We sell bodies in this society.
We prize certain types of bodies for their physical beauty and prowess. Many persons try to exploit these qualities by selling them much like a commodity as in the cases of fashion models and actors whose are bodies are purchased for their attractiveness or sexual desirability. Others like athletes, machine operators, construction workers, barbers, and the like sell their bodies for their physical performance abilities (Bybee & Wells, 2006). Here we will focus on the body experience of the sporting athlete; its rewards and risks.
Body image is a dynamic state—a process more so than a static state—differs in athletes depending on the context in which they are being athletic such as in a general social context or in a formal athletic situation. This is termed contextual body image (De Bruin et al., 2011). Past studies confirm that athletes have multiple body images, mainly an athletic and a social body image (Follo, 2007; Russell, 2004). One example is found in female rugby players; a fairly aggressive and heretofore masculine sport. The women identify positively with their strong, muscular physiques, but are troubled that their bodies to don’t conform to traditional feminine standards of beauty (Russell, 2004).
Participating in sports improves body image. That much is clear from decades of research. Sports achievement raises self-esteem, a sense of personal power, and belonging which are all key elements of a positive body image (Ouyang et al., 2020). And, as there with all other psychological phenomena, there is a shadow side. The athletic experience brings both positive benefits and unwanted negative effects. For example, when an athlete has arisen to their optimal level of peak performance and is sustaining it over time, it brings the burden of maintaining it, repeatedly achieving goals, and remaining within a desired body-mass index (BMI) range. But athletes often have problems maintaining their performance levels and optimal BMI especially after experiencing weight problems or injury.
Competitive Display vs. Competitive Performance
All sports can be divided into two types: Aesthetic Display which values leanness and Performance in which physical ability is more important than leanness. Lean sports include ballet and dance, cross- country, equestrian, figure skating, and gymnastics. Basketball, volleyball, soccer, field hockey, softball, golf, football, tennis, lacrosse, and hockey are categorized as non-lean sports (Nemeth, Parak, & Mendle, 2020).
Male vs. Female Body Image Disturbance
In general, and this historically mirrors decades of research findings of body image differences between men and women, men typically have slightly more positive body image and less disturbance than do women (Kantanista et al., 2023). From a total of 887 articles identified through a systematic search of electronic databases, 15 studies conducted on 2,412 athletes met the desired criteria for analysis. These studies yielded distinctive themes of body image disturbance: gender, sport type, sport level, and weight status. According to the meta-analyses, the significant medium and small effect sizes found for gender and weight status, respectively, indicated that male athletes had lower BID than females and that, among the latter, normal-weight athletes had a higher BID than underweight ones (Zaccagni & Gualdi-Russo, 2023). Collegiate female athletes, particularly lean sport athletes, experience a greater risk for disordered eating than non-athletes (Smolak et al. 2000). Other related findings include:
- Female athletes are far more at risk for eating disorders than male athletes.
- The common belief that body fat and weight reduction will enhance athletic performance.
- Particular body shapes and sizes have come to characterize certain sports to the point of stereotyping.
- There is a fine line dividing desired athletic traits and disordered behaviors such as excessive exercising and anabolic-steroid use.
- Sports focused on excessively lean bodies for aesthetic display or for competitive advantage are subject are more vulnerable to disordered eating (Rudd & Carter, 2006).
There are several personality traits present in female college athletes that relate to body image disturbance especially eating disorders, but the primary one is level of self-esteem as compared with perfectionism, optimism, reasons for exercise, and appearance orientation (Petrie et al., 2009). Self-esteem and disordered eating are inversely related. Another decisive factor is a woman’s ability to self-regulate her emotional states. Female athletes with poor emotional self-regulation are more susceptible to eating disorders (Shriver, Wollenberg, & Gates, 2016).
