Reconsidering Obligatory Running and Anorexia Nervosa as Gender-Related Problems of Identity and Role Adjustment

A recent study by Yates, Leehey, and Shisslak (1983) noted the dramatic increase of serious runners in the previous decade, and the authors argued on the basis of their research that serious runners shared important character, adaptive, and background qualities with anorexics. This paper extends and refines the researchers ’ analysis of their findings by examining the possible origins of these obsessions in gender-related problems of identity and role adjustment in American society. Of primary interest are why, when, and how such obsessions develop and what they mean in relation to gender, achievement, and success in America. When a study by Yates, Leehey, and Shisslak comparing serious distance runners to anorexics appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1983, it received immediate and widespread attention from the American mass media. The authors proposed tha