New research on gay men and body image suggests that gay men may be less self-conscious than they once were.
Vancouver clinical counsellor Andrew Huber studied 144 gay men across Canada and found that immersion in gay culture had no measurable effect on the men’s preoccupation with their own appearance, how they felt about their looks, or how they rated parts of their bodies. The only significant result, in fact, was a slight link between gay culture and self-consciousness about weight. That stands at odds with decade-old research suggesting gay men are much more self-conscious and appearance-focused than their straight counterparts.
“What surprised me is how little the immersion in gay culture correlated to any of the scales,” says Huber, who conducted the study as his master’s thesis at the Adler School of Professional Psychology. “The more immersed you would be, I thought, the more time you would spend on your appearance, wanting to fit in.”
Huber asked his subjects to fill out an online questionnaire about their immersion in gay culture and feelings about their own bodies. Huber expected to find a strong correlation between socializing with other gay men and body anxiety. Research told him that gay men — like most people — engage in “upward social comparison,” weighing themselves against the most attractive members of society. Among gay men, where lean, muscular bodies are celebrated, Huber expected to find more pressure to be attractive, more anxiety about looks, and more focus on physical appearance.
He thinks the unexpected results may suggest a shift in gay culture and a community that is more supportive about body image.
“Given my findings, people may not be getting their sense of self-worth from the gay community,” he says. “I think that now, in 2013, there can be very different standards of attractiveness. Look at the bear community, where someone might look very different from someone who’s part of the twink community, or the jock style.”
Huber’s study also looked at the way self-esteem interacts with body image among gay men. Not surprisingly, good body image was linked to high self-esteem, and body anxiety to low self-esteem. Contrary to Huber’s predictions, however, self-esteem did nothing to change the slight relationship between involvement in the gay community and concern about body weight. In other words, gay men feel slightly more self-conscious about their weight the more they are surrounded by gay men — whether they have low self-esteem or not.
“That was a surprise as well,” Huber says. “To me that shows the complexity of [the gay community].”
He thinks self-esteem and body image do not interact because gay men are becoming more supportive of each other.
He also credits the shift in mainstream culture over the last decade, in which gay men appear more in media and are accepted more by mainstream culture. As a result, they worry less about appearances, he suggests.
“We’re starting to see that being gay is more than just being a hairdresser or going to the gym all the time,” Huber says. “It’s branching out to being a normal person.”
While Huber is confident in the accuracy of his research, he says it is only a small part of the puzzle. His study did not ask participants about their actual weight, nor about muscularity, a body concern for many gay men. He says there is a lot more work to be done.
“The main conclusion of my study is that the gay community is complex,” he says. “More complex than we may have originally thought, especially with the shifting times. The cultural standard of attractiveness within the gay community may not be what it once was.”
Sure! Now try doing the same study in WeHo and see how it turns out!
I just wanted to see the guys. Think image issues are dead or not as prevalent? Scan Craigslist!!! Sounds like Veruca (sp) Salt in Willy Wonka! I want a pretty boy/jock/in shape…etc guy NOW Daddy! It might be changing, but there’s still rampant vanity in this community!!! Hell, tons of guys here as just as picky!
