Men are not made of plastic. Obvious as the statement may seem, our society continues to want American men to look like plastic GI-Joe action figures. Because men are not made of plastic, we as a society are encouraging the impossible.
The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders believes one million men had an eating disorder in 2001. Furthermore, The American Journal of Psychiatry suggests two in every 100 males have an eating disorder. Commenting on the magnitude of this problem, Dr. Arnold Anderson, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Eating Disorder Program at the University of Iowa's School of Medicine, said, \Eating disorders are as common in men as in women, and perhaps more severe.""
The difference between eating disorders and most other diseases is that eating disorders use people as their weapon and as their victim. We want people to be thin because we think thin is attractive, then we all try to fit what we decided was attractive. These culturally induced diseases can be stopped through a shift in perspective. We are infecting each other with diseases'hard to believe this is happening in the United States.
Eating disorders in men may be a new occurrence, or may have been occurring since the creation of beauty standards. There are no accurate statistics on the number of men with eating disorders because men are often ashamed to have a disorder ignorantly associated with women. those around the man are ashamed'which leads to silence. Everyone has a weight, but somehow when our ancestors were deciding the gender roles they decided only one could have any feeling regarding their weight and the other must feel shameful when any feeling arises. Our ancestors are not to blame; they didn't know we would all want to look like plastic action figures.
Let's take a look at some of our society's little idiosyncrasies. We think it's cute to make fun of the fat boy. We think it's great when guys excel in sports. We want guys to like girls. We want guys to be tough, yet sensitive enough to land a date, but not so sensitive he should ever mention his weight. We want men to have the bodies of early nineteenth-century farmers, yet instead of working the fields we really want them in nice office jobs. We are making each other sick just by wanting what we think is natural'plastic bodies and trained minds.
It's time for men to have a movement. Our society is oppressive of men's emotions. Men need to be permitted to experience all the wrath of human emotion that is allowed to a woman. We are socializing our men into rocks. Men are not allowed to cry, or complain about their weight; most men are not even allowed to feel oppressed. If we allow men to acknowledge their disease, eating disorders will lose their power.
Homosexual men are at an increased risk for developing an eating disorder. The International Journal of Eating Disorders reported both body dissatisfaction and eating disorders are considerably more prevalent among homosexual men in comparison to heterosexual men. In their study of homosexual men, 20 percent suffered from anorexia and 14 percent suffered from bulimia. Gay men receive contradictory messages, either extremely thin or extremely muscular is seen as the ideal. The homosexual man may have an even further journey to attain peace with his body.
Ask anyone on the street if they are made of plastic; everyone will say no. Ask anyone on the street if they have blood, flesh and are complicated; they will look away. We are not plastic, lets stop pretending that we can pour ourselves into a mold and then be put on display shelves as a fluorescent light shines off our forehead. Letting GI-Joe conquer our lives is embarrassing, he is only six inches tall.
