Young Men, Eating Disorders, and Social Media: Affecting Men & Boys Alike
By Cassie Whyte
Many young people, and young men in particular, increasingly feel a lack of control over their own lives:
This incongruity can lead people to overcompensate or obsess over what they can directly and tangibly control. And in conjunction with this, we are inundated by a constant cascade of aspirational (if deceptively edited and highly curated) cultural imagery and media; it can be easy to develop unrealistic expectations for oneself–regarding everything from professional success to social life to fitness. The recent political emphasis on health, wellness, and fitness, along with the respective spaces this phenomenon has produced, is, unfortunately, not immune to this inclination.
In a 2023 study, the American Psychological Association found that social media usage “is associated with poor body image in youth, a known predictor of eating disorders.”
This fact has been, more or less, accepted as common knowledge for the past decade or so. And while the prevalence of eating disorders has been reflected in the domains of medicine, public health, and academia, an overwhelming majority of the ensuing discourse has focused solely on women and girls. This assumption, however, that eating disorders only impact women and girls is no longer a tenable one.
According to the National Eating Disorders Association, approximately one in three people with an eating disorder is male.
Moreover, a 2022 survey (Better) found that a majority of men in the UK (54%) experienced symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), compared to a still disconcerting near-majority of women (49%). Another study (JAMA) found that hospitalizations for eating disorders have accelerated by a shocking 139% between the early 2000’s and 2019, with young boys aged 12-14 being subject to the most rapid increase.
Regarding the topic of eating disorders, the literature is catching on to some extent, but still disproportionately highlights the struggles of women and girls.
One relevant factor is the unique manner in which eating disorders manifest amongst men and boys. Girls are socialized, for example, to strive toward extreme thinness, resulting in malnourishment, and so typically illustrate behavioral patterns symptomatic of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. These eating disorders have been relatively well-documented and clinically examined, partially because they are so imminently lethal, but also because they are so visibly evident and thus detectable. As a consequence of this, treatment guidelines have been substantially delineated, and the road to recovery, while strenuous and complicated, seems both possible and practicable. More implicitly, women–famous, successful, beloved women–have told their personal eating disorder stories.
While this may seem rather trivial, it is essential that those struggling have a blueprint for healing, redemption, and hope.
For men and boys, disordered eating can look completely different.
There may be less of a fixation on self-starvation, fasting, and appetite suppression, with men and boys striving toward an ideal of muscularity and physical strength or prowess. This image of a muscular, vital, and athletic man is generally evocative of a healthy lifestyle, understood as the pinnacle of fitness and masculine self-creation.
But this stereotype belies the reality.
Such so-called “Gym Bros,” along with their favorite self-styled body-builders and fitness influencers, may actually be exhibiting traits of disordered eating. On closer inspection, a professed preoccupation with fitness or self-help may belie symptoms like obsessional adherence to diet regimens, ritualized eating, label-checking, excessive exercise, over-consumption or “bulking,” binging, purging, and more.
In other words, these men and boys may look extremely healthy, even to a stereotypical or uncanny degree, when, in reality, they are harboring deep anxiety and dread regarding their physical health and appearance.
Body dysmorphia is at least as common in men as in women–and some studies have found men to be more susceptible. Body dysmorphia means there is a vast dissonance between one’s self-image and the perception of others; and this disorder typically occurs in individuals who appear rather fit. Ultimately disordered eating encapsulates a broad array of unhealthy or pathological habits, many of which–especially those displayed more so by men–are met not only with clinical indifference, but are counterintuitively perceived positively, even praised.
Usage of drugs and supplements, such as steroids, testosterone, and protein powder, could very well be linked to disordered eating, and is palpably related to negative body-image.
Many athletic protocols, specifically in sports associated with boys and men (wrestling, football, weightlifting) are made to deliberately instill a hyper-awareness of body weight and nutritional intake. So much of the relationship that men and boys have to food and fitness has carried on without critique, medical intervention, prescription, and diagnosis.
The pursuit of fitness is a noble one, of course.
But the degree to which young men are riddled with body-image anxiety is significant, and represents a deep sociological dilemma.
Eating disorders in women are likely more life-threatening than in men. They are also still more widespread (though to a diminishing extent) and in some sense, more clinically severe.
But women have one key advantage: they talk to each other.
Some of the most famous women in the world–from Demi Lovato to Lady Gaga to Taylor Swift–have shared their battles with eating disorders, and seen amazing progress in their recoveries. They and many others have discussed the particular symptoms they displayed, the pain they endured, and the treatment methods that have been most helpful in their experience.
For men and boys, the stigma surrounding mental health remains stalwart, immovable.
In eating disorders, which are notoriously associated with women and young girls, the stigma is more potent still.
The upward trend in male eating disorders is subject to escalation, as the media ecosystem continues to glorify the muscular ideal of masculinity. This, in addition to the veneration of a hyper-disciplined, rugged individualism, and coupled with an abject aversion to vulnerability, could have profound, negative implications for men’s health.
As the personal fitness obsession proliferates, men are taught to view the gym as their only outlet for frustration, as well as their only means for self-improvement or control.
In the case of men already predisposed to disordered eating, whether for social, biological, or psychological reasons, it is misguided to assume that such behavior will not take hold. Even more misguided is the belief that anyone–even the man himself–will ever know about it.
References
Thai, Helen. Davis, Christopher G. Wardah, Mahboob. Perry, Sabrina Perry. Adams, Alex. Goldfield, Gary S. “Reducing Social Media Use Improves Appearance And …” American Psychological Association, 2023, www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/ppm-ppm0000460.pdf.
Bunnell, Douglas. “Eating Disorders in Men and Boys.” National Eating Disorders Association, 2024. https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/eating-disorders-in-men-and-boys/
“The Better Body Confidence Report.” Better (UK), 2024. https://www.better.org.uk/lp/body-confidence-report
Smith, Sarah. Charach, Alice. “Pediatric Patients Hospitalized With Eating Disorders in Ontario, Canada, Over Time.” JAMA Network, December 4th, 2023. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2812520#google_vignette