Physil, Behavral, and Psychologil Tras of Gay Men Intifyg as Bears - PMC

Contents:

• HOW TO LOOK GREAT AS A GAY MAN
• WHAT DO GAY LOOK LIKE? SCIENCE IS WORKG ON
• HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY
• A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN
• AM I GAY?
• PHYSIL, BEHAVRAL, AND PSYCHOLOGIL TRAS OF GAY MEN INTIFYG AS BEARS
• THIS IS WHAT GAY MEN AMERI REALLY LOOK LIKE
• HOW TO GET A MAN (FOR GAY MEN)
• ROW OVER AI THAT 'INTIFI GAY FAC'
• WHAT DO GAY LOOK LIKE? SCIENCE KEEPS TRYG TO FIGURE THAT OUT
• HOW TO BE BETIFUL (FOR GAY MEN)
• GAY STEREOTYP: ARE THEY TE?

HOW TO LOOK GREAT AS A GAY MAN

Whout beg aware of , most people n accurately intify gay men by face aloneAlthough I've always wanted this particular superhuman power, I've never been very good at tectg other men's sexual orientatn.

In an ial experiment, rearchers Nicholas Rule and Nali Ambady om Tufts Universy pesed onle datg s and refully selected 45 straight male fac and 45 gay male fac. The 90 fac were then shown to 90 participants random orr, who were asked simply to judge the target's "probable sexual orientatn" (gay or straight) by prsg a button. "Th, " the thors wrote, "by g photos of gay and straight dividuals that they themselv did not post, we were able to remove the fluence of self-prentatn and much of the potential selectn bias that may be prent photos om personal advertisements.

And even wh the more strgent ntrols, the participants were able to intify the gay fac at levels greater than chance—aga even on those trials where the fac were flickered on the screen for a mere 50 lisends. For example, when shown only the eye regn ("whout brows and cropped to the outer nthi so that not even "crow's-feet" were visible"), perceivers were amazgly still able to accurately intify a man as beg gay.

WHAT DO GAY LOOK LIKE? SCIENCE IS WORKG ON

I was cur enough about Rule's fdgs to look up "gay face" the Urban Dictnary, a popular Web se that offers rmal, er-ntributed fns of everyday (often crass) saygs. "A man, ually homosexual, wh a distctly effete facial stcture wh some very specific featur; a strong jawle [sic] that lacks promence, space between the ey that rell people wh down syndrome [sic], and a slopg, long forehead.

Now, that one's rather silly and sensatnalized—even polilly spect—and there's certaly no scientific evince support of the claims about the "mongoloid" featur of homosexual men's fac. For example, the send experiment, participants uld still ferret out the gay face when shown the eye regn sans eyebrows and cropped to the outer nthi. It was only a few years ago that rearchers disvered that, unlike straight men, gay men tend to have hair whorl patterns that n a unterclockwise directn.

John McCa dropped by “Saturday Night Live, ” drawg lghs om his promise, if elected print, to fight expensive feral projects -- such as, he spoofed, a Department of Defense vice to “jam gaydar.

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY

But some scientists are, a way, workg on gaydar, the supposed abily to discern whether a person is homosexual by readg subtle cu om their appearance.

A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN

Some born tras might be expected if homosexualy is -- as most scientists believe -- rooted blogy, and they might provi clu about the blogil origs of sexual orientatn.

(A lk between male homosexualy and fger lengths isn’t holdg up, and a claim that gays have distctive fgerprt ridge patterns is largely discreded. Study after study -- cludg one of 87, 000 Brish men published last year -- has found that gay men have more olr brothers than straight men do.

AM I GAY?

Lbians don’t show such numbers: Each olr brother will crease a man’s chanc of beg gay by 33%, says Ray Blanchard of the Universy of Toronto, an expert on the “big-brother effect. Acrdgly, you’d expect the percentage of gay men a society to vary pendg on mographic differenc fay size: One study lculated that a one-child-per-fay law would rce male homosexualy by about 29% om current levels.

PHYSIL, BEHAVRAL, AND PSYCHOLOGIL TRAS OF GAY MEN INTIFYG AS BEARS

The hand you e to sign your name might have somethg to do wh what genr you are drawn numbers: More lefti -- or at least more somewhat-ambixtro folks -- crop up the gay populatn than among straight people, several studi have shown. An analysis of more than 23, 000 men and women om North Ameri and Europe 2000 found that beg non-right-hand seems to crease a man’s chanc of beg gay by about 34%, and a woman’s by about might mean: One gus is that different-than-normal levels of ttosterone the womb -- wily theorized to play a role termg eventual sexual orientatn -- uld nudge a fet toward bra anizatn that favors left-handns as well as same-sex attractn. This might reflect your sexual numbers: A 2004 study of nearly 500 men -- 272 on Delaware’s Rehoboth Beach, popular wh gay men, 200 on a beach whout that reputatn -- found that hair on the heads of men on the gay beach was 3.

If exposure to ttosterone the womb fluenc sexual orientatn, scientists reckon that straight and gay people would differ body parts strongly affected by ttosterone, such as the numbers: Anthony Bogaert of Brock Universy Ontar and his lleagu re-analyzed data on 5, 000 gay and straight men om sexologist Aled Ksey’s famo fil, llected om the 1930s to the 1960s. However, the next ontier this kd of rearch seems to lie elsewhere -- wh subtle differenc how gay and straight bras navigate new ci, rpond to erotic movi and react to the scent of sweat and ure.

That means, for example, that you n be transgenr but also straight (for stance, you might intify as a woman and feel attracted to men) or gay (e. If you have had romantic experienc or fantasi volvg people who are the same genr as you, then there is a good chance you are gay or bisexual, but 's okay if you're a ltle nfed.

THIS IS WHAT GAY MEN AMERI REALLY LOOK LIKE

They may not be very faiar to the world at large, but they are certaly faiar to the brothers butt say that each gay person belongs to one of the typ is a b ceptive. Wild, ornery, and still gettg over their g out issu, the twk is the gay gone wild, and is ba to olr men who are to tryg to suck off their youthful energy. Celebry Example: This is such a specific type don't really exists the world at large, but the Platonic ial of a circu boy is DJ Brett HenrichsenGay-Listers.

HOW TO GET A MAN (FOR GAY MEN)

They ually work advertisg, PR, marketg, or the entertament dtry and make a ton of sh which they e to have perfect apartments, fantastic wardrob, and summer hom near all the other gay-listers.

He drs eher the most current prissy fashns or like a homo versn of Terry Richardson, big glass, flannels, and jeans that looks so thrown together that took him hours to put together. You're more likely to fd them at a gallery openg or mol party, but every so often they'll be at a gay bar to b elbows, and other parts, wh the other homos.

The drag queens are not only the urt jters of the gay muny, drsg up like clowns for our entertament, but they are also a bridge to the straight world.

ROW OVER AI THAT 'INTIFI GAY FAC'

Gay - While this adjective has historilly scribed men who are attracted to other men, the term now is ed to refer to anyone who experienc romantic, emotnal, or physil attractn to people of the same genr.

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.

WHAT DO GAY LOOK LIKE? SCIENCE KEEPS TRYG TO FIGURE THAT OUT

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. 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.

HOW TO BE BETIFUL (FOR GAY MEN)

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 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. 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 is some theoretil support for why the Bear inty spltered om the gay male mastream culture.

GAY STEREOTYP: ARE THEY TE?

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. 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). 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).