I’m going elaborate further. Before I go on vacation to the usual spot-a casino north of here-I beat myself up for weeks! The gym has a quaint steam room/sauna. I’ve had some fun over the years. But I’ve skipped meals, gone for long walks, ridden the stationary gym hard, taken laxatives, drank shakes to avoid eating. While there I’ll even tighten my abs and practice holding them in. And go for hours without eating much. And the whole trip I wonder if I can get a bite or two. I scan Craigslist but too many fussy types and Squirt is useless for the area. But my point is, I’ve felt the shun because I’m not Brad Pitt or Henry Cavill. And since I’ve have your attention, I’m going to be blunt. I’ve gone through emotional roll coasters prior and while being there. Even to the point of tears. I’m not some 20-something Twink either. It’s bad enough I’m a grower and I try everything to hang just a bit better to get attention if I see a possible opening. But then throw in the body image bullshit, it’s a mind-fuck!!! The place isn’t majorly busy but once in awhile I get lucky. And very, very rarely a hunk/jock comes in and I just back way off unless they were to cruise me I just try to catch glimpses. My point sharing isn’t for pity but to illustrate a point. And the best thing I take away, those I have hooked up with always remark how hard/how much I cum. I do try monitoring the weight and have gotten better of late. As an aside, going there for the 4th…we shall see……
LOL I did not study statistics, during my undergrad, but i know the sample size for the is way too small to consider it a plausible answer
way to small a sample and how can he conclude there is a small relationship between weight and immersion in the gay community when he didn’t ask questions about weight?
im sure breeders have the same issues, however, gay and vanity are still synonymous and cliché……no worries!
Hmmm.. even the photographs used are pretty much stereotypical for this kind of stuff. Try being short, fat and ethnically diverse.. then you’ll see just what the “cultural standard of attractiveness in the gay community” really means and just how “inclusive” the gay community really can be.. yeeesh.
sicilianmikey–feel good about yourself and show that you do–exude confidence–and you will be noticed!
Where do you start with this shallow, poorly crafted study that lacks any academic depth. There are so many flaws in its approach to an interesting subject that it’s just sad. Most master and doctorate students labor for a couple of years to produce their thesis. Mr. Huber was still advertising on the net this past December for candidates for his telephone survey to base this paper on. I’m sure he must have spent several weekends refining his data before his presentation. Not only is it statistically poor as two other members pointed out, but even he mentions his glaring omissions. Some of his conclusions are just insulting. He says: “We’re starting to see that being gay is more than just being a hairdresser or going to the gym all the time”. Since you are going to rely on old, bad stereotypes for your baseline assumption of what gays are, you might as well throw in having a lisp and limp wrists as well to complete your caricature. He then goes on to say that we are ” branching out to being a NORMAL PERSON” (my emphasis). Oh good, the freaks and mutants are evolving into “normal” people…there’s hope for us yet! I think we found a new speech writer for the rabid fundamentalists. Then he reasons that the gay community is more complex than he thought. Wait till he finds out for his doctorate thesis that gays have actual talents beyond staring in the mirror and are leaders in many fields.
What could have been an interesting study is just crap. He is a now a graduate of the Adler School of Professional Psychology… that’s frightening. It’s interesting to note that the respected U.S.News annual ranking of the top 1000 institutions of higher learning gave this place no ranking at all. Two dozen sites that gather statistics for prospective students could find no info about graduation rates, etc. You’d think Adler would be proud and supply these stats to so many sites…not so. The one site I did find that ranked graduate schools by how their candidates passed their credential exams in psychology, ranked Adler 177 out of a field of 183. Apparently, Adler by independent standards turns out poorly trained students.
The other amazingly poor thing about this study is that XTRA, that bills itself as Canada’s gay and lesbian newspaper, would show such poor standards in publishing this shallow article that stereotypes the gay community. Xtra is published by Pink Triangle which also owns Squirt. Is this what they think of us?
These observations are right on the money. 1) slavehole points out that a study done in Vancouver is not comparable to one done in West Hollywood. 2) sicilianmikey points out that our community is still quite image-conscious and ageist, though this may be changing a little. 3) burningstars points out that a 144-person sample size is hardly statistically relevant.
I too am part of the problem. I am rarely sexually interested in gay men who self-define as “bears”. No man is going to have a heart attack, stroke, or lapse into a diabetic coma while playing in my bed. All these health issues are linked to carrying excess body weight. Obesity (BMI in excess of 30) suggests that a man does not take care of himself and is generally unhealthy. And I am not at all inclined to lift a huge belly to go looking for a dick of any size.
