One gender gap, at least, is narrowing: American men are starting to worry about the size of their butts.
Gallup (“In U.S., Gender Gap in Personal Weight Worries Narrows“):
Although women (55%) are still significantly more likely than men (41%) to worry at least some of the time about their weight, this gender gap has narrowed, as men are much more likely now than in 1990 to worry about their weight. At that time, 21% of men and 46% of women worried at least some of the time about their weight.
Given the small sample size, which yields a margin of error of + or – 6 percent, it’s quite possible that this variation is sheer noise. My suspicion is further compounded by the fact that the female number deviates from the trend, going down for the first time since the question was first polled 22 years ago. The men’s number is more consistent but is still fluctuating within sampling error; the 35 figure from the previous survey actually appears to be something of an outlier.
Regardless, the analysis is somewhat interesting.
Men (40%) and women (42%) are about equally likely to describe themselves as “very” or “somewhat” overweight, which is on par with the percentages of Americans saying they were at least somewhat overweight over the past decade. The majority of Americans say their weight is “about right,” as they have in most of the past 20 years.
Because men and women in the U.S. are about equally as likely to say they are above a normal weight, the higher number of women who worry about their weight is likely the result of societal norms or social pressures about weight and body image that are different for men than for women, or perhaps affect men and women differently.
The more than two in five Americans who personally describe themselves as being overweight in Gallup’s July 9-12 Consumption Habits poll is well below the percentage who are overweight according to BMI calculations.
So, really, the story isn’t so much the gender gap but the reality gap. That is, Americans of both sexes should be much more worried about their weight. (Yes, there are reasons to be skeptical of BMI as the baseline; regardless, there’s no disputing that we’re a nation of fatasses.)
