A Desire for Muscularity Is Now a Mental Disorder

by Lou Schuler on Mar 28, 2008 9:31 AM EDT in News

It's been a great week for blog meat, with something interesting to write about every day. I thought this New York Times story about runner's high would be the perfect way to end the week.

But just to make sure there wasn't something more interesting to write about, I clicked over to the BBC News site, and came across this story, the premise of which is that magazines targeted to young men -- presumably including Maxim as well as Men's Health -- give guys the wrong idea about what their own bodies are supposed to look like:

While magazines aimed at men often include pictures of scantily-clad women, Dr. David Giles said images of male bodies may be more dangerous. His work, in Personality and Individual Differences, found regular readers were more likely to exercise to excess. ...

Dr. Giles, from the University of Winchester, said that some of the content may drive men to try to become more muscular, even if that could harm their health.

Together with colleague Jessica Close, he surveyed 161 men aged between 18 and 36, and found that those who regularly read the magazines were more likely to be influenced by the imagery within. More worryingly, they said they were also more likely to consider using anabolic steroids to improve their appearance.

Dr. Giles said: "The message in typical lads' magazines is that you need to develop a muscular physique in order to attract a quality mate. Readers internalize this message, which creates anxieties about their actual bodies and leads to increasingly desperate attempts to modify them."

I found the abstract of the study (I couldn't bring myself to spend $31.50 to purchase the entire thing, especially since it's listed in the journal's "short communications" section), but it wasn't particularly illuminating. In particular, it didn't say if any of the 161 college students surveyed actually "exercise to excess," have eating disorders, or use steroids.

I especially got a kick out of this line from the abstract:

These effects were significantly stronger among non-dating males, suggesting that, especially for single men, preoccupation with attaining the ideal male body may be enhanced by the use of media that promote traditional masculine ideals.

I didn't get married until I was 36, so I have fairly vivid memories of what it was like to be single and searching for someone to date. I don't know if I was particularly obsessed with changing the shape of my physique, since I'd been working out since I was 13, and my interest in fitness, nutrition, and overall good health was a deeply ingrained part of my personality by the time I was actively dating. (In fact, I tended to work out less when I was in relationships, just because there was less time to get to the gym.)

But when I wasn't dating anyone, I thought all the time about what I needed to do to get into the game. What single person wouldn't? I tended to think in terms of career achievements, making more money and attaining more status, but is that abnormal? I mean, if wanting more muscle is a sign of a body-image disorder, is wanting to achieve more in your career a hallmark of financial-image disorder? Is there even such a phrase in the mental-health lexicon?

Maybe somebody out there can explain this to me, but right now I'm stumped: Why is self-improvement a mental illness if it involves improving your physique, but it's not a mental disorder if you're ambitious in your career, or if you're focused on upgrading your wardrobe or buying a luxury car? Isn't it all about getting noticed, about attaining slightly more status than you have now?

More to the point, isn't that a perfectly normal trait in young, single men? Didn't the males of our species evolve to seek power and status as a way of attracting mates and perpetuating our genes?

If I'm missing something here, please enlighten me.

0 recs | Comment 7 comments

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What you're missing

They're British. There, I said it. What I understand from some reading and friends who have lived there is that the views of the British public towards weight training are about 50 years behind the U.S. "Weight training is for freaks in the circus and people who are shallow or have low self esteem." I don't think you can separate the views of the larger society from the underlying theme of the article. As you point out, there is no evaluation of if anyone has ever actually hurt themselves because of the influence of Maxim. Their best bet might be carpal tunnel.

Also, doesn't it occur to the guys running this study that young guys who spend all day reading about the gym and looking at pictures of naked women are more likely to be inclined to lift weights and ponder better ways to pack on muscle? That seems like a given to me. I get Maxim at my office and read t-nation when I take a break from work because I want to read something interesting when I'm taking a break.

by Joe in DC on Mar 28, 2008 9:46 AM EDT 0 recs

Subject here!

As usual they dramatize a bit to catch the reader's attention, but it does seem that the ideal male body is getting more muscular.

====== A Playgirl centerfold model of 1976 would need to shed 12 lbs of fat and gain 27 lbs of muscle to be a centerfold of today (Leit, Pope, & Gray, 2001).

