Body Dissatisfaction 103SexualityMost research examining body dissatisfaction has ignored the sexuality
of the participants being studied. There is some evidence indicating
that lesbians and gay men may differ from heterosexuals in their body
dissatisfaction. For example, Siever (1994) compared lesbian and hetero-
sexual women’s value on appearance and concluded that lesbians were
more satisfied with their bodies and placed less importance on their
appearance. Similarly, Gettelman and Thompson (1993) reported that
lesbian women had lower concerns with appearance, weight, and dieting
than heterosexual women. In contrast, Brand, Rothblum, and Soloman
(1992) and Striegel-Moore, Tucker, and Hsu (1990) found no differences
in their sample between lesbian and heterosexual women and concluded
that gender was a better predictor than sexuality. Grogan (1999) suggested
that these contradictory findings may illustrate a place for gender role
orientation. To explore this possibility, Ludwig and Brownell (1999)
asked 188 lesbian and bisexual women to complete measures of their
body image and whether they considered themselves to be feminine,
masculine, or androgynous in appearance. The results showed that
both lesbian and bisexual women who considered themselves to be
feminine were more dissatisfied with their bodies, and that this dissatis-
faction was greater in women whose friends did not share their sexual
orientation.
In terms of gay men, research tends to show that they report
higher levels of body dissatisfaction than heterosexual men. For example,
Mishkind et al. (1986) reported that gay men were more dissatisfied
with their body shape, waist, arms, biceps, and stomachs than hetero-
sexual men, and this has been supported by the findings of Beren et al.
(1996), Gettelman and Thompson (1993), and Siever (1994). Further-
more, it has been argued that body dissatisfaction in gay men is higher
in those who show the highest affinity with the gay community (Beren
et al., 1996). Epel et al. (1996) evaluated the content of personal adver-
tisements in seven different US publications. The results showed that
gay men described their body shape more often than both lesbian women
and heterosexual men, indicating that body satisfaction is a major concern
for this group.
Therefore sexuality may relate to body dissatisfaction. However, whereas
homosexuality is associated with lower body dissatisfaction in women,
it seems to predict higher body dissatisfaction in men.