We recently did a post, Clothing Ad Homophobic Or Kinda Right? where an advert was criticized all over the Twitterspehere for being homophobic when they hinted that a model with a man bag was not a real man. The ad sparked several different debates; all models are gay, dad bods are in and are real, models don't have balls, etc… We pointed out that it may be highlighting the same battle that women have been fighting for years where women and their bodies are held up to a model standard. Men are as well held to a high standard and it's not just in the gay community.
Two television stars recently opened up about their experiences with body image as well as eating disorders.
“Orange is the New Black” and "How to Get Away with Murder" star Matt McGorry spoke with TODAY about why men are often unwilling to discuss issues relating to body image. He also shared his own personal struggle. – today.com
When we lock our boys away from those feelings, not only are they more likely to hurt themselves, they're more likely to hurt others and to hurt women. They'll likely be the ones policing masculinity among other men, too.
It's time to get away from the idea that men are supposed to be strong and hard and unfeeling and women are soft and maternal. Gender is a spectrum, not a binary system, and it's time we view our behaviors, emotions and appearances on a spectrum as well. Many men are vulnerable to unhealthy, powerless feelings when it comes to body image. Let's talk about it. – today.com
Matt is not the only guy out there that deals with body image and the pressure to be ideal, but we don't have a great deal of men coming forward and being so open about it. Just recently, Zayn Malik also came forward with his fight with meeting that male ideal as well as his battle with an eating disorder.
Former One Direction star Zayn Malik has opened up about his eating disorder struggles in his newly-released autobiography, the Sun reports.
The Pillowtalk singer revealed that he’d “go for days – sometimes two or three days straight – without eating anything at all,” during his time in the band.
“I have come to terms with since leaving the band… that I was suffering from an eating disorder,” he wrote. “It got quite serious, although at the time I didn’t recognise it for what it was.”
23-year-old Zayn wrote that he felt as though he had no control over anything in this life, triggering the dangerous relationship with food.
“Food was something I could control, so I did,” he wrote.
He continued: “I had lost so much weight I had become ill. The workload and the pace of life on the road put together with the pressures and strains of everything going on within the band had badly affected my eating habits.”
Zayn has also publicly fought anxiety, which is detailed in the new autobiography: “On the morning of the 2016 Capital Radio Summertime Ball, an anxiety attack hit me like a f***ing freight train. I felt sick. I couldn’t breathe.
“The idea of it totally freaked me out and I was paralysed with anxiety. This overwhelming fear just kicked in out of nowhere, bringing with it a s***storm of self-doubt. When my management team came over to see what was wrong, I was on total psychological lockdown. I would make a move to walk out of the house, to get into a car that would then drive me to Wembley, but I could only manage a few paces before I hit an imaginary wall. It stopped me in my tracks, and I would have to sit down again.” – attitude.co.uk
No these are not gay men but they are addressing a health topic that ALL men deal with.
Do you think that male body image issues are bigger in the gay community?
Do you think that we are happier with ourselves since we fought with coming out and celebrating who we are?
Have you suffered from a struggle with body image or an eating disorder?
Where did you find help?
h/t: attitude.co.uk, today.com