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A ‘Girls’ Illness?’ Using Narratives of Eating Disorders in Men and Boys in Healthcare Education and Research

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Arts Based Health Care Research: A Multidisciplinary Perspective

Abstract

This chapter addresses how arts-based approaches can advance healthcare training, therapy and research in the field of eating disorders. It brings to the forefront the under-researched and under-represented topic of eating disorders in men and boys. Introducing three different sets of material, it proposes to use personal narratives of lived experience by men to consider that males get this perceived ‘female’ illness too, and to reflect more generally upon questions of gender and illness in healthcare. Two sections introduce literary material as a means to promote greater understanding of the topic. The sections present ‘close readings’ that address how men articulate their experiences of living with an eating disorder; their problems in help-seeking; family dynamics; and the topic of a personal ‘eating disorder voice’. A third ‘close reading’ opens the discussion by including narratives that use visual means, and it introduces a book that combines written personal stories with photographs, collages and drawings. Throughout, the chapter provides theoretical underpinnings of the topic interspersed with concrete suggestions of how to work with these narratives by men in healthcare training and therapy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For an international overview with particular focus on women’s writing see Jordan and Still [24], and Bagley et al. [25].

  2. 2.

    The book was used successfully to start the conversation about eating disorders and poor mental health in boys in a workshop with a mixed group of 20 students from year 10 [40] as part of the ‘Hungry for Words’ project led by Bartel ([40]).

  3. 3.

    The terms ‘male’ and ‘men’ also include those identifying as male.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Heike Bartel

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  1. Heike Bartel
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Correspondence to Heike Bartel .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Leicester School of Nursing and Midwifery, Institute of Applied Health Sciences, De Montfort University, Leicester, Leicestershire, UK

    Kathryn Hinsliff-Smith

  2. Health Sciences School, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK

    Julie McGarry

  3. Leicester School of Nursing and Midwifery, Institute of Applied Health Sciences, De Montfort University, Leicester, Leicestershire, UK

    Parveen Ali

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Bartel, H. (2022). A ‘Girls’ Illness?’ Using Narratives of Eating Disorders in Men and Boys in Healthcare Education and Research. In: Hinsliff-Smith, K., McGarry, J., Ali, P. (eds) Arts Based Health Care Research: A Multidisciplinary Perspective. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94423-0_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94423-0_6

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-94422-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-94423-0

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