Hey everyone, Do any of you feel completely super conscious about your body, especially since Hollywood pushes this narrative that LGBT individuals (gay men specifically) are always in really good shape? I feel like I may have body dysmorphic disorder, where I do not in any way feel comfortable about my body, especially in a sexual situation. Even though I know I'm not overweight, I feel like I'm "fat" since I don't have a six pack. I know for certain this impacts my sexual life (which doesn't exist, mostly due to the possibility of exhibiting body dysmorphic disorder). Does anyone else feel this way? Do you think gay men are much more likely to exhibit body dysmorphic disorder? Also, do you think the "West Hollywood gay culture" will eventually cease to drive the agenda within the gay community?
This has actually been on my mind all day, what a coincidence. But yeah, I do think that gay men are under a lot if pressure to try and conform themselves into what the gay community stereotypically sees as attractive, although I do feel that men in general are more susceptible to suffering with BDD than the media leads us to believe.
I think I have it. I hate my nose and the shape of my face so much. It's almost all I think about, every day, to an exhausting degree. It's frustrating.
I used to think that way, until I realized what the LGBT community wants is an attractive, gay white male with a six pack. I can obviously never be that. I still can't think of myself as sexually attractive, but that's simply because I'm not attracted to myself. I'm not my type. There have been other people that said I was cute (I am tired of the cute and adorable label... I'd rather have hot or sexy, but anyway.. *cough*), and I had to learn to take the compliments as they are. I'm sure you're a fine individual. Don't worry.
I don't know whether the rate of people with body dysmorphic disorder is significantly different between gay men and straight men. I'm not educated about that, really, so I have no idea. About myself, I do think that I should become more fit and I'm planning to do so (I already run but I should pick up some other activities). I have a healthy weight (on the lower side of the BMI scale) and I don't like the idea of being overweight at all so I'm conscious about food. That doesn't come from "Hollywood", it's really my own choice about living healthily. I want to gain more muscle mass because I like the look of it myself. Again, this is my own choice. Although this is all kind of normal (at least, it's motivated by health reasons), I do feel conscious about other things that shouldn't be too important. I do (still) want to get some laser surgery to remove acne scars and I, occasionally, feel that I want to change certain minor things such as my nose or area inbetween my eyebrows. Those things shouldn't matter. I see myself as very average and people have told me that I am way too conscious about irrelevant things, so there's that. So yeah, I do occasionally have "issues" with my body, sometimes justified and sometimes not. I don't really know why I feel that way, it's just a perception of how I see myself. Perhaps the thought that I can change it (if I really want to) makes it worse, I don't know. I do think, however, that this has not much to do with the media.
I hated my face at one time, mostly when I was basically told that I should go out of my way to be feminine, but not I have come to appreciate some aspects of my face... I've always loved how my own body looks from an attractive standpoint, though ofc I experience massive dysphoria over my body too... I just like the fact that my body is what most might consider close to flawless... but yeah, it's been a huge struggle to try to love my face. I have acne issues, and while they've gotten better recently, I still have around 6 pimples on my face a day at the bare minimum... It sucks. I usually don't look in mirrors unless I don't have my glasses on.
