Media culture and its impact on new forms of eating disorders
Introduction
Media and marketing have a great influence on the thinking, feelings, opinions, and public opinion of ordinary people in today's world. Media are an ideal means of reaching masses of people spread across the globe and delivering their message. People are inclined to conform to majority opinion, to accept advice in a certain way, and to allow themselves to be guided. Marketing has learned to capitalize on women's desire for perfect bodies and on men's constant pride and need to look attractive, heroic, and irresistible. The choice of our paper's topic was motivated by the growing popularity of fitness, bodybuilding, and an active lifestyle, as well as the assumption that obsession with these phenomena will deepen in the coming years. In our country as well, a group of individuals is beginning to form who devote excessive attention to their appearance, body structure, and amount of physical activity. This is a serious problem that needs to be discussed and attention drawn to the risks associated with this type of behavior.1 Our work focuses primarily on people who actively exercise, promote a healthy lifestyle, spend hours of their time on hard work in the gym, but are not satisfied with the results, and despite ever-increasing alarming evidence of cases that have crossed the line and thus endangered their health, they continue to pursue their set goal.
Mass media provide people with a highly influential context from which they learn about bodily ideals and the values that will make them considered attractive.2 Whether history, art, literature, fashion, or many other social factors, all have influenced how people perceive human beauty. However, this was not the case until the beginning of broadcasting the first silent films, or the subsequent introduction of television into our homes, which caused people to be exposed for many hours to topics related to how we should look. Today, there is concern in society and an imaginary alarm that the overall influence of media has become so strong that people, especially young girls and women, are gradually comparing themselves to professional models suffering from clinical underweight and setting unrealistic and unnatural goals. Many argue that the increased incidence of eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia, is partly a consequence of the negative image women have of their own bodies, which is partly induced by the media.3 However, men are not lagging behind in this regard, as it is well known to all of us that companies and businesses engaged in the promotion and sale of various nutritional supplements, editors of bodybuilding magazines, directors of cult action films, and many others, do not seek slender men. On the contrary, they often opt for men whose appearance to the consumer resembles more a mountain of muscle than an ordinary human. Analogously, we can therefore assume that the incidence of modern eating disorders such as bigorexia, orthorexia, or exorexia is also partly conditioned by media influence.
Current knowledge on the addressed issue
Pathological dependence on food as a form of non-substance addiction belongs to bio-psycho-social disorders and is characterized by solving problems and emotional situations in an individual's life through food and eating. Thoughts related to food, or diet and body weight, become more important than everything else. We include here:
- anorexia nervosa (AN),
- bulimia nervosa (BN),
- binge eating disorder (BED),
- other eating disorders (bigorexia, orthorexia, dieting4).
Bigorexia is a term that has come to denote a disorder in which those affected in body and mind succumb to excessive, disproportionate, and often even health-damaging physical exercise. Social pressure to achieve the right image and physical form, as well as the family environment instill in a child from an early age that one must engage in sports and excel in some physical activity.
Orthorexia nervosa is a pathological obsession with healthy eating and a healthy diet. Individuals monitor the nutrient content of food, the origin of food and ingredients. The pathological dimension of this phenomenon is diagnosed when an individual thinks more than three hours about healthy food, despises "unhealthy food" and people who eat normally and eat everything.
Dieting can be understood as an addiction to diets. Common features of eating disorders are that the individual:
- feels an irresistible urge to repeat their behavior (craving),
- constantly thinks about food, body weight, and diets,
- stops doing things they previously did naturally, avoids them, loses their original interests, hobbies, and pastimes,
- and perhaps most tragically – loses pleasure from the ordinary joys of everyday life,
- continues the behavior despite obvious negative consequences for themselves and their immediate and wider social environment (Hupková, 2009). All types of eating disorders are characterized by a distorted perception of one's own body, which leads to dissatisfaction with one's own body. The phenomenon is caused by the body cult and the media portrayal of thinness as bodily perfection.
