The irreducibility of male eating disorders. A glance at the intersection of body, gender and culture

Abstract

For a long time, the stereotype of the physical perfection has been associated with the female universe, although today it is more and more clear that a special attraction toward some exemplar body models represents a real obsession also from the male population, no less interested, as the female counterpart, in some inconveniences caused by the main eating disorder.

DSM-V classifies bigorexia in the sphere of the “Avoiding and Restricting Disorders of the assumption of food” and recognizes it, so then, among the dis-morpho-phobic disorders, which encourage boys and young men to lead a lifestyle based on the constant workout to increase their muscle mass. All this comes from above all our social and cultural system that has been preferring for centuries a binary male type, founded essentially on a hyper-masculine demeanor and vision of male reality.

This contribution proposes, therefore, a focus on the representation of adolescent males’ bodies and their body image bound to the social norms of masculinity, with a special attention to DCA, through a glance coming from gender pedagogy. The aim is to motivate some reflections on the relationships between gender norms and male bodies, proposing moreover the promotion of an empowerment of adolescents for the rediscovering of a self-free from stereotypes.