Anti-obesity attitudes are widespread. However, there are individual differences between men and women in the expression of this type of prejudice, according to a study by the National Distance Education University (UNED) that the SINC agency echoes. Researchers have found thatmen are more intolerant of people affected by obesity.
“These differences are due to the fact thatwomen internalize the ideal of thinnessprevailing in society, while men externalize it by showing negative attitudes towards people with obesity. This means that women endorse the aspiration of thinness, while men limit themselves to judging that standard from the outside ”, clarifies Alejandro Magallares, lead author of the study.
As a result, women scored higher on scales related to eating disorders (EDs), “precisely because it is frowned upon for a girl to skip the social normal of thinness,” while men did so on scales. prejudices towards those who have a few extra kilos. In the past, being overweight or obese was a sign of social status, but the role of beauty has changed over the centuries until today it reaches the opposite extreme: the identification of thinness with a high social position. And the worst thing is thatThis prejudice is related to controllability, that is, it is “the fact of believing that people who have weight problems are their own fault, which causes them to be treated in a vexatious way, “says the expert.
Magallares also highlights the trend of an increasing number of boys with problems related to eating behavior. Specifically, research indicates that pressure, in the case of men, is aimed at achieving a muscular body. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) does not include this type of disorder as a diagnostic category, however, clinical studies already speak ofvigor or muscular dysmorphia, in reference to the obsession with a body without fat.