Bigorexia is considered one of the new variants of dysmorphophobia, and besides being considered a modern non-substance addiction, it was recently also included in the list of mental health disorders. Dysmorphophobia was initially defined as "the morbid thought or even conviction of an individual that they are conspicuous or repulsive in their physical appearance."5 More recent conceptions of this disorder focus on its "basic feature consisting of excessive preoccupation with some assumed defect in appearance in a normally looking person."6 It is not just about ordinary dissatisfaction, which is common in the general population, but about "complete absorption and even morbid obsession with an imagined defect."7 Individuals affected by bigorexia perceive themselves as weak, small, even fragile, insufficiently muscularly developed, and try to achieve the appearance presented on the pages of bodybuilding magazines or the appearance of an action film hero through high energy consumption, overeating nutritional supplements (especially protein preparations), demanding strength training, and not infrequently also the abuse of medications. "A big problem in the attempt to treat the disorder is the fact that those affected do not admit any problems, are satisfied with their way of life, and many people from their surroundings make them understand that they are behaving normally or even exemplary (because they exercise regularly, which they themselves cannot force themselves to do)."8 Some men want to find out to what dimensions they can grow. They are obsessed with thoughts that they are too small and do not have enough muscle mass. This condition is called muscle dysmorphia, but the disorder is also found under the name Adonis complex or Adonis syndrome and is a compulsive disorder derived from body dysmorphic disorder. In most cases, these men are not small, and many of them compete in bodybuilding. Many of them spend whole days in gyms, constantly observe themselves in the mirror, spend significant sums on supplements, and are willing to take dangerous steroids or other substances to support muscle growth (Olivardia, 2002).
We have slightly less information about muscle dysmorphia than about anorexia or bulimia. We often suspect primarily genetic and biological elements. It is assumed that the causes leading to the development of bigorexia have a very similar origin as the causes of anorexia or bulimia. Just as people with anorexia experience significant weight loss due to various strict diets, excessive exercise can also be a reason for the development of bigorexia. Psychological factors such as bullying in childhood and experienced traumas can also contribute to risk factors. A direct connection can also be found in the case where the mother of the affected person was a victim of domestic violence – helplessness in childhood can be compensated by an excessive desire for muscularity in adulthood. Bigorexia largely overlaps with depression – more than half of all people with muscle dysmorphia have suffered in the past or still suffer from severe depression – and anxiety, as almost a third of those affected suffer from an anxiety disorder, such as social phobia or extreme shyness. If we consider the influence of steroids on this disease, there is a certain connection, but the fact is that steroid use stems precisely from muscle dysmorphia, not the other way around. Of course, we cannot exclude cultural factors either, which create an image in which the "heroic man" is depicted as someone with supernaturally developed muscles.9
Of course, not every man who spends his free time in a fitness center suffers from bigorexia. There are several simple questions whose affirmative answer can indicate that bigorexia is a problem for the given person: a. Does the demanding training and dietary regimen affect your relationships with others?; b. Do you spend a lot of time exercising with the goal of building muscle mass/improving athletic performance?; c. Do you often think about your appearance?; d. Do you spend large sums of money on improving your appearance?10
For diagnosing bigorexia, the MASS questionnaire (Appendix A) is used, i.e., "Muscle Appearance Satisfaction Scale," a short, nineteen-point questionnaire for assessing symptoms of muscle dysmorphia. The evaluation of the questionnaire includes the following factors: dependence on weight training, frequency of checking one's muscles, use of substances that support muscle growth, injuries associated with exercise, and satisfaction with one's own muscles.11 Research problem and research objective
The main research problem we set for our research was the analysis of the effects of marketing communications on self-perception in selected respondents demonstrating a significant interest in bodybuilding. The research objective was to map the opinions of the examined individuals on the presented marketing communications – audiovisual advertisements – and at the same time, we tried to find out which elements occurring in the communications appealed to them most. Five respondents aged 26-32 participated in the research. The selection of the research sample was intentional, based on predetermined characteristics. We focused on the male gender mainly based on the literature studied and the knowledge gained. We also supported the selection of the research sample with the fact that all respondents are engaged in fitness, weight training, and bodybuilding, are not laypeople in the issue, and thus their opinions and attitudes were valuable and relevant for our research.
