More than physical: The impact of gay male body image on health,
More than physical: The impact of gay male body image on health, identity, and porn
Athletic, fit, young, white, with six- or eight-pack abs.
Did that catch your attention?
It should, apparently, if you're gay. It's the description of what the most common image is of in visual media that target gay men, according to University of Toronto social work assistant professor David Brennan.
As the keynote speaker at the eight annual BC Gay Men's Health Summit at SFU Harbour Centre on November 1, Brennan questioned why these images are so consistently portrayed.
Brennan's work focuses on health and wellbeing of marginalized queer men and men who have sex with men and he gave a comprehensive overview of research about gay and bisexual men and body image. He was particularly interested in looking at the connection between health and body image and if gay visual media portray images that exclude people.
The good news
First up, there are some encouraging findings.
Brennan noted that studies have shown that gay men tend to take better care of their bodies than straight men do.
"When you look at population-based data sets across the globe—there aren't a lot—but almost completely consistently, gay men tend to have better BMI levels and less fat than straight men," he said. "In general, gay men tend to have healthier bodies."
Brennan also noted that rates of obesity or being overweight didn't rise in gay and bisexual male populations in spite of marked increases in the general population during the same time period.
Beyond the body
But appearances alone, as we all know, aren't the whole story.
Brennan noted that research has verified that both gay and straight men who view and purchase muscle and fitness magazines tend to have higher levels of body dissatisfaction. For gay men, he said this correlated with "social physique anxiety, which basically means feeling uncomfortable about your body in public, in a social situation."
Brennan analyzed data collected from 400 men at Toronto Pride. He found body dissatisfaction was linked not only to mental and sexual risk, but also, interestingly, to identity issues.
"Essentially we were looking at a drive for muscularity," he said. "The notion behind that is the desire to be more muscular either through behaviour, of drinking protein shakes, working with a trainer, et cetera, et cetera, or through beliefs, about 'I wish my legs were bigger', 'I wish my chest was bigger', et cetera, et cetera. This drive for muscularity was associated with being younger, with an increased risk for disordered eating, an increased risk in depression, sexual risk, and also an increase in internalized homonegativity. So a desire to be more muscular being associated with a desire or a discomfort, a higher level of discomfort, with your sexual-orientation identity."
He also cited a New York study that found that the desired body type differed depending on what gay men were looking for in a partner.
"They found that gay men rated lean and muscular men in the context of a short-term relationship as more attractive than for a long-term relationship," he said. "Those who had lower body fat themselves were much more discriminating in relationship to body fat and muscularity. So those who are fit and thin might be a little more discriminating about who they are going to date in any context."
Racial identity
With the majority of North American media images being of Caucasian men, Brennan and his colleagues also took a look at the relationship between racial identity and body image.
Brennan's research team conducted focus groups and an online survey with four communities: East/Southeast Asian, black/Caribbean/African, Hispanic/Latino/Brazilian, and South Asian. (He said these groups were chosen based on census numbers; aboriginal men were not included due to low population numbers and a lack of expertise on research team.)
He cited several quotes from participants, including one that became a title in the report: "You never see yourself reflected anywhere". Consequently, Brennan asked, "How do you think of yourself as hot if you never see an image that looks like you?"
He noted the numerous issues that men of these communities have to face, including how they are regarded by others both outside their communities, such as being fetishized or not conforming to racial stereotypes, and within their communities, such as judgment of interracial relationships or aversion to dating someone from their own culture due to internalized racism.
"There seems to be an experience of either being completely invisible, as a racialized person, or being completely fetishized. So the only thing you're viewed as is your race."
The power of porn
Brennan cited a Canadian study, which looked at whether exposure to pornography impacted the body, sexual, and genital self-esteem of male college students. The study found that increased amounts of watching porn correlated with lowered self-esteem.
"The more they watched porn, the more they felt less comfortable with their dick and less comfortable with the type of sex that they were having, and their capacity to have different types of sex."
For many gay men, porn was also used as a source for sex education, such as learning sexual techniques.
"The only concern I have about that is that it's film," Brennan cautioned. "It's edited, it's cut. What happens before, after, and in between takes is not there. That may change a little bit with the access of amateur porn, where someone just puts the camera on. But usually douching is not part of, for instance, any kind of sexual contact and the imagery might be, 'Oh, it can just happen any moment, any time'…So it's important to think about the impact of that."
He also noted that a New York study of men who had reported in engaging in unprotected anal sex. The study found that those who reported that bareback porn comprised up to three-quarters of their porn-viewing time were more likely to report having unprotected anal intercourse than those who watched up it up to 25 percent of their time.
While he noted that porn has become much more readily available due to the internet, he also has observed that they types of porn images available, such as amateur porn, have changed as well.
"There's now free and amateur websites, I'm wondering if when we're looking at porn that's not done in this expensive, glossy, Hollywood-like context, does it, or will it, or is it changing what we perceive as body images, as healthy, sexy body images?"
However, Brennan lamented the fact that research about gay men and porn is very limited, and he finds it unfortunate "considering the number of hours that gay and bisexual men are viewing porn, [and] the accessibility of porn."
Let's talk
Overall, Brennan emphasized that the desire to see sexy images or a fitness-orientation is not the problem.
"I do not want to pathologize that gay men go to the gym, or workout, or eat well, or take care of themselves, or exercise. That's not the point at all. The issue is when it becomes such pressure that it impacts our health and mental health. That's when I'm concerned."
Brennan said that neither he nor anyone truly knows at what point images begin to negatively impact gay and bisexual men, but is interested in considering ways that this stress can be alleviated.
He also pointed out the need for more discussion on this topic.
"We may want to see sexy images…and we don't have a lot of places where we can talk about these issues as gay and bisexual men because we're okay talking about bodies in that way, but not necessarily about our own bodies and our body image issues.”
By Craig Takeuchi,
http://www.straight.com
By Craig Takeuchi,
http://www.straight.com
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