Men, Body Image, and Eating Disorders

Health professionals have few resources to help them work with men who suffer from eating disorders (i.e., anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa) apart from the literature that focuses on females who suffer with eating disorders. This paper presents an analysis of in-depth interviews with eight men with eating disorders. These men provided rich descriptive information to document their plight with body image concerns and eating disorders. Further, it draws on their experiences of suffering with a disorder linked primarily to women. The paper emphasizes some critical issues confronting men and boys in relation to body image concerns and eating disorders while providing links with the social construction of masculinity.