Research methods
Qualitative research, the method of individual in-depth interview, in which most questions were open-ended, in combination with scaling techniques, was used to gather information. Respondents were played 10 audiovisual advertisements. Audio recordings of the interviews were also made and subsequently transcribed. The transcripts of the interviews are available from the authors of the paper. As part of gathering information for our research, we also used scaling techniques, specifically the Likert scale, which was presented to the respondents during the research.
Course of the research
In evaluating the research results, we used the content analysis method, which is suitable for evaluating the content of various types of communications. We analyzed the interviews conducted with selected respondents through this method as follows: a. respondents were played ten audiovisual advertisements, b. after each advertisement, several statements derived from that advertisement were presented to the respondents, c. respondents expressed their attitudes and opinions on the presented statements, d. through content analysis, we created categories for each question for each advertisement, e. we assigned the respondents' answers to individual categories and recorded them in tables.
Analysis and interpretation of research results
On the following pages, we present frequency analyses showing the frequencies of occurrence of answers from individual respondents for each of the ten played audiovisual advertisements.
The first advertisement focused on the sale and promotion of branded clothing, and precisely for this reason, we formulated the statements related to that advertisement in such a way that through them we could find out what attitude the individual respondents have towards the choice of a muscular promoter and also what their opinion is on this choice. We were surprised that only two of the five statements received the same response from all five respondents – the answer "yes." The answers to the statements regarding the opposite sex's opinion on muscular men differed, as did the reactions to the second statement in order, concerning the chosen clothing promoter.
In the advertisement for MILKO yogurt, a man with developed muscles appeared, who also seemed very proud of his results in this area. Most respondents acknowledged that it is likely that this particular man has knowledge not only about the importance of proteins for muscle growth but also, according to them, is knowledgeable about fitness, weight training, and healthy lifestyle topics. In our opinion, they did so based on the man's appearance and the lines he used in that advertisement. However, it was interesting that with the second statement, where respondents were to decide which of the two men looked better, three of them held the opinion that the ordinary man without developed muscle mass looked better.
Only two statements were tied to the third audiovisual advertisement, but the respondents' answers did not completely agree in either of them. The second statement was particularly debatable, in which respondents were to decide whether the promoted product sells better thanks to the celebrity appearing in the advertisement. Based on the respondents' answers, we concluded that several of them hesitated because they could not decide whether the product's sales were caused by the celebrity, the well-known brand, or the use of humor in the advertisement.
When creating statements for the fourth audiovisual advertisement, we focused mainly on obtaining the attitudes and opinions of respondents on protein intake from food and from nutritional supplements, specifically we were interested in which method they prefer. Based on the answers obtained, we concluded that although three out of five respondents prefer obtaining proteins from a varied diet, they are simultaneously aware that a person engaged in fitness and weight training is unable to obtain the necessary amount solely from food and therefore must also take them through various nutritional supplements.
We received the most varied answers especially to the last statement, and we think this is caused by the fact that the respondents do not have sufficient experience with the specific nutritional supplement and therefore cannot assess its effects. We were also interested in the answers to the second question, since only three respondents were able to identify the celebrity who appeared on the poster in the advertisement. In our opinion, this happened because the other two respondents focused more on the main protagonist and his words, or noticed the promoted product. We received the most agreeing and confirming reactions to the third and fourth statements, which concerned the man's self-confidence and determination.
With this advertisement, we not only confirmed the men's opinion on the protagonist chosen for the specific advertisement, but we also learned the respondents' attitudes on the importance of guiding children towards sports. Only two respondents think that upbringing is important in this regard. The majority held the opinion that if a person has determination within themselves, they do not need to be guided in this direction from an early age, because it will come naturally in adolescence or adulthood, and if a person wants to, they will start down this path anyway.
