Wow! I don't know how to feel about this. I'm actually quite annoyed. Surely this must be bullshit? I won't paste the entire study as it is over one hundred pages long, but I'll paste the key points. Apparently, scientific findings reveal that the prevalence of Pit Bull ownership in the bodybuilding community is linked to paraphilic disorders. In layman's terms - bodybuilders want to have sex with their dogs.
(
The American Journal of Psychology, vol. 130, no. 2)
AbstractBodybuilding dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a relatively common and disabling psychiatric disorder characterised by excessive and persistent preoccupation with perceived defects or flaws in one's appearance, which are unnoticeable to others, and associated with repetitive, harmful behaviours (e.g. exogenous hormone abuse). The disorder generally starts in adolescence, but often goes unnoticed and is severely underdiagnosed. Left untreated, BDD typically persists and causes marked functional impairment in multiple domains. However, little is known about the link between a pathological preoccupation with muscularity and the predilection for Pit Bull ownership. With the aid of MRI and penile plethysmography, the aim of the present study was to explore the psychological underpinnings of men with BDD who also owned Pit Bull Terriers. To our knowledge, this topic has not previously been examined. We hypothesized that men who had muscle dysmorphia would also have higher rates of Pit Bull ownership and a desire to interact sexually with their pets. Comparisons of demographic characteristics, social and occupational impairment, and measures of psychopathology were made, but differences were not expected.
ParticipantsParticipants were 467 men, all meeting DSM-IV criteria for lifetime BDD, who were also current or former owners of Pit Bull Terriers. All data in this report are from this study’s intake interview. All participants were required to be 21 years or older and available for an in-person interview. Participants were recruited from mental health professionals (46%), advertisements (38%), our program website and brochures (10%), subject friends and relatives (3%), and non-psychiatrist physicians (2%). The study was approved by the hospital Institutional Review Board, and all participants signed statements of informed consent.
ProceduresPenile plethysmography measures minute changes in erectile responses. The procedure involves placing a pressure-sensitive device around a man's penis and presenting him with an array of sexually stimulating images, to determine his level of sexual attraction. Participants in this test were subject to penile plethysmography using a circumferential transducer in order to measure their level of sexual arousal when presented with various images featuring Pit Bull Terriers. In this study, one hundred percent of the sample displayed significant sexual arousal. This was characterised by a marked increase of sexual arousal in response to paraphilic (Pit Bull) stimuli and a significant decrease of sexual arousal in response to nonparaphilic (naked women) stimuli.
Infrared thermographic and functional magnetic resonance imaging were also used to measure sexual arousal. Participants viewed documentary and movie clips featuring Pit Bull Terriers while genital temperature was continuously measured using infrared thermal imaging. Participants also continuously evaluated changes in their subjective arousal and answered discrete questions about liking the movies and wanting sexual stimulation. Brain activity, indicated by blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response, was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging. BOLD activity in a number of brain regions was correlated with changes in genital temperature in participants. Activation appeared to be surprisingly extensive, including the anterior and posterior cingulate cortex, right cerebellum, insula, frontal operculum, and paracingulate gyrus. Examination of the strength of the correlation between BOLD response and genital temperature showed that participants had a stronger brain-genital relation compared with other men in a number of regions.
ConclusionsPit Bull owners with muscle dysmorphia had poorer scores than comparison men on all quality-of-life measures, with two of four measures (the Q-LES-Q and SF-36 Mental Health subscale) reaching statistical significance, with large effect sizes. Pit Bull owners with muscle dysmorphia were also significantly more likely to form sexual relationships with their non-human companions. As hypothesized, men with muscle dysmorphia were significantly more likely to have abused anabolic-androgenic steroids - but unexpectedly, we found that they also exhibited a significantly higher lifetime prevalence of substance use disorders. Also as predicted, Pit Bull ownership in the bodybuilding community is evidently a form of paraphilia - a condition in which a person's sexual arousal and gratification depend on fantasising about and engaging in sexual behavior that is atypical and extreme. Other factors, such as abnormalities in male sexual hormones or the brain chemical serotonin, have not been conclusively proven as factors in the development of paraphilias, though it has been suggested that the use of exogenous hormones may exacerbate their development.
Evidence suggests that the causes of Pit Bull paraphilia are linked to feelings of shame over perceived appearance flaws, and a desire to mask effeminate mannerisms by projecting hypermasculine traits such as physical strength and aggression. The Pit Bull Terrier - an exemplar of such traits - therefore generates a strong sexual response from individuals suffering from BDD, causing them to inadvertently drop their outward persona and fall back into their natural, “feminine” role of caregiver.
