Why are women more likely to be anorexic than men?

Yes. It’s societal pressure mostly. There is some biology at play I suspect as well. Men are generally selected for resources and power. Women for fertility. Being overweight is not a fertility signal presently. This has not always been the case though. Two women I have loved have suffered from anorexia. It’s a sad disease that is hard to understand from the outside looking in. I would have still loved them overweight or not. There is a truth that most women need to hear. Men who really love you don’t care if you’re overweight or not. Really, we don’t care. At all.

@Blackwater_Park Sadly, that isn’t true. I have known several men who insisted their wives stay thin, while they began growing their gorilla guts.
Advertising, especially teen magazines, promote hot bods.
Also, most young women I know walk into a party, and the first they check out is other women, to see who the competition is.
I wish this all wasn’t true.

Because they are very ” figure ” occupied.

@omtatsat Why the quotation marks?

@filmfann That begs the question if they really love them or not. Those people love themselves

I talked to a therapist at an eating disorder clinic, she told me 4 out of 5 women they see are dropped off by controlling well of men.

@zenvelo I had to read that twice. You mean “controlling well off men”?

Because they are more mindful of their weight than men, generally speaking.

@janbb That should read ” controlling, well-off men”

Societal pressure and messaging to be thin mixed with low self esteem and wanting control over something. How often do boys who are 15 pounds over weight get told they’re fat? I don’t think very often. It happens to young girls who are a little overweight all the time.

Teenage girls feel the need to spend an hour getting ready in the morning with hair and make-up and clothing while boys sleep longer and have less pressure on their looks.

I think most boys feel reasonably powerful and autonomous while most girls feel the opposite. I do mean boys and girls, not adults. Then it just carries over into adulthood.

I’m not a doctor, it’s just how I see it.

Also, it can be an attention getter when home life isn’t very good.

I googled it and as I expected, there are a lot of articles online about this very topic.

Here’s a clinical article which talks about it from a psychological perspective.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3135672/

Mostly from society pressure of controlling male behavior.
My little sister went through it in HS due to a crappy BF.

Sometimes that’s the case but in my limited experience with this there is usually more going on. There is usually some other unrelated trauma or mental issues. There is also potentially a genetic link as it can run in families. The same kinds of things that can cause people to do things like hoarding can also cause them to become anorexic. It’s not always a controlling male or societal pressure.

Instagram isn’t any help