Running head: GAYMEN AND BODY IMAGE

Community Problem Report: Gay Men and Body Image

The University of Texas and El Paso
Rhetoric and Composition 1311
Roberto Gutierrez
11/3/15

Running head: GAYMEN AND BODY IMAGE

Abstract
Gay men have created a culture of their own out of the vastness of such great adversity
with civil rights movements and overall societal stigma of the community. There is, however, a
negative aspect of this culture, which is the increased sense of forming an ideal body aesthetic.
Although at glance it does not seem like something that is viewed negatively, for many who
experience the strife of achieving, such standards have become the product of drug abuse, steroid
use, eating disorders, and over-exercising. With the issue of this community being the highest
demographic affected by these matters, it is very surprising with so many facts and information
about the subject there are those who are not well informed about it. With minute amounts of
social programs to help those who experience these issues, these ideas will be explored to help
bring awareness and hopefully build programs to gay men who are affected by one or many
ailments involving body image dissatisfaction.

Running head: GAYMEN AND BODY IMAGE

Introduction
The human body was a high admired aspect of ancient Greece, where men competed and
went to achieve the ideal athletic body for natural perfection. This idea is embodied in a different
face today in magazines, television shows, and social networking websites. This has led to a
society that values being attractive and having a particular type of body versus another. Doing
well for oneself to exercise, eat correctly, and have a presentable appearance is healthy for selfesteem and well-being. The internalized pressure to become a particular body image, has made a
negative impact on specific communities, and currently the highest demographic are gay men.
Several issues impact body image for gay men including: eating disorders, steroid use, over
exercise and drug abuse. According to Haggerty (2000), Body-Image problems can result in
lowered self-esteem, isolation, and self abuse or neglect. Symptoms include eating disorders,
steroid abuse and bodily injury, resulting from over exercising (p. 131). His studies strongly
supported this idea. There are few to no programs out there that specify the needs of this
community, because it is a not a very well known issue and affects a small population due to it
being specifically about gay men. How one can make a positive impact is by creating programs,
hiring health experts, and being aware of the people who are close that might be experiencing it
at first hand. This will cover the social cultural aspects, the type of adverse impacts of body
image perfectionism, and the proposal of program solutions to better improve the issue.
Social and Cultural Influences
With gay men, when one is peeking in through a window, anyone could perceive that the
people are lively. They live life to fullest with festivals, parties, advocacy for social movements,
and the feeling of comfort in ones skin is portrayed loudly with the amount of self-expression

Running head: GAYMEN AND BODY IMAGE

that many of the members of this community possess. Even if this community can embody these
aspects, it could be misconstrued when evaluating some of the issues that affect this community.
Though there are many, one of the social and cultural aspects that affect gay men is body image
and the desire for a sense of belonging and finding the ideal mate.
When craving for a sense of belonging, gay men will put themselves through going to
tanning salons, exercising, diets and other forms of aesthetic lengths to become the particular
image that they want to portray. This sense of belonging is driven by an internalized pressure
to become what the expectations are to integrate into certain groups. These cliques made of
people who embody the same characteristics and are considered attractive by a majority. This
mindset transcends like a ripple effect to others who view them because since the group is being
fancied, they too are wishing to become part of the group. This has led to many stressors to do
whatever lengths it takes to be like them. According to Tiggeman (2007), results strongly
support the predictions of Objectification Theory in gay men. In agreement with our hypotheses,
Study 1 demonstrated sexual orientation differences in trait self-objectification,
whereby gay men scored higher on self-objectification than heterosexual men (p. 644). This was
supported further by this study that gay men were found to have more poor self-esteem and sense
of belonging due to the body issues above the demographic of heterosexual men. According to
Kousari-Rad & McLaren (2013), The more gay men felt valued and accepted within the gay
community, the stronger the relation between body image dissatisfaction and low levels of selfesteem (p. 927). This was a replicated study from Tiggeman with Australian gay men, leading to
the same correlated levels of gay men dissatisfaction and sense of belonging. With poor selfesteem, it is perceived difficult to feel a sense of belonging, because people should feel

Running head: GAYMEN AND BODY IMAGE

comfortable with oneself to embody the confidence to develop ideal social relationships with
others.
Regarding looking for a mate with gay men, there are not many rules or regulations, but
for many of the ones who are affected by the importance of features, they will go through
measures to achieve a specified look because it what they would want to obtain for themselves in
a mate. According to Fussner and Smith (2015), There are three distinct domains of the self: the
current self-state, the ideal self-state, and the ought self-state. The current self-state represents
the attributes an individual actually believes he possesses, the ideal self-state represents the
attributes an individual would ideally like to possess, and the ought self-state represents the
attributes an individual believes he should possess due to obligations to another individual (p.
1331). This study has found that gay men concentrate on the ideal versus the ought self. This is
due to the internalized pressure to be like the counterpart or to be the perfect look of the majority.
Men tend to see the many influences of pop culture, television, movies and or magazines. It
impacts how bodies are viewed ideally versus being able to differentiate how it is realistically.
This in turn effects choices that cause harm in relationships, rather than building healthier
relationships.
The Negative Impacts of Body Perfectionism
The internalized social pressures and the desires to become that specific ideal body make
it easy to imagine that there will be many who take these types of ambitions to levels that are of
an extreme nature. With that known, there is a large factor of people who will go to these lengths
to make body perfection a reality. Some will develop a form of eating disorder, and others will
over exercise, use steroids or other drugs to achieve this look. This creates defined adverse
impacts to the body and the mind for those who follow these measures.

