Liftg the gay gym stereotype - Pri Source

Contents:

• GAY MEN’S “GYM GOALS” ARE OFTEN DIETS DISGUISE
• LIFTG THE GAY GYM STEREOTYPE
• THREAD: BEG A GAY WEIGHT LIFTER.
• IF YOU’RE A GAY MAN, YOU’RE PROBABLY GOG ABOUT WEIGHT LOSS ALL WRONG
• RUDY GAY
• GAY FAT

GAY MEN’S “GYM GOALS” ARE OFTEN DIETS DISGUISE

LGBTQ, which stands for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and qutng, as the acronym suggts, is a large mory group the Uned Stat that also clus groups such as transexual, queer, tersex, asexual, and pansexual. Sadly, ternalized homophobia is a risk factor for bge-eatg as well and may be pound wh high-risk sexual activy and substance abe.

Disorred eatg is not unique to women who intify as lbian and bisexual, but is also found bisexual and gay-intifyg men, wh those beg between the ag of 18-29 beg the most at risk. 7 Gay men are likely to e rogatory verbiage like “gayfer” for “gay-heffer” or “gay fat” for an dividual that is wh normal weight parameters but whout chiseled abs or a mcular build.

In one study, “gay and bisexual boys reported beg signifintly more likely to have fasted, vomed, or taken laxativ or diet pills to ntrol their weight the last 30 days. Gay Mal were 7 tim more likely to report bgg and 12 tim more likely to report purgg than heterosexual mal.

LIFTG THE GAY GYM STEREOTYPE

” Gay men are more likely to have body image disturbanc and 42% of men wh eatg disorrs intify as gay. As mentned above, stigma, discrimatn, and ternal homophobia n crease risk of disorred eatg, but studi have also shown that dividuals who have a sense of “nnectedns to the gay muny” have a protective effect agast the velopment of eatg disorrs. It is important to regnize the effects of shame, stigma, and ternalized homophobia on the LGBT muny, and how the affects n adversely affect health out the form of disorred eatg and/or unhealthy BMI.

THREAD: BEG A GAY WEIGHT LIFTER.

After I lost some weight durg my teenage years, my fay mostly left me this lumn, I discs culture and polics through a queer lens often absent the mastream to help amplify LGBTQ issu and I me out my early twenti, my body and weight beme a problem a different I expected to be embraced by other gay men, I found anythg but acceptance.

Always an overachiever, I tried, but soon realized was physilly impossible for me to achieve the body idolized gay male culture, at least not whout engagg some highly disorred years, I was on a diet while beg pletely obliv to the fact this is what I was dog.

IF YOU’RE A GAY MAN, YOU’RE PROBABLY GOG ABOUT WEIGHT LOSS ALL WRONG

For some gay men, the gym is a place of terror.

“Mcle Boys: Gay Gym Culture” is a wi-rangg, sightful look at exercise, gay-male style. It roams through history, soclogy, fashn and porn, stoppg to dissect topics like the Inter’s effect on body image, and the difference between gay and straight gyms.

RUDY GAY

Alvarez – a Costa Ri-born, San Francis-raised personal traer – unrstands gay men who work out.

Gettg f raised his self-nfince, and eased his ncerns about beg gay. “Thirty years ago, gay men were not necsarily accepted at the gym, ” Alvarez not. “There was a stereotype that gay men were limp-wristed and ail.

Today, Alvarez says, “beg gay is equated wh fns, athleticism, havg a great body. Acrdg the Alvarez, “average men” make up the largt group of gay gym-goers. Gay athlet – a sub-group whose numbers crease every year – work out to bee stronger, and to rce the chance of jury.

GAY FAT

“But as gay men general beme more health-nsc, the mcle bear beme the bear ial. Their newly fed mculature, says Alvarez, fluenced a generatn of non-posive gay men.

“Gay culture is segmentg between men who work out and those who don’t, ” Alvarez says. In addn, he says, “a lot of people have a problem wh the new ‘gay ial. ’ For gay men who don’t f , this adds one more layer where they feel different om the mastream.