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Paper short abstract

This paper shows healthy eating practices, exercising and muscle building as situations that indicate a possible risk. I thus claim that clinicians’ interpretations of ‘clean’ eating and muscle building signs of disorder could be a part of more situated, processual and creative approach to care.

Paper long abstract

Male eating disorders are increasingly recognised as a significant public health issue globally. In this paper, I will examine clinicians’ accounts to explore how male bodies, particularly those involved in practices such as ‘clean’ and healthy eating, exercise, and muscle building, are enacted as ‘disordered’ while investigating how eating choices that are often admired or seen as ‘healthy’ can, in specific clinical contexts, be reframed as problematic. I show how clinicians problematise healthy eating practices, exercising and muscle building as situations that indicate a possible risk. I thus claim that clinicians’ interpretations of ‘clean’ eating and muscle building signs of disorder are part of more situated, processual and creative approach to care. Thus, I show that the exercising, ‘clean’ eating and muscly bodies accentuate and uncover tensions and splits in the architecture of health care practices regarding the disordered body. Consequently, by unpacking how the disordered male bodies become as such in clinical encounters, this paper concludes that health care delivery for male eating disorders could benefit from greater flexibility while asking whether there is room for a different diagnostic standard in terms of a more relational approach to care.