Running head: GAYMEN AND BODY IMAGE

Eating disorders have a negative effect, and they form not only a bad diet but they affect
a person psychologically in the equivalence to any other disorder of the mind. This finds the
person dependent on these measures by being bulimic, anorexic or combination to lose weight
fast and achieve the goal. Knowing that a person will often experience jumps in the weight return
will cause more problems in self-esteem within the ability to achieve weight stabilization. This in
terms will create other psychological issues depending on the people and what their motivations
present for these eating disorders. With the weight jumps and low self-esteem, it creates a vicious
cycle of self-loathing.
Steroid and over exercise go hand in hand because they are both utilized and often
figured as the main two that are used to create the ideal body. Steroids often create fast results in
the muscle gain or muscle definition, but the consequence of these types of drugs is in long term
with the destruction of organs, mood swings, increase chances of cancers and heart disease. With
over exercise, the person experiences the same rapid definition and growth but the person
undergoes extreme exhaustion making the motivations to be unrealistic for a long period of
continuous work versus only working out a few months, especially if they have other issues with
eating disorders on top of these circumstances. The negative ramifications of doing such
combinations will indeed reach results fast, but in the end many are viewed as short cut ways to
achieve these bodies without long-term service for the person.
Drugs, besides steroids, making reference to recreational or not, are found to give similar
effects in achieving body goals but could lead to dependency on the drug they are using. Many
drugs are addictive because many people find their unhappiness with an aspect of their life, and
they find themselves being dependent on these to fill a real void with their ambitions falling short
of something. There are of course the exceptions to these cases, with some used to create a form

Running head: GAYMEN AND BODY IMAGE

of thrill or excitement. How this fits into body image is that there are drugs which create a form
of an upper such as Adderall or cocaine that cause heart rate increase and decrease the sense of
appetite. Both drugs cause weight loss that leads to dependency and long term drug use causing
long-term health complications. In the documentary Adonis Factor by Hines (2010), some
scenarios were discussed with a sample of members of the gay community in which they
illustrated steroids use, eating disorders, recreational or prescribed drugs, and over exercise to
achieve their goals to have their place in the gay community. These stories personify the
underlining social pressures that affect them and further strengthen the point of what measures
are taken to be in their ideal body image.
Creating Programs
However, generalized programs for eating disorders, drug rehab, and other psychological
therapy exist. Creating personalized programs specifically for gay men who have issues with
body image and related matters will provide a better chance of being successful with people like
them who are seeking help for the same problems and incorporate similar strategies. The
community will benefit by setting up group meetings with people who experience the same
issues with body image and together will make goals to help cope with the everyday issues with
being body conscious. What would also improve livelihood is by making awareness to the
community about the possible adverse effects of obsession with ones body shape versus creating
healthier bodies. It will be necessary to offer individual counseling that tackles the many issues
that associate with body image and provide a safe space for them to speak to further help with
the cause. Finally, it will be essential not to only stay in the bounds of the community but to also
spread the message to other communities about the importance of a healthy body and realistic
expectations to recreate a culture that transcends that idea.

Running head: GAYMEN AND BODY IMAGE

Conclusion
The concept of gay men and body image has been profound in how serious the problem is
and how it has swept under the radar. Understanding is important to know the cultural aspects,
the adverse impacts of body image perfectionism, and the proposal of program solutions. It will
bring hope to call for the attention of those who are not only affected by this problem but to those
who know of someone who has experienced these issues at first hand. Gay men to this day still
suffer great adversity in other aspects of their daily lives, and to be liberated by one issue is to be
liberated by one less brick laid upon their shoulders in a never ending climb up a hill against the
grain of life. Just like the story of Adonis, even his life was ended, and beauty did not save his
fate, it is no different from all humans who value their beauty above living.

Running head: GAYMEN AND BODY IMAGE

References
Fussner, L. M., & Smith, A. R. (2015). Its not me, Its you: Perceptions of
partner body image
preferences associated with eating disorder symptoms in gay and
heterosexual men.Journal of Homosexuality, 62(10), 1329-1344.
doi:http://0-dx.doi.org.lib.utep.edu/10.1080/00918369.2015.1060053
(p. 1329-1344)
George E. Haggerty (2000). Gay Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia,
Volume 2
19 union square west, New York, NY 1003 Garland publishing inc. (pg
131-132)
Hines, Christopher , Producer & Director (06/19/2010). The Adonis Factor.
United States.
Kousari-Rad, P., & McLaren, S. (2013). The Relationships Between Sense of
Belonging to the
Gay Community, Body Image Dissatisfaction, and Self-Esteem Among
Australian Gay Men. Journal Of Homosexuality, 60(6), 927-943.
doi:10.1080/00918369.2013.774866 (p.927-943)
Martins, Y., Tiggemann, M., & Kirkbride, A. (2007). Those speedos become
them. the role of
self-objectification in gay and heterosexual men's body
image. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(5), 634-647.

Running head: GAYMEN AND BODY IMAGE

doi:http://0 dx.doi.org.lib.utep.edu/10.1177/0146167206297403 (p.
634-647)

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