

Conclusion

Popular thinking tends to associate anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders with females, and particularly of young ages. The association is not invalid, as EDs are more common in girls and women.  Men, however, are by no means immune to EDs, and the influences as different only affirms how culture impacts on both genders.  As young girls, obese or otherwise, seek the media ideal of the female body, so too do boys feel body dissatisfaction because they perceive themselves as not conforming to masculine size and power.  My story and John’s, while not directly those of EDs, nonetheless support this reality.  Self-esteem and peer factors undoubtedly play into eating disorders, but they are themselves subject to the cultural ideas of gender in place universally.  Ultimately, gender is pivotal to eating disorders because it is the perception of idealized gender in the society, greatly promoted by the media, that so powerfully influences both males and females.

References

Chan, K., Ng, Y. L., & Williams, R. B. (2012). What do adolescent girls learn about gender roles from advertising images? Young Consumers: Insight and Ideas for Responsible Marketers, 13(4), 357-366.

Darcy, A. M., Doyle, A. C., Lock, J., Peebles, R., Doyle, P., & Le Grange, D. (2012). The Eating Disorders Examination in adolescent males with anorexia nervosa: how does it compare to adolescent females? International Journal of Eating Disorders, 45(1), 110-114.

DeHart, T., Peña, R., & Tennen, H. (2013). The development of explicit and implicit self-esteem and their role in psychological adjustment. Self-esteem: Current Issues in Social Psychology, Psychology Press, New York, 99-123.

Ferguson, C. J., Winegard, B., & Winegard, B. M. (2011). Who is the fairest one of all? How evolution guides peer and media influences on female body dissatisfaction. Review of General Psychology, 15(1), 11-27.

Hines, M. (2011). Gender development and the human brain.  Annual Review of Neuroscience, 34, 69-88.

Murray, S. B., Rieger, E., Hildebrandt, T., Karlov, L., Russell, J., Boon, E., … & Touyz, S. W. (2012).  A comparison of eating, exercise, shape, and weight related symptomatology in males with muscle dysmorphia and anorexia nervosa. Body Image, 9(2), 193-200.

Stewart, S. H., Angelopoulos, M., Baker, J. M., & Boland, F. J. (2000). Relations between dietary restraint and patterns of alcohol use in young adult women. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 14(1), 77-82.

Strauss, R. S. (2000). Childhood obesity and self-esteem. Pediatrics, 105(1), 1-5.