To Eat or Not To Eat: Magazines May Contribute To Higher Risks of Eating Disorders in Gay Men

A study conducted by the Mailman School states that gay men show higher risks of getting eating disorders than straight men. Ilan H. Meyers, the study’s principal investigator, said to The Collegian Online that she thinks magazines may have contributed to these risks.

This month’s issues of Out and Instinct magazines show wholesome photographs of UK TV star John Barrowman and The Tonight Show correspondent Ross Mathews, but a look at past issues of these and other popular gay magazines have often depicted shirtless or nearly naked men on their covers.

These cover men can look like the boy next door or a model at a couture runway show. More often than not these cover men possess defined six packs abdomens and biceps round as grapefruits. They’re the living, breathing personification of the Greek heroes you read about in your 10^th grade literature class pouting into a camera lens. The headlines around their heads, from Out’s “Revealed: The Boys of Brazil 2007”, to Instinct’s “Men at Work” suggest an erotic oasis of page-turning eye candy in each issue.

These covers are artifacts that represent what a gay man is to mainstream society, but they depict only a small fraction of the individuals that make up the gay community, which itself contains many niches. Gay men with average bodies and faces, leather daddies, bears, and cubs are not found on the covers of these magazines. These communities are finding themselves shut out from the mainstream gay publications that are supposed to represent them, but perhaps the biggest concern should be for the younger generation of gay men.

Gay youth are conditioned with these images of mythically beautiful men and told subliminally they should look like them, too. Just as it’s been shown that women’s magazines often have a negative affect on women’s self-esteem, these covers in turn take their toll on the esteem and self-worth of gay youth.

As Todd Swagler, a student at Penn State, told The Collegian Online, “for gay men…the fear that they won’t fit in or find the right someone…creates pressure to maintain a certain body type.”

As the study found, 15 percent of gay men have at some point suffered from anorexia, bulimia, and binge-eating disorders.

“One theory is that the values and norms in the gay men’s community promote a body-centered focus and high expectations about physical appearance, so that, similar to what has been theorized about heterosexual women, they may feel pressure to maintain an ideal body image,” Meyer said.

Studies so far haven’t measured to what degree magazines perpetuate eating disorders in gay men.