Clive* wakes up every morning with one thought in mind: his waistline. He spends the rest of the day trying to stay away from food, and the nights working out as penance for every calorie he consumes.
Christian* is also familiar with the battle of the bulge. He used to spend agonizing hours in the bathroom making himself throw up. He imagined becoming thinner every time he saw his partially digested food being washed down the bathroom sink.
Clive and Christian are both recovering bulimics.
Tipping the scales
According to Neil Frude, author of Understanding Abnormal Psychology, bulimia involves a preoccupation with body shape and a morbid fear of becoming fat. People who suffer from bulimia engage in prolonged fasting, self-induced vomiting, and the abuse of laxatives. Left untreated, this condition can lead to life-threatening complications such as renal damage and irregular heart rate, arising from a disturbance in the body’s normal electrolyte balance.
As opposed to anorexia, diagnosis for bulimia can be challenging since bulimics tend to maintain average weights, according to Frude.
Christian was diagnosed with bulimia when he was a senior in high school. “I [ate] excessive [amounts] of food, [and I] induced vomiting [immediately] after eating,” he says.
Unlike Christian, Clive purges food by exercising excessively. He was diagnosed with exercise bulimia, a type of bulimia associated with indirectly purging food through vigorous and unnecessary amounts of exercise. “If I eat 1,500 calories, I have to sweat off at least 2,000 calories to create a deficit,” Clive says.
Psychology Lecturer Welison Ty says that men tend to turn to more covert means of addressing their issues because society has conditioned them to not care so much about their physical appearance.
Welison Ty adds that while women tend to be more open about body dissatisfaction than men, it is also possible for males to be extremely preoccupied with their body image. “[A male’s] preoccupation [with body image] arises
“I knew [my constant purging] was a sickness,” says Christian. “But it was difficult for me to get help because I knew that bulimia was a ‘girl problem.’”
Beauty on a pedestal
There are both internal and external factors that contribute to an adolescent’s preoccupation with body image, says Welison Ty. “Studies have shown that being very shy and compliant may predispose a person to be preoccupied with body image,” he says. “Individuals who harbor a neurotic form of perfectionism can also be susceptible to developing problems with body image.”
“I was always a fat kid,” Clive admits. Before dropping to 120 pounds two years ago, Clive was 20 to 30 pounds overweight. He recalls being the subject of “fat” jokes. “I didn’t have a lot of friends when I was fat, so I [thought], maybe I would be more popular if I lost [the] weight.”
True enough, Clive shed the pounds through daily exercise. After reaching his ideal weight, he recalls feeling more accepted. Exercise, however, became an obsession for Clive. “I was very concerned about the food I ate,” he says. “I had to count the calories just to stay thin. I’m terrified [of becoming] fat again.”
Communication Lecturer Andrew Ty says media has a strange relationship with the concept of male body image. “Although today, [media is] more liberal in their representations of [the male body], it’s still trapped in some traditional notions,” he says. “Just like women, men can [also] fall into the traps of wanting to meet certain standards of beauty, even if the standard is something that might not be natural for them to aspire to.”
“Media can be a strong social determinant, as it emphasizes ideal body shapes and forms,” adds Welison Ty. He says men are probably not as critical of what media and what society exposes to them. “You can see a lot of TV shows and campaigns trying to change the view of women’s body image, but there is not much focus on male body image,” he says. “Men are at a disadvantage when it comes to that.”
Christian says external factors play a huge role in the portrayal of beauty. “Ultimately, you’re [trying to lose weight] because you want to live up to society’s standards,” he says. “And what defines these [standards] is media.”
Clive adds that these standards revolve around the idea of a metrosexual man, where male beauty gives up its extremely macho and rugged appearance for a more feminine look. He claims that media icons such as David Beckham and Zac Efron have become the initiators of the new male body image.
The last few pounds
“Bulimia doesn’t seem like such a ‘girl thing’ after going through the whole ordeal. It takes a lot of courage to fight [bulimia] head on,” says Christian. “In the end, I realized that [courage] is probably what makes a real man, not muscularity, thinness, or looks.”
Clive, on the other hand, is currently in therapy. “I’ve been told that the first step to curing my disease was admitting it,” he says. “I think people also have to own up to the reality that males can also be afflicted with bulimia and anorexia.”
With a skewed ideal of male beauty and the constant malleability of contemporary body image portrayed by media and society, men can indeed fall victim too as they try to reach unattainable standards of beauty and perfection. As it turns out, male beauty is more than just skin deep, too.
*Names have been changed to protect the individuals.
