Male Body Image: The Naked Truth
For more on Trent follow @trentseven
WWE
The Trans Boxer
Thomas Page McBee is the author of Amateur: A True Story about What Makes a Man and the first trans man to box at Madison Square Garden.
“As a trans man my sense of body is crucial to my identity – the matching of my physicality and how I envision myself. But putting aside trans and politics, this notion that there’s one way to be a man – which we’re all trying to live up to – is what makes men feel constricted. It’s challenging for all of us to accept we don’t fit within the larger ideal of what we’re supposed to look like. I struggle with that like anyone else does.
“The experience of boxing made me feel powerfully embodied. I had to be deeply in touch with myself physically and learn about my strengths and weaknesses. Now I feel like I have a right be in a gym, be in my body, and be strong. I’m sure cultural biases affect me, but I try to find something deeper thing to build my relationship with my body on. Boxing gave me that – not because I was such a great boxer or because I proved myself in a hyper masculine way, but because I proved to myself I could do anything.”
For more on Thomas follow @ThomasPageMcBee
The Psychiatrist
Dr William Rhys Jones is Consultant Psychiatrist & Clinical Lead with CONNECT: The West Yorkshire & Harrogate, Adult Eating Disorders Service
“Poor body image wasn’t something men of previous generations worried about. But male body objectification – and the idea that what you look like is more important than who you are – has increased. We’ve seen that in research around male body image and we’re also seeing the longer term effects of that in the rise of male eating disorders. And men have to go through a lot of hoops for treatment.
“There’s a sense that as feminism has risen in prominence – and rightly so – men have felt a bit lost and retreated into male body image. This concept that if you feel powerless, you internalise and turn it on your body, is at the heart of an eating disorder. The fact that more men are doing that now might represent an existential crisis for men.
