ABSTRACT
Building on earlier discussions of masculinity and eating disorders, this chapter focuses on sport and sexuality as powerful sites where ideas of often stereotypical masculinity are taught, enforced, and sometimes resisted. Drawing on personal narratives, clinical studies, and cultural theory, it explores how these spaces shape boys’ and men’s relationships with food, exercise, and their bodies. Often framed as healthy or normal, behaviours linked to discipline, strength, and control can hide – and give rise to – serious distress. The chapter highlights both the risks and possibilities within these cultural settings, showing how sport and sexuality can also support recovery, connection, and rethinking what it means to be a man.
