Chew, spit and speak: autoethnography and the eating disorder world

Abstract

This study focuses on the word “responsibility” as it relates to eating disorders, gender, and the entanglement of the two. Using autoethnography, I write and examine stories that may not have been told in research literature, speak to why they may not have been told, and illustrate the benefits of when they are told. Critical qualitative research on men with eating disorders has grown since the 1990s and has increasingly incorporated the use of stories and experiences as data. Yet rarely does such research offer a client-authored response to medical and popular ideologies of a male with an eating disorder. This study does. Through personal client voice and intersecting researcher voice, this thesis explores the history of one male’s experience of not having space to be seen and heard and when seen, is reduced to a stereotype of gender and client. This study also examines the role autoethnography plays in exploring the male experience of having an eating disorder. As result of this exploration, I offer considerations for future research and treatment discourse on diversifying what is visible, heard, and affirmed in the eating disorder landscape.