Sexual Orientation & The Impact on Eating Disorders (2/3)
Hello everyone! Today is day 2 of our 3 part series: Gender, Sexual Orientation, & Gender Roles and their effect on eating disorders! Today is the longest discussion that we will have! Feel free to find yesterdays discussion here.
Only two genders are specified because of the lack of inclusivity surrounding the research of nonbinary individuals. I'm sorry if this discussion isn't being inclusive to non-binary people ❤️
LGBTQ+ Men
Although we do not know why, identifying as gay is associated with disordered eating patterns and higher rates of body dissatisfaction. Being homosexual and asexual is a factor that stands out among most male eating disorder sufferers. Men who are questioning their gender identity are also more vulnerable to developing an eating disorder (which we will touch on more tomorrow!). Bulimia is a specific eating disorder that is more common among gay/bisexual men.
HOWEVER, participating in the LGBTQ+ community lowers the prevalence of eating disorders, implying that discomfort with identity and societal pressure is a major contributing factor to why LGBTQ+ men develop eating disorders at a higher rate.
LGBTQ+ Women
Contrary to the research that gay men are more vulnerable to eating disorder behaviors, lesbians are less vulnerable. Lesbians have been found to have less body dissatisfaction and less disordered eating behaviors than heterosexual women.
Lesbians have also been found to have higher ideal body weight (for example, they think that x pounds is beautiful while heterosexual women think that they need to be x-10 pounds), leading to less of a strive for thinness.
It is thought that the culture that lesbian subcultures have created is less body-focused and less focused on physical attractiveness. This means there is less cultural pressure to be thin.
Despite lesbians being less vulnerable to body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors, there is no difference between the number of heterosexual and homosexual women with eating disorders, implying that eating disorders are more than just social, while diets & body dissatisfaction are more social.
Feel free to answer any or all of the below questions!
🔥 Whats something you learned from todays post?
🔥 Did you think that sexual orientation would affect eating disorder prevalence?
🔥 What do you think is the difference between LGBTQ+ women and LGBTQ+ men that makes the differences mentioned above?
🔥 Feel free to add anything else!
I hope to see everyone tomorrow for our last topic: Gender Roles & The Impact on Eating Disorders!
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@24Help1
This reminded me of something I saw. A lesbian was saying how her accepting herself as homosexual also led to higher self-esteem. She started to see herself the way that she saw other women. She saw women of all body types beautiful, so why wouldn't that include herself.
I don't know, just a fun thought.
(Castiel Asher They/She)
My relationship with food changed so much just from my sexuality. I had sooo much internalised-queerphobia and when I saw a character on tv b/p I started doing that everytime I caught myself being attracted to the gender 'I wasn't supposed to' bc I was so disgusted with myself. After I accepted that the attraction It was natural and I couldn't make it go away, I stopped for a little. I told myself I wouldn't do it again and it was only a few times thing...fast forward to 6 months later where I do it practically every night even if I want to stop. I didn't realise that one little action would turn into an addiction. This is why society needs to spread more widely that it is ok to be LGBTQ+ and kids really need to be taught that in school so that they don't have to grow up thinking they are disgusting and have to suffer so much!