Oddly, another survey found that female non-athletes scored higher in disordered eating than female athletes (Petisco-Rodríguez et al., 2020). Meanwhile, another study 1,017 athletes found that sport pressures to engage in disordered eating were less powerful than expected (Stoyel et al., 2020).
Interestingly, and quite puzzling, this is not the case with male college athletes. A survey of 203 subjects reports only 19.2 percent engage in eating disorders. The above variables don’t appear to play a strong role in male decisions as they do in females (Galli et al., 2014). It does appear, however, that body image dissatisfaction in general is a very influential factor in male athlete identity… at least in a study of 156 male athletes in Brazil (Reistenbach-Goltz, Marques-Stenzel, & Dornelles-Schneider, 2013).
In general, body image dissatisfaction in the male usually revolves around perceived lack of muscularity
Group Pressure to Achieve Body Ideals
Social pressures to conform to body size/shape ideals or meet performance goals are influenced by whether or not the person considers his or herself an athlete or not, if the sport is aesthetic or performance-based, and the level of competition (Stoyel et al., 2020).
Athletes who compete alone—bodybuilders and gymnasts, for example—are subject to peer pressures from being compared to other more aesthetically perfect or better performing athletes—and so may experience a combination of body shame, embarrassment, and anxiety as they tend to be their own harshest critics. Athletes are very sensitive to the opinions their own teammates have about their bodies A study of 646 athletes who received critical comments about their weight or body shape were much more vulnerable to anxiety, lowered self-esteem, and disordered eating behaviors (Scott, Haycraft, & Plateu, 2022). Those who are members of sports team often receive criticism and ridicule from their coaches or fellow teammates. In any event, whether it is private or public, body shaming as a source of social sanctioning is a real phenomenon, but it is neither well-known nor well-understood.
Body shaming may be especially prevalent in the aesthetic display sports and may even rise to the level of socially-approved emotional abuse. One small study of eight female national team athletes in aesthetic display sports found that body shaming occurs from three types of emotionally abusive behavior. The first consists of verbal insults, humiliation, and threats. The second type includes physical violence toward objects, constant weigh-ins, and denial of food and water during training. Lastly, there is the denial of attention and support from coaches and peers. Such abuse is considered a normal method in sports to “help” an athlete realizes his or her fullest potential. Body shaming behaviors have very powerful effects because they occur within a social context of group membership, bonding, and loyalty. This can lead to the internalization of social norms that are potentially unhealthy and self-harming (Willson & Kerr, 2023).
Closing Thoughts
The body image status of athletes is not quite as cut-and-dried as we’d like to think. The majority experience positive body image which carries on even after they leave their sport, but because of the pressures of competition—regardless of the competition is aesthetic display or of physical performance—are ever-present. These pressures can take a variety of forms such as achieving new records, scoring more points, and trying to look better than the last competition as well pressures from coaches and fellow team-mates to improve their statistics, “make weight,” and look better. The presence of disordered eating in athletics led the National Athletic Trainers Association to take a position on its detection, prevention, and management in sports (Bonci et al., 2008).
The achieving athlete—and here I mean a person who is driven to win at all costs—trapped in a vicious circle: to win, you need to abuse your body and thereby create serious health problems in the coming future. Disordered eating is just one of several extremely dysfunctional behaviors that may be forced upon athletes to maintain “their edge,” as it were. One wonders if it’s all worth it especially considering that most athletes’ professional careers are quite short. This is especially so in the art form of ballet. There is much to be considered when working with the athletic body. Finally, more research is needed although in the case of the male athletes regarding their competitive drive in conjunction with the needs for power and control in relation to body-related dysfunctional behaviors.
A combination of prevention and intervention strategies might assist athletes in focusing on the benefits to their body image without encouraging restrictive or health-threatening behaviors. Future research should more clearly define comparison groups along with defining training background, its intensity, external pressures experienced, gender, and gender identity.
Paul Shane, Ph.D., LMT
Director, Academic Content
References
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Updated and revised on 05-06-24.