I first look for body hair — love it (my fetish). I then look at proportions — height and weight proportionate (H&WP) is next on the list.
Still, in my experience the most popular guys seem to be: 1) the well-hung, 2) the young, and 3) the body-builders. Because of AIDS, the skinny are presumed to be sick (though in my recent experience, it has been the overweight among my acquaintance who have been succumbing to their infection). And the over fifty are rarely seen “out”. If the 50+ aren’t rich, well-hung, or body-builders, our older citizens are invisible to the rest of our community.
Cliches, but they endure. My perspective.
These guys lokk ok but the show was nothing, please give some action and enough photos to get our teeth into.
IT seems that this study dose not take in the whole gay world. here in Florida the men try to look their best and go out of the way to keep in shape. they groom their bodies to be in shape and look good to their fellow gay men.
cool
haaaahaaahaa!! Since when!! Then why are we so worried about the men’s looks. We keep bitching about the tattoos, the body hair, hairdos, the fashions, etc. etc.. This is so ridiculous!!
In my younger years–coming of age in the late ’70s/early ’80s and saw all the various “gay scenes” out there—-even though you had a variety that ranged from “The Savannah pretty boys”—a good number in that town and the queens there—then later down in Key West where I got stationed in the service—-down there you had “the pretty beach boys” for lack of a better characterization, then in the San Fran area—-I saw the hard core “leather men” among the other gay “scenes” there—it all put me off—because even though I was a pretty cute young guy–I didn’t really feel I was so attractive—-at last not enough to rate much had I decided to “go gay” then—it was hard enough to feel that way navigating the “straight” dating and social scenes.
I really felt myself to be an “OK” looking guy—but nothing at all special or surely not in any way “HOT”—so I just tried to stick with dating women–getting “lucky” every so often—-but feeling that there was no place for a “normal guy” to fit in anyplace in the “gay world”—I totally put it out of my mind that I could find any place in it.
I do hope that gay males have gotten over what I thought was their superficiality regarding what other guys “had to look like.” It seemed like a pretty damn hard and mostly impossible bar to get even up to–let alone get over to be considered worthy of not only sex–but even love.
Now–its kind of interesting–as an early 50s guy—who is too heavy and all–I find all kinds of guys like the way I look and not just guys of my age and body type—hell–I have hot young guys who say I look good and have gotten with a few of them—even though I really do prefer for reasons other than looks and such–to remain getting with guys in my relative age range—I really do wish that I could have found a place in “the gay world” for those of us guys who fit into the category of “average” when it comes to looks and such in the gay community–but I just felt there was no place for guys like me back then.
I have to add–that today–I am “fat” these days but back then—I was young, slim and trim, but yet—I felt I lacked the requisite physical attractiveness necessary to “have any luck” back then.
As to what I looked like back then—-go to the next set of pics—I looked very much like this guy—maybe my cock was a bit smaller than his–but my general body shape and even face looked like what he does—I was perhaps a bit more muscular than he—-I did things when young like wrestle, throw shot put and disk in track, was a defensive player in football and did lift weights—actually–I think I was hard on myself back then–and surely suffered from a lack of self-esteem I have to admit–and when I see pictures of myself from those days—I really was a pretty attractive young man–but thanks to what the images of what even male perfection was supposed to be thanks to both the mainstream, “straight” mass media and what I saw in the gay porn mags and films—I felt inferior and “didn’t measure up.”
Such is the way we are when we are young, we are so much lead by the crap “the cultural gate keepers” tell us. It took a lot of work to get past that shit.
It’s a wonder that more people who feel they don’t measure up to society’s standards, don’t all blast their brains out—but it sure does explain lots of self-destructive behavior like too much boozing, drugging and what not.
There is beauty in most people, you just have to find it. If you can’t you might want to look elsewhere. Lots of different men look attractive to me now that I may not have considered when I was younger. Maybe our acceptance is learned or our minds expand, who knows.