GI Joe is to boys what Barbie is to girls (Pope, Olivardia, Gruber, & Borowiecki, 1999). Over the past 20 years, these G.I. Joe toys have grown more muscular and currently have sharper muscle definition. The GI Joe Extreme action figure, if extrapolated to a height of 5'10", would have larger biceps than any bodybuilder in history. ======
Source: http://tinyurl.com/ypautx
=======

Personally, I started training around 6 months ago, and browsing t-nation and the bodybuilding.com forums. I put on some muscle but I found that as time went by I was more and more disappointed in my physical appearance. I also noticed that people I used to consider well-built now seemed skinny. At this point I decided to spend as little time as possible on bodybuilding websites, as it screws up my perception.

by SMN on Mar 28, 2008 10:11 AM EDT 0 recs

I don't think you're missing anything, Lou

I can't speak with much authority here --- especially since I didn't read the full study --- but it doesn't seem as if the research is making a definite smoke-fire connection. Certainly, the pursuit of a better physique isn't, by itself, an indicator of a disorder.

Such disorders are tricky to diagnose and professionals look for several markers before treatment begins. I'm assuming that the study suggests there're similarities to patients with eating disorders. In such cases, they also look for (among other things) low self-esteem, acceptance issues, fear of getting fat, whacked out coping skills, and depression/bi-polar disorder. (Trouble is, that describes a heck of a lot of teenagers and young adults.)

If anything, I think the study is just the beginning of more study.

by Rob in Denver on Mar 28, 2008 11:10 AM EDT 0 recs

About the career

Wanting to achieve more in the career could be a cause of type-A personality, which has already been or probably will be classified as some sort of disorder.

So yeah, all self-improvement taken to the extreme is a mental illness. Then, when you arbitrarily draw the line of "excess", all self-improvement can be considered extreme, and thus a mental illness.

That's basically what they did here with the exercise concept. They basically said "exercise in excess" is bad, and misuse of anabolic steroids is bad, therefore encouraging people to exercise is bad, because encouragement might push people too far.
That's like saying studying too much is bad, and cheating/lying to gain an advantage is bad, therefore encouraging people to study is bad, because encouragement might push people too far.

by ectonoob on Mar 28, 2008 2:50 PM EDT 0 recs

Too much, too little

Too much exercise is obsessive, too little is lazy. Anyone driving faster than I am is crazy; anyone driving slower is a Sunday driver and should get off the highway. We are all the measure of everybody else - the sane standard by which all others fail. Heh. Or does that show too much self-confidence?

I remember when the jogging fad (how many decades do fads last?) started in the late 60s, a fat psychologist was on one of the talk shows and tried to explain how joggers were unhealthy masochists. I didn't buy it then, and I don't now, either.

At 57, I'm just now starting to feel my age. 5 or 6 hours of martial arts weekly, an hour or two of heavy iron, maybe a steep 90 minute hike on a nearby mountain with the missus, and puttering around the garden with wheel barrel and shovel.

How many hours weekly did these guys spend in school - for years! - to get their degrees? Was that healthy? I dunno, but it was productive, I guess.

by freehand on Mar 28, 2008 3:15 PM EDT 0 recs

About A/B personality type

FIY, that theory is considered obsolete by most psychologists. The various behaviors that define Type A personality are not correlated with each other, and as such there's no reason to put them all together in a "type".

by SMN on Mar 28, 2008 3:26 PM EDT 0 recs

Men's Turn

Seems pretty straight forward to me. Basically men are being subjected to the same kind of "peer pressure" from the media that women have been dealing with for quite some time. The ideal female figure portrayed by the media is not only unattainable it is unreal. It's a carefully lit, made up and photoshopped "work of art". We (women) know it but it still sneaks into the oldest parts of our brain and our subconscious and makes us think and do not so healthy things (like over exercising, starvation diets or just plain hating our bodies). Now men are being presented with a new male ideal that most are unlikely to ever attain and some are thinking and doing some not so healthy things (like steroids or over exercising). Same with women. OF COURSE the ones most likely to "fall victim" are those that are still seeking a mate. OF COURSE that age group (18 to 36) is the most influenced because that is their target audience. 80% of their readers are between 18 & 34 according to a 2002 demographic pdf file I found when I googled maxim magazine demographic.

While we are all negatively affected by this I believe only a small percent are to the degree referred to in the article. Most will not develop an eating disorder or over exercise or use drugs (whether it's steroids for men or diet pills for women). At least I hope that is true.

by Bratt on Mar 30, 2008 12:16 AM EDT 0 recs