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Women’s magazines have previously been blamed for encouraging teenagers to smoke and diet, by glamorising an unhealthy “size zero” body image.
Now, new research shows that men are not immune from similar effects, since the laddish culture promoted by men’s magazines has spawned a new medical condition: Athletica nervosa, or an obsession with exercise. Some readers apparently become so anxious about their own physique that they embark on excessive exercise, spending hours every day running, swimming, or working out at the gym.
The research conducted by University of Winchester Psychologist Dr David Giles and colleagues found that men who read the magazines, were more influenced by the flawless body imagery promoted in the publications.
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 internalise this message, which creates anxieties about their actual bodies and leads to increasingly desperate attempts to modify them.
Some of the most worrying findings were that heavy consumers of lads’ mags think about taking anabolic steroids or use protein or energy supplements as part of their diet and exercise regimes to improve the way they look.
The researchers surveyed 161 males aged between 18 and 36 about the Men’s magazines they read and for how long, their relationship status, their dietary habits, exercise regime and how they felt about their looks.
The study also found differences between dating and non-dating men.
The effect was stronger among single men than those in stable romantic relationships. This suggests that dating men are less anxious about their body image,
Although it could simply mean that they have less time to go to the gym when they have a partner.
The research was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
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Posted by Jonathan in Psychology, Sociology