SEU Graduate Navigates Dysmorphia as a Female Bodybuilder

Morristown, N.J. (March 15, 2022) -“I started seeing my body the way a judge would whenever I looked in the mirror,” says Yessine Griffin, ‘21. “I imagined them noticing that my shoulders were too wide and that my waist wasn’t small enough.”

As a competitive bodybuilder on a national level, Yessine was used to judges being critical of her physique. Each competition, she would walk on stage, conduct her poses in the most flattering manner and prepare for the judgments about her presentation. Everything from the symmetry of her figure and the fit of her swimsuit to the muscular nature of her frame and the health of her body was analyzed. While Yessine expected to be judged on her body in those moments, she never anticipated the lasting effects it would have on her mental health.

“I noticed that I was struggling with my perception of my body and I had to take a step back to assess how the culture of body building was impacting me,” says Yessine. “I began realizing that many of the women who competed with me drastically altered their diet, took medications that should be prescribed for medical use only to play with their hormones and used steroids to be ranked higher in competitions.”

Already enrolled in SEU’s master’s in counseling psychology program, Yessine’s education enabled her to recognize these harmful effects of self-objectification within this community. After graduating, Yessine continued her studies by pursuing her doctorate in psychology at SEU and using her dissertation to examine the relationship between self-objectification and muscle dysmorphia among female bodybuilders and recreational lifters. “I have a one-year-old and a two-year-old and, even as small as they are, I see how much they look up to me and mimic everything I do,” says Yessine. “That’s why body acceptance is so important. Your body houses your organs and helps you get around, we need to start framing our thoughts about our bodies differently.”