Boys Suffer from Body Dysmorphic Disorder too
While girls are often the focus of body image issues, research shows boys are harmed by it too
Hiya!
Among the many ongoing issues facing society today is the massive amount of body dysmorphia rippling through the Youth. If you’re unfamiliar, body dysmorphia is when we fixate on what we believe are flaws in our bodies. But it goes beyond simple body-image issues to become an obsessive mental disorder where a person’s perceived appearance doesn’t match reality. Someone experiencing body dysmorphia may go through exceptional measures to fix or hide their perceived flaws.
For instance, healthy and strong people may view themselves as weak. Or someone may be convinced they’re fat even when they’re thin. Body dysmorphia has long been considered a female issue — seeing as female bodies have been under scrutiny since, well, forever. More recently, social media is at the forefront of the issue with influencers and image filters that set increasingly impossible standards of beauty. And these days, women and girls aren’t the only ones affected. Boys struggle with body dysmorphia too.
Body Dysmorphia Disorder
Back in my day — aka the 90s and early 2000s — eating disorders dominated the body-image-issues during what I dub the “skinny-craze.” While eating disorders are still a significant issue today, body dysmorphia disorder (BDD) is a problem for a growing number of people.
While BDD shares some similarities with eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia, important distinctions separate them. For example, someone suffering from BDD may fixate on their appearance, size, shape, or weight similar to someone with an eating disorder. They may even zero in on a specific area, like their hips or biceps, and obsess over their reflection or weigh themselves frequently.
Yet, despite these similarities, BDD isn’t classified as an eating disorder. Instead, experts include BDD under the category of “Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders,” because it shares the following similarities that eating disorders don’t:
Preoccupation with one or more perceived defects in appearance that are not noticeable to others and are not truly disfigured.
At some point, the person suffering has performed repetitive actions or thoughts in response to the concerns. This may be something like continuously comparing their appearance to that of others, mirror checking, or skin picking.
This obsession causes distress and problems in a person’s social, work, or other areas of life.
This obsession isn’t better explained as a symptom of an eating disorder (although some people may be diagnosed with both).
Signs or symptoms of BDD most often begin around 12 or 13 years old during adolescence and can interfere with the child’s ability to focus or interact with others. Some teens struggling with BDD even report skipping school for an entire school year or dropping out entirely because of it. One study found that 94 percent of youth with BDD described experiencing difficulty socializing due to feelings of shame or embarrassment related to their appearances.
Social Media’s Role
It’s well known that social media, especially Facebook and Instagram, spur body image issues and can amplify symptoms of BDD. Further research indicates that more time spent on social media and screens is associated with anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. Of course, social media isn’t wholly evil. It’s just that moderation is key, like everything else — from television to sweets.
Still, moderation can be difficult when algorithms are designed to keep you scrolling, and the decision and impulse area of the youth brain hasn’t yet fully formed. So perhaps it’s no surprise the negative link between social media on female youth is well-reported. Especially after it became clear that Instagram knew for years that the platform “erodes” the mental health of many teenagers, especially girls, but chose to keep the information private rather than change their algorithms.
While women and girls are often the focus of body-image-related struggles, researchers find that boys and men also struggle to accept their appearances. This is mostly due to social pressures that increasingly idealize unrealistic male bodies. A growing pile of research shows that increased screen time, including while texting in addition to social media, increases BDD symptoms and Muscle dysmorphia, a subfield of BDD when someone who appears fit and healthy believes themselves to be weak.
Boys are Suffering Too
These days, male youth battle conflicting messages about dealing with their emotions and the pressures to achieve an unrealistic physique. Being tall and muscular has always been considered the ideal body type many boys and men aim for, but there was also flexibility about what it means to be fit. Over the last twenty years or so, however, that’s changed as a gradual shift has altered what it means to be muscular. Hugh Jackman’s transformation as Wolverine throughout the X-men movies is a great example.
Above is a screenshot of Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine in the first X-Men movie, which came out in the year 2000, while below is a screenshot of him thirteen years later in The Wolverine. Notice any differences?
Of course, that’s just one example. You can see the trend throughout the Superhero movie franchises. Over the years, the ideal male body expectation has grown from simply being muscular to being completely ripped — not just their arms or stomachs, but their chests, shoulders, and glutes. Not to mention a very low body-fat percentage.
The pressures to attain such a body can lead some guys to idolize people like fitness influencers on social media—Many of whom, lure vulnerable men in with promises of washboard abs and massive biceps if they buy this course or follow that workout routine. Even though many of the so-called influencers are secretly on steroids. Still, Instagram fitness influencers are repeatedly shown to influence young men’s body images negatively.
Perspective Shift
I know we humans are visual creatures, but it seems to me that no one should be judged, mocked, or bullied for how they look. We should be judged instead on our character and how we treat others — idealistic, I know, but it makes far more sense than deciding based on someone’s size, shape, skin color, or gender.
I don’t envy the youth of today. They’re getting hit from all sides and are the first generations to live their entire lives with the internet and cell phones. They’ll never know privacy like most of us had growing up during our awkward years. Bullying still existed, but social media and the internet exaggerate bullying to the umpteenth degree.
Still, the internet is relatively new in the grand scheme of things, and we’re still learning how best to use and regulate it. While the legal systems work out laws regarding how things like social media are run, we also need to teach people social media literacy. It’s essential to think critically about information and images we see online.
The internet, and all its virtual achievements, challenge us to remember that virtual life isn’t real life. Humans aren’t just visual. We’re creative with remarkable imaginations that can sometimes turn against us — all of us, boys and girls alike.
Just as a reminder, you’re currently reading my free newsletter Curious Adventure. If you’re itching for more, you’ll probably enjoy my other newsletter, Curious Life, which you’ve already received sneak peeks of on Monday mornings. The subscription fee goes toward helping me pay my bills so I can continue doing what I love — following my curiosities and sharing what I learn with you.
You can find more of my writing on Medium. If you’re not a member but want to be, click here to sign up! Doing so lets you read mine and thousands of other indie writers to your heart’s content.
Lastly, if you enjoy my work and want to show me support, you can donate to my Ko-fi page, where you can also commission me to investigate a curiosity of your own! Thank you for reading. I appreciate you.
