The Shadow that Hovered Over: Gender Salience in Eating Disorder Recovery

Abstract

Studies examining the social forces behind eating disorders have found that unrealistic conceptions of feminine beauty exert pressure on millions of women suffering from eating disorders. However, untenable feminine ideals do not explain the social factors affecting men. Utilizing narrative and content analyses of accounts of women and men on Tumblr and eating disorder recovery support groups, this paper finds that men experience eating disorders and recover differently from women. Gender salience, and not simply femininity, had a powerful effect on the recovery process for both women and men. Drawing from the sociologies of narrative, gender, and masculinity studies, this study provides a more nuanced and consequential way of understanding eating disorder recovery and how recovery trajectories vary by gender. Four categorical narrative types emerged from the sample: Ecological, Sickened, Abused, and Warrior. Language in the narratives relied on traditional gender roles, and each narrative lead to different proportions of recovery outcomes. Individuals in this study used one of four narrative types. The warrior narrative, which was the only one used by men, was associated with a higher rate of relapse. The propensity to relapse varied between the narrative types, suggesting some may be more conducive for recovery.