Despite the fact that with previous statements aimed at the opposite sex's opinion on muscular men, the respondents could not express themselves unambiguously, in the case of this advertisement it was different. We think this is mainly because in this particular advertisement it was obvious that the woman was captivated by the strength and performance of the muscular man, and this was also evident from her facial expressions and gestures. To the fourth statement, we received five unambiguous answers, meaning that all five respondents hold the opinion that people using nutritional supplements have greater success in achieving their fitness goals.
The respondents' answers to the individual statements were, in our opinion, also conditioned by the processing of the advertisement, from which it clearly emerged that for the woman, the muscular man was attractive and she felt good in his company.
As with the previous advertisements we played during the research, with this one we were also interested in the respondents' opinion of the protagonists appearing. Based on the answers obtained from the respondents, we concluded that the respondents formed opinions about the people appearing in this advertisement mainly based on their appearance, which suggested that they have been engaged in weight training and bodybuilding for a longer time and are knowledgeable about these topics. We also managed to find out that in case of uncertainties regarding the correct procedure for achieving their fitness goals, the men we asked for an opinion would seek advice from the people appearing in this advertisement, which we also believe is primarily conditioned by the appearance of these people.
The answers to the statements we created for the last played advertisement only confirmed the respondents' opinions that they had already expressed with previous advertisements. After playing all the audiovisual advertisements, several respondents stated that the men, or people, appearing in the individual advertisements according to them do not just use nutritional supplements, but based on their appearance, they concluded that these people probably also use prohibited doping substances, such as steroids, because in their opinion it is not possible to achieve such a form naturally.
Supplementary questions regarding the influence of marketing communications on the consumer
After we had played the ten mentioned advertisements to the respondents, we asked them ten more questions regarding the influence of marketing communications on the consumer. Using the content analysis method, we determined the categories of answers to individual questions.
Conclusion
Eating disorders are one of the unwanted products of our developed, consumer-oriented, performance-oriented society, which focuses on physical appearance and body proportions. Although it may not seem so, men with eating disorders suffer equally, if not more, than their female counterparts, because the prevailing opinion is that these are women's problems. Most male patients do not dare to admit their problem for fear of ridicule.12
Media currently present ideals of female beauty in the 90-60-90 ratio and male strength and attractiveness, which is measured by the size of muscle mass, using an effective weapon – knowledge of the power of attractiveness in today's society. If we think about it, bigorexia can stem precisely from the feeling that we must be as perfect and attractive as possible for our surroundings and for ourselves. Women strive to achieve "ideal dimensions," while this effort can get out of hand and they will not be able to stop until they achieve the desired goal, or in the case of anorexia, exceed it. Men and bigorexia are in a similar situation. In the effort to show themselves and their surroundings their ability to do anything and in any way, they rush towards the image of their dreamed-of muscular body, but at what cost?
Regarding the prevention of the disorder, the media, promoters of a healthy lifestyle, popular personalities, but also the professional public play an important role, which should participate in correcting a large amount of misinformation and warn of the dangers of any extreme.. Exercise addiction gives predisposed individuals a sense of control over their own body and is supported by the admiration of others.
