Preteen Boys, Body Image, and Eating Disorders

Abstract

In recent years, academic and public attention has increasingly focused on the issue of men's preoccupation with body image and the increasing incidence of eating disorders among men. Although most of this focus has been on young and adult males, media discourse has tended to extend explanations for men's aspirations for social body ideals to explanations for eating disorders in young boys. In this article, we take a critical look at the way the boys/body image/eating disorder nexus has been represented in some of the mainstream media. In particular, we propose that the boys/body image/eating disorder nexus has been constituted as a truth that tends to underplay the complexity of the relationship between eating disorders and boys' dissatisfaction with their bodies, as recognized by researchers and health practitioners, and as evident from our own study of preteen boys diagnosed with an eating disorder. In this article, we use interviews with the six boys and their mothers collected for our study to construct short family biographies. These biographies are used to illustrate the complexity of the boys' experience of an eating disorder and to trouble the certainty with which the media discourse explaining boys' eating disorders is constituted. AbstractIn recent years, academic and public attention has increasingly focused on the issue of men's preoccupation with body image and the increasing incidence of eating disorders among men. While most of this focus has been on young and adult males, media discourse has tended to extend explanations for men's aspirations to social body ideals to eating disorders in young boys. In this paper, we take a critical look at the way the boys/body image/eating disorder nexus has been represented in some of the mainstream media.. In particular, we propose that the boys/body image/eating disorder nexus has been constituted as a truth that tends to underplay the complexity of the relationship between eating disorders and boys' dissatisfaction with their bodies as recognised by researchers and health practitioners and as evident from our own study of preteen boys diagnosed with an eating disorder. In this article we use interviews with the six boys and their mothers collected for this study to construct short family biographies. These biographies are used to illustrate the complexity of the boys's experience of an eating disorder and to trouble the certainty with which the media discourse explaining boys' eating disorders is constituted.

‘You don’t want to stand out as the bigger one’: exploring how PE and school sport participation is influenced by pupils and their peers

“…Foucauldian-inspired analyses have dominated this area of research in recent years. 'Discourse' has been crucial in investigating the construction of knowledge in the media (Wright, Halse, and Levy 2016), in curricula (Webb, Quennerstedt, and Öhman 2008) and in teaching resources (Burrows and Wright 2007;McCuaig and Hay 2013). Furthermore, a number of authors have directed attention at the influence of 'surveillance technologies', and 'bio-politics' through HPE's emphasis on body measurements and self-monitoring (Burrows, Wright, and Jungersen-Smith 2002;Öhman et al 2014;Wright and Halse 2014).…”

Digital Identities of Young People from the South of Spain: An Online Sexual Differentiation

“…It is here that the so-called gender divide has been emerged, with differences being seen between girls and boys. The image presented on social networks has been shown by the present research to be a differentiating aspect, although it is true that males are showing growing concern for their body image [ 26 ]. Even so, females continue to expose themselves and put themselves in vulnerable positions to a greater extent on the different social networks, in order to achieve an image that meets societal beauty ideals [ 27 ].…”

Untitled

“…25 People who suffer from Anorexia Nervosa have a 'distorted body image' and diet compulsively. 26 In a research study, young women took a survey regarding their self-esteem. Then they spent thirty minutes looking through fashion magazines.…”