This article discusses eating disorders. Scroll down for a list of resources if you or someone you know needs help.
Aron DoSouto has been dragging in Saskatchewan for over 25 years. Now, he is finding it increasingly difficult to reserve places.
“They want a skinny Barbie that looks good in a pair of underwear and a bra,” said DoSouto, who is performing under the drag show Iona Whipp.
As a gender fluid person, DoSouto does not find himself aligned with the well-established body ideals of gay men, which he describes as “the blink of a slim, sculpted, built and island or bone-thin.”
The 43-year-old Saskatoon said that while media pressure to conform to certain beauty standards for LGBTQ people has been around for a long time, in part due to the influence of “porn, erotica, and movies,” RuPaul’s Drag Race They continued to perpetuate it. DoSouto said he recently received back-of-hand comments during performances about his appearance, including his weight.
He said, “A lot of us are queens who come from the stage – the old school where it was about selling the song – but nowadays there is this constant need and pushing everything towards being thinner and thinner.”
“It is a big thing that affects our community. If the event organizers are willing to pay the money, they will make it happen RuPaul Girls who can show a thin diaphragm, rather than the support of the local community.”
Narrow beauty standards can have serious effects on the body image of LGBT people, who already face higher rates of eating disorders and other mental illnesses. Adding to fears that they will not be accepted because of their identity or orientation, some people can go to great lengths to look a certain way.
Negative reinforcement that I am not enough
Elle Bird resident Moss Joe, Sask, grew up around “toxic thoughts about body image.”
“Those ingrained norms of patriarchy are conveyed in the queer community,” said Bird, who identifies as bi-spirit and gay.
One example: androgyny (which combines masculine and feminine characteristics) is often presented as a “neutral color palette or square cut of clothing,” Bird said, and this stems from trends among heterosexual men.
“I have often been asked not to wear loud colors,” they said.
The desire for plus-size bodies to be hourglass shaped also derives from gender standards of beauty.
It makes Bird feel left out. They said finding past dating profiles with obesity phobias listed as “personal preferences” caused the binge eating disorder they have had since childhood.
“I get that negative reinforcement that I’m not enough.”
Fear of obesity and the consequences of isolation
Numerous studies found that eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors are more common among LGBT adults and adolescents than among heterosexual and/or heterosexual people.
LGBT people experience higher pressure on body image because they are not only trying to fit in with the ideals of a society in which being consistent and straightforward is the norm, but also trying to find belonging, said Philip Joy, a dietitian and assistant professor at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. Within queer communities.
“The fear of obesity and the consequences of isolation is very real in the gay community because you are already isolated on the basis of your gender or sexuality and therefore the risk of further isolation on the basis of desirable bodies,” Joy said.
“Some bodies have a higher sex currency than others. We live in an image-driven society where the billion dollar diet and fitness industry tells people they can’t be happy and healthy until they look fit.”
Joy said ads directed at white gay men specifically emphasized this ideal, as well as the need for a healthy, muscular body to counteract wasting syndrome during the AIDS epidemic.
“A lot of people grew up watching Gay as a people, where all men are built, muscular, white – and these were the only role models in the media at the time,” he said, referring to the popular American television series from the early 2000s. Now, some say RuPaul’s Drag Race It makes them want to have a certain type of body to be accepted.”
Joy emphasized that these pressures are “visible in all LGBTQ+ communities.”
Transgender and intersex people are at greater risk
Cody Esterl, one of the team members at Fighting eating disorders in underrepresented populations: the Trans + & Intersex collectiveWhich addresses the high rates of eating disorders in these marginalized communities. Although the organization is based in the United States, it receives more and more orders from Canadian customers.
a A major study for American college students From 2015 rates of eating disorder diagnoses, use of diet pills, and laxatives or vomiting were found to be higher among transgender participants.
Easterl said that representation of transgender and intersex peoples in the media is limited, and when it does, it tends to be “white, Eurocentric.”
“If you just search for ‘beautiful’ or ‘attractive’ men or women in a search engine, you will find white men and women, just sculpted.”
Esterl, who was a transgender person, said that many transgender people conform to those ideals they hope to be accepted or socialized with.
“If transgender identity falls outside the standards of beauty and ideals devised by cis people, a lot of inconveniences can get in their way. If you are more fit and transcend [as a cisgendered person] More than that, there will be less questioning of identities.”
Maya Homivoh agreed that “for many trans people, matching is a means of survival.”
As an old, eccentric, black person, Homevoh faces multiple layers of beauty standards pressure. She said the stereotype of being an attractive “black curvy figure,” for example, has seeped into her peer circle.
said a resident of Waterloo, Ont. Blacks often recede into our bodies. “I’m not curvy, but the expectation remains that all black women or women should be chubby. It’s inhumane.”
Go to extremes
Don Lowe, a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan, comes across dating profiles that say “No fat, no women.”
“While my physique is fine for my 5’8” height, Lu said, “I find myself wanting to be more muscular, in part so there will be more men in me.
“I don’t feel that many people are drawn to Asians like I am. If I were white and the same physique, it would be a different story.”
Lou visits the gym at least four times to work out his body.
He’s not the only one who goes to such lengths to achieve a certain look.
“A lot of people in the queer community have had botox, lipososcopy, calf implants and other cosmetic surgeries, or are taking pills to fit the bill to counteract social exclusion,” said Alex Sangha of Sher Vancouver, an organization that provides LGBTQ services in South Asia.
In his guiding practice, Sangha encounters unrealistic physical goals, eating disorders, and people are “depressed and devastated because they cannot meet media images of foreign objects”.
Sangha himself has “experienced a lot of exclusion, isolation, isolation and loneliness trying to fit in with the gay community” as a 50-year-old and “a bit heavy”.
“I am not the perfect stereotype of what people find desirable in society,” he said.
“Fatphobia is worse in queer society than a lot of people.” Intersecting layers of racism and oppression because if you were a decent looking ethnic person, you would be symbolic but at least acceptable.”
While Sangha said media representations have become more diverse, they still largely perpetuate stereotypes.
Homevoh has said that she never conforms to others’ expectations about her appearance, and instead tries to avoid supposed compliments on her body, which she finds sexy.
“I had an eating disorder, and I would ask people not to comment on my weight. Setting these limits is important.”
Canadian Eating Disorders Resources
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