Authors: Mgr. Györgyi Janková, PhD. Bc. Katarína Runnová, Project support: The study was supported by a grant and is a partial output of the projects KEGA: 035UKF-4/2015 Socialization and educational functions of marketing communication as a reflection of media culture and UGA III/9/2014 Orthorexia in mass media space. List of references used
FRENAY, A. C. – MAHONEY, R. M. 1991. Understanding medical terminology. Dubuque: WCB, 1991. FLUSSEROVÁ, J. 2010. Je kulturistika nemoc? (III.) [online], [cit. 2015-01-20]. Available at http://medicina.ronnie.cz/c-6682-je-kulturistika-nemoc-iii.html HALGIN, R. P. – WHITBOURNE, S. K. 1994. Abnormal psychology. London: Brown&Benchmark, 1994. KOLOUCH, V. Bigorexie. [online], [cit. 2015-01-20]. Available at http://www.vyzivaspol.cz/kde-najdu-materialy-o-bigorexii/ KRIVOSUDSKÁ, E. 2010. Nešpecifické a novodobé formy porúch príjmu potravy. In: Empatia Bulletin. Roč. XVII. č. 63. ISSN: 1335 8624 MANN, D. 1998. Researchers Shed Light on New Compulsive Exercising Disorder. In: Medical Tribune: Internist & Cardiologist Edition 39(1). MAYVILLE, S. B. – WILLIAMSON, D. A. – WHITE, M. A. – NETEMEYER, R. & DRAB, D. L. 2002. Development of the Muscle Appearance Satisfaction Scale: A self-report measure for the assessment of muscle dysmorphia symptoms. Psychological Assessment. MORGAN, J. F. 2008. The Invisible Man: A Self-help Guide for Men With Eating Disorders, Compulsive Exercise and Bigorexia. New York: Routledge, 2008. s. 42-43. ISBN 978-1-58391-150-1 MYSLIVEČEK, Z. et al. 1956. Speciální psychiatrie. Praha: SZN, 1956. NANCY, C. 2014. Sportovní výživa. 3., doplnené vyd. Praha: Grada Publishing, 2014. s. 229, 231. ISBN 978-80-247-4655-5 NATIONALEATINGDISORDER.ORG. Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders. [online], [cit. 2016-01-01]. Available at https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/media-body-image-and-eating-disorders NORDQVIST, CH. 2014. What is body image? [online], [cit. 2016-01-01]. Available at http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/249190.php
1 KOLOUCH, V. Bigorexie. [online], [cit. 2015-01-20]. Available at http://www.vyzivaspol.cz/kde-najdu-materialy-o-bigorexii/ 2 NATIONALEATINGDISORDER.ORG. Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders. [online], [cit. 2016-01-01]. Available at https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/media-body-image-and-eating-disorders 3 NORDQVIST, CH. 2014. What is body image? [online], [cit. 2016-01-01]. Available at http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/249190.php 4 HUPKOVÁ, I. 2009. Niektoré formy chorobnej závislosti od jedla ako jedna z foriem návykového rizikového správania. In: Sociálna prevencia [online]; roč. 4, č.2, s. 13 – 15. Available at: http://www.nocka.sk/uploads/07/57/0757b2723d09531b7971eb9f640220a7/Kriminalita.pdf 5 MYSLIVEČEK, Z. et al. 1956. Speciální psychiatrie. Praha: SZN, 1956. 6 FRENAY, A. C. – MAHONEY, R. M. 1991. Understanding medical terminology. Dubuque: WCB, 1991. 7 HALGIN, R. P. – WHITBOURNE, S. K. 1994. Abnormal psychology. London: Brown&Benchmark, 1994. 8 MANN, D. 1998. Researchers Shed Light on New Compulsive Exercising Disorder. In: Medical Tribune: Internist & Cardiologist Edition 39(1). 9 MORGAN, J. F. 2008. The Invisible Man: A Self-help Guide for Men With Eating Disorders, Compulsive Exercise and Bigorexia. New York: Routledge, 2008. s. 42-43. ISBN 978-1-58391-150-1 10 NANCY, C. 2014. Sportovní výživa. 3., doplnené vyd. Praha: Grada Publishing, 2014. s. 229. ISBN 978 80247-4655-5 11 MAYVILLE, S. B. – WILLIAMSON, D. A. – WHITE, M. A. – NETEMEYER, R. & DRAB, D. L. 2002. Development of the Muscle Appearance Satisfaction Scale: A self-report measure for the assessment of muscle dysmorphia symptoms. Psychological Assessment. 12 KRIVOSUDSKÁ, E. 2010. Nešpecifické a novodobé formy porúch príjmu potravy. In: Empatia Bulletin. Roč. XVII. č. 63. ISSN: 1335 8624