Gay men experience eatg disorrs and body dysmorphia more than any other populatn except for heterosexual women. Learn more about why this post.
Contents:
- GAY MEN AND BODY IMAGE: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- PHYSIL, BEHAVRAL, AND PSYCHOLOGIL TRAS OF GAY MEN INTIFYG AS BEARS
- LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR HEALTH
- WHAT ARE THE GOOD CHARACTERISTICS OF A GAY PERSON?
- GAY MALE ATTRACTN TOWARD MCULAR MEN: DO MATG NTEXT MATTER?
GAY MEN AND BODY IMAGE: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
* gay physical characteristics *
To help unrstand the lk between gay culture and negative body image, eatg disorrs and body dysmorphia, we spoke to Carl Hovey, a psychologist and rearcher at the Soho and Fidi lotns of the Gay Therapy Center New York.
He terviewed a llectn of gay men New York Cy, askg open end qutns like, “Can you talk to me a ltle about how you experience your body, both now and the past? But what Carl found, was that the level of acceptance gay men found wh their muny was sentially lked to the acceptance they felt wh their own body.
PHYSIL, BEHAVRAL, AND PSYCHOLOGIL TRAS OF GAY MEN INTIFYG AS BEARS
Myth: Lbian, gay and bisexual people n be intified by certa mannerisms or physil characteristics. People who are lbian, gay or bisexual e as many different shap, lors and siz as do people who are heterosexual. * gay physical characteristics *
“One of the more surprisg elements that me out of the rearch is how often experienc of the body–more specifilly, whether or not an dividual felt his body was acceptable or unacceptable the marketplace of gay culture—was related to a feelg of cln or excln wh that culture, ” Carl said. And wh so much of gay culture revolvg around sire, rather than some sort of cultural herage, gay men have found themselv a posn where they feel like they have to embody that sire–or else they won’t have a place wh the culture and muny. There is an unspoken expectatn wh gay culture: you mt be sirable at all tim, or else you won’t f to the cultural spac rerved for gay men.
Carl went on to expla how this is te, not only for isolatg gay men om the larger queer muny, but actually om their own inty. People even talked about feelg alienated om themselv, as though if their body didn’t f a certa script, they weren’t even sure who they were as gay men. Author mancript; available PMC 2017 May 24.Published fal eded form as:PMCID: PMC5442596NIHMSID: NIHMS860386AbstractThe Bear muny exists as a subculture reactn to the larger gay muny.
While qualative data document such self-intifiers as mascule-actg gay men who weigh more and have more body hair, there has to date been no quantative analysis of this group’s characteristics. In rponse, we nducted two large-sle studi of gay men intifyg as Bears (n = 469) to survey their self-reported physil, behavral, and psychologil tras. Bears were more likely than mastream gay men to enact diverse sexual behavrs (e.g., fistg, voyrism) and were paratively more mascule.
LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR HEALTH
Future analys of the muny’s health are warranted.Keywords: Bears, Gay Culture, Gay and Bisexual Men, Self-teem, Masculy, ObyINTRODUCTIONThe gay muny is ultimately a heterogeneo one wh many subgroups and subcultur—one of the monali among them beg the sire to have same-sex enunters. They nsir “real” masculy to clu havg fort wh other men’s bodi and chew the more normative gay male body-mol (i.e., one which thns, youth, hairlsns, and mculary are revered) (Dmmond, 2005; Dunn, 2007). Bee there is a arth of general rearch regardg this muny, and no studi to date that e quantative methods, we cid to explore this muny quantatively—g an Inter-nvenience sample, followed by a purposive sample.As suggted, the Bear culture exhibs and valu a greater sense of domant (but not necsarily domeerg) “thentic masculy” parison to other subcultur wh the gay muny (e.g., twks or drag queens) (Hennen, 2005).
WHAT ARE THE GOOD CHARACTERISTICS OF A GAY PERSON?
Though ostensible siari and overlappg tras exist between Bears and other gay male subcultur (e.g., the Leathermen), rearch dit that their exprsns of masculy, tolerance of behavrs, and valu may be unique (Wright, 1997).
In rponse and ntrast wh Leathermen, Bears mata their mascule inty whout adoptg negative hypermascule tennci to acmodate all partners, spe their size or body hairs.There is some theoretil support for why the Bear inty spltered om the gay male mastream culture. The classic example of this is Ain Amerins adoptg “Black is betiful.” Bears may do somethg siar by alterg the meang of their heavier, shorter, and hairier physiqu, relative to mastream gays.
That is, to ntradict “superordate” gay male subcultur (e.g., twks, partyboys, A-listers) that are anthetil to, and even antagonistic towards Bears, men who are hairier and heavier exist and adopt an inty to afont the stereotypil “alpha” gay male. Th, beg “gged,” “natural,” and “mascule” are revented by this muny through creased weight, hairs, and difference to fashn (Hennen, 2005).Popular culture, the media, and Wtern hetero- and homosexual expectatns have normalized the ial male body as one that is lean, mcular, and v-shaped (wh broad shoulrs, a narrow waist, and a flat but well-fed stomach) (Olivardia, Pope, Borowiecki, & Cohane, 2000).
GAY MALE ATTRACTN TOWARD MCULAR MEN: DO MATG NTEXT MATTER?
It even has been noted that, as a rult of the extreme importance placed on body image, physlogil (e.g., anorexia/bulimia) and psychologil pathologi (e.g., poor self-image/self-teem) velop both heterosexual and homosexual men exhibg ls sirable physil tras (Beren, Hayn, Wilfley, & Grilo, 1996; Morrison, Morrison, & Sager, 2004; Pepl et al., 2009; Weer, 2009; Yelland & Tiggemann, 2003). However, where mastream gay men report wantg partners wh those prevly stated, admired or revered characteristics (Moskowz, Rieger, & Seal, 2009), Bears may not (Manley et al., 2007). Whereas mastream gay men often do not engage sired or preferred sexual behavrs bee of fears of rejectn or judgment (Kamski, Chapman, Hayn, & Own, 2004), those the more acceptg Bear muny reject the fears due to their beg ultimately “feme” nature (Hennen, 2005).