Making disordered bodies in the context of male eating disorders

Piotr Maron

Social Science & Medicine, 2025, vol. 381, issue C

Abstract: Male eating disorders (MEDs) are increasingly recognised as a significant public health issue in Australia and globally. In this paper, I examine clinicians' accounts to explore how male bodies, particularly those involved in practices such as ‘clean’ eating, exercise, and muscle building, are enacted as ‘disordered’ while investigating how lifestyle choices that are often admired or seen as ‘healthy’ can, in specific clinical contexts, be reframed as problematic. I show how clinicians problematise healthy eating practices, exercising and muscle building as situations that indicate a possible risk. I thus claim that clinicians' interpretations of ‘clean’ eating and muscle building signs of disorder are part of an evidence-making intervention – a more flexible and creative approach to care Consequently, by unpacking how the disordered male bodies become as such in clinical encounters, this paper concludes that health care delivery for male eating disorders could benefit from greater flexibility while asking whether there is room for a different diagnostic standard in terms of a more relational approach to care.

Keywords: Male eating disorders; Care; Mental health; Evidence-making intervention; Male body (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118250

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