Disordered Eating in Sport: Legitimized and Stigmatized

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter describes the disordered eating in sport problem and provides a critical overview of research in the area. It offers specific insights into how cultural practices in elite sport may be implicated.

Approach

In contrast to dominant medical perspectives, disordered eating in sport is discussed as a product of high-performance cultural contexts. The ways that practice commonplace in elite sport might contribute to disordered eating onset and maintenance are described. In turn, I also consider the experiential struggles of athletes with eating disorders and how this relates to dominant discourses in elite sport.

Findings

Elite sport culture, with its emphasis on surveillance, sacrifice, and success, reinforces disordered eating practices. Much of what is conventionally considered disordered eating, can be normalized when situated in the context of high-performance sport. Nevertheless, when functional disordered eating slides into mental illness, the mental toughness ethos works to silence and stigmatize athletes.

Research Implications

Research must broaden its focus to explore how social practices in elite sport normalize disordered eating and how prevention approaches can become more culturally informed and less individually driven.

Citation

Papathomas, A. (2018), "Disordered Eating in Sport: Legitimized and Stigmatized", Sport, Mental Illness, and Sociology (Research in the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 11), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 97-109. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1476-285420180000011007