{"id":2754,"date":"2025-10-22T11:32:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T11:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=2754"},"modified":"2025-10-22T11:32:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T11:32:18","slug":"men-suffer-from-body-dysmorphic-disorder-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=2754","title":{"rendered":"Men suffer from body dysmorphic disorder, too"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

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Some days, the voice says the classic, \u201cYou\u2019re overweight.\u201d On other days, it says, \u201cYou\u2019re not muscular enough,\u201d \u201cYou don\u2019t deserve to eat that\u201d or \u201cCancel those plans. You need to work out instead.\u201d The one constant is that the voice never truly goes away.<\/p>\n

The voice in question? My body dysmorphic disorder. Historically, the focus of the body imaging crisis has been on girls and women. It\u2019s warranted \u2014 the standards that women have been held to are lengthy and a far greater issue for women than for men.<\/p>\n

However, I can\u2019t help but notice how pervasive the male body-imaging crisis has become. It\u2019s important that we start to understand it.<\/p>\n

I attribute a great deal of the male-imaging problem to a common scapegoat in the modern age: social media.<\/p>\n

Today, there is a cesspool of toxic fitness \u201cinfluencers\u201d all over social media. Often these influencers insult the viewers \u2014 calling them fat or lazy \u2014 and let them know they are superior to them. Think along the lines of an Andrew Tate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is not insignificant. A 2023 piece published by Harvard Medical School stressed how body dysmorphic disorder in young men can lead to the use of dangerous supplements that risk being contaminated with stimulants. Some young men are choosing to undergo unsafe periods of gaining and cutting weight. Others even become depressed or suicidal.<\/p>\n

Striving to be healthy is not bad, but obsessing about your body to these extremes is.<\/p>\n

We need to encourage more men to talk about body-imaging issues. It cannot remain a taboo subject or an indication that a man is \u201cweak.\u201d If enough people start to have those conversations, we can begin to solve the problem.<\/p>\n

In that same vein, we need to promote positive-minded fitness influencers. One of my favorite examples is Noel Deyzel<\/a>. He\u2019s consistently encouraging in the content he produces. Most importantly, he underscores the importance of being confident in yourself, regardless of your level of fitness.<\/p>\n

We can use more Noel Deyzels, and fewer Andrew Tates.<\/p>\n

The male body-imaging epidemic is a real issue that needs to be taken more seriously. If we can start the necessary conversations and flip the script on what it means to be \u201chealthy,\u201d we can easily solve it.<\/p>\n

Carter Sherwin, Vernon Hills <\/i><\/p>\n

Dehumanizing anyone harms all<\/h3>\n

The Chicago area is under tremendous pressure. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests are increasing, and calls for the National Guard are amplifying people\u2019s sense of fear and uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Enveloping these actions is a familiar story: They\u2019re not like us. They\u2019re less than us. They\u2019re dangerous.<\/p>\n

I know this story personally. My grandparents fled Russia and Germany as refugees. Propaganda dehumanized them and turned their neighbors against them.<\/p>\n

I know it as a historian. Today\u2019s raids echo America\u2019s anti-immigration legislation and mass deportations targeting Asians, Mexicans and reformers.<\/p>\n

I know it as a mother, wondering what kind of country my children will inherit as descendants of immigrants.<\/p>\n

And I know it as a humanist. There are many other stories we can, and must, tell, stories that center people\u2019s lives, histories, cultures and contributions. The stories we tell shape us. They can divide us or connect us.<\/p>\n

Immigrants built Illinois. After the Great Fire in 1871, 80% of Chicago\u2019s residents were immigrants or their children. These people rebuilt our beloved parks, boulevards, schools and libraries; they wove the civic fabric that holds us together. Today, fear-focused narratives are working to shred that fabric.<\/p>\n

Economic analyses make it clear that militarizing immigration undermines Illinois\u2019 construction, agriculture, health care and hospitality industries. But economics can\u2019t help us understand why the story we\u2019re being told harms us all. Great American literature, like Toni Morrison\u2019s \u201cBeloved\u201d or Countee Cullen\u2019s poem \u201cIncident,\u201d shows us that dehumanizing anyone harms everyone. Meanwhile, organizations like the Chicago Cultural Alliance, Lumpen Radio, Shorefront Legacy Center, South Side Weekly and Cicero Independiente feature migration stories that remind us we are interconnected.<\/p>\n

At Illinois Humanities\u2019 50th anniversary event, a high school poet was scheduled to read her award-winning piece, \u201cIf They Take Her.\u201d ICE activity prevented her from attending. Instead, a staff member read her poem as a transcript was projected onscreen. The moment epitomized that empathy is the counterbalance to fear.<\/p>\n

It can feel radical to meet others with curiosity, or to be willing to cede any ground to find the threads that connect us. The humanities remind us that seeing each other as human beings may be the most radical \u2014 yet necessary \u2014 act of all.<\/p>\n

We are being told we are the simplest, most reduced version of ourselves. We can counter the story that they (whoever \u201cthey\u201d are) aren\u2019t like us. Illinois knows better.\u202f We are all, together, so much more.<\/p>\n

Gabrielle H. Lyon, executive director, Illinois Humanities<\/i><\/p>\n

History repeating itself<\/h3>\n

Hitler didn\u2019t start with camps. He started with:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Making Germany great again<\/li>\n
  2. Banning books<\/li>\n
  3. Targeting the press<\/li>\n
  4. Blaming immigration<\/li>\n
  5. Creating enemies from neighbors<\/li>\n
  6. Defunding the arts<\/li>\n
  7. Stoking fears of outsiders<\/li>\n
  8. Demonizing educators<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If we don\u2019t learn from history, we\u2019re bound to repeat it.<\/p>\n

    Allan F. Benson, Aurora<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


    \n
    Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Some days, the voice says the classic, \u201cYou\u2019re overweight.\u201d On other days, it says, \u201cYou\u2019re not muscular enough,\u201d \u201cYou don\u2019t deserve to eat that\u201d or \u201cCancel those plans. You need to work out instead.\u201d The one constant is that the voice never truly goes away. The voice in question? My body dysmorphic disorder. Historically, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}