Paper long abstract:

There is a long tradition of analyzing the female 'anorexic body' in cultural and social space. In particular, feminist theorists Susan Bordo (1993), Elspeth Probyn (1987) and Helen Gremilion (2003) extensively investigate relations between cultural meanings of the anorexic body. However, the male aspect of the anorexic body has so far been overlooked in sociological scholarship. In this paper I propose to analyze the male anorexic body with reference to quantification tools such as SCOFF questionnaire and Eating Attitude Test.

This paper is informed by current research in STS: Bowker and Star's argument on classification systems (Bowker and Star 2000), work on rationalization of medical standardization (Mol 1999, Timmermans and Berg 2003, Berg 1997), and on studies on quality of life measurements (Armstrong and Caldwell 2004).

I will explore the following questions:

How is the anorexic body performed through formal measuring tools such as SCOFF questionnaire and Eating Attitude Test?

How the male anorexic body is produced and differentiated in formal classification systems such as ICD - 10 and DSM V?

Analyzing these medical technologies, I explore the key components which generate the male anorexic body. I argue that medical measurements tools enact the male anorexic body in multiple ways and that male anorexic bodies are made variably in different technologies. I examine the practices of quantification to claim that the male anorexic body is always in the process of being made, despite the apparent and a priori assumed stability and immutability of it by standardized measurement tools, and classification systems.