Students Speak Out About Body Dysmorphia in Men

— Ariana González, Editor-in-Chief

The usage of social media allows influencers to use their platforms to encourage self-love and happy lifestyles. However, like many aspects of today’s society, social media provides a great sense of insecurity.

When speaking about the body positivity movement, there is a large focus on women’s body dysmorphia. Body dysmorphia can alter one’s self perception, making it feel like regardless of one’s efforts, it is still not enough. This focus on women in the body positivity movement has caused a lot of positive change, with a variety of campaigns aiming to boost the confidence of young girls.

With that being said, many men feel as though there could be more focus on men’s body positivity. Society’s expectation of men putting up an emotional front has made it difficult for many young men to come forward about their experiences with body dysmorphia and other mental health struggles.

“I believe that there should be an even focus on both,” Avid gym attendee and senior Ty Johnson said. “Men’s for both the fitness influencers and the standards they’re held up to, and women’s for the beauty standards and the standards they’re also held up to.”

While Johnson may be open about the topic, others may choose to not share their experiences with body dysmorphia or other mental health topics to the stigma surrounding men sharing their emotions.

“People have normalized men bottling up their feelings and bottling up how they actually feel about themselves and just letting them eat away at the instead of talking about it,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s body dysmorphia greatly affected his mental health.

“It really just put me down. I would go to the gym and be like ‘I look small, I feel small, I’m not lifting as much weight as I should be,’” Johnson said. “It took a toll on my mental health.”

Like many young people, Johnson feels that social media has definitely played a role in his body dysmorphia, with the many fitness influencers showing off their progress.

“It’s like I wish I could look like those guys someday, and at the same time, you don’t know if they’re taking any steroids,” Johnson said. “I still see myself as the twig that I was about 5 or 6 months ago, despite having worked out for about 5 to 6 months and putting on 15 pounds of muscle.”

An anonymous student also feels that men’s body dysmorphia should be more focused on.

“It’s really hard for us guys to come forward with our experiences with body dysmorphia because it’s almost seen as something shameful,” the anonymous student said. “What the body positivity movement has done for women is incredible, I just wish that it would be the same for men.”

Body dysmorphia is competitive; it is really easy for men to look at other men while working out and go to extreme lengths to achieve looking like them or better.

“I would go to the gym and see these huge, built guys and question what I was doing wrong,” the anonymous student said. “This led me to start dieting extremely and lifting way more than I should’ve. I felt that if I did all of these things, I would look just as good or even better.”

The surge in the body positivity movement has caused a lot of positive change, but the anonymous student feels that society still has a long way to go to combat unrealistic beauty standards, for both men and women.

“If you’re gonna start working out, know that not every body is the same,” the anonymous student said. “The diets and workout routines that work for someone else might not work for you, and that doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with you and your body. If you’re gonna start working out and bodybuilding, do it for yourself and not meet a stupid body trend that will eventually stop trending anyway.”

February 2023