To look like Superman: Male body dysmorphia

Abstract

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a psychiatric illness characterized by obsessive thoughts in relation to one’s appearance. Body dysmorphia continues to gain attention in the general media, academia, and the scientific community. This mental health condition can happen to anyone of any gender and is evaluated to be a chronic and long-term condition. Although research and developed models have attempted to understand the etiology, there is significant limited amount of research regarding BDD in relation to men. This highlights the need to bring awareness surrounding this topic by expressing thought provoking questions, as without treatment, BDD will progressively worsen as one ages. In this piece, we present thoughts on why this area is under-represented, as well as briefly describing what body dysmorphia is and the main area of distress in men. Moreover, we discuss why men are fixated on achieving the “ideal male image” and what it appears to be, what are the possible factors inducing body dysmorphia, and the overarching need to conduct more research on this topic.