“Appearance potent”? A content analysis of UK gay and straight men's magazines

Abstract

With little actual appraisal, a more 'appearance potent' (i.e., a reverence for appearance ideals) subculture has been used to explain gay men's greater body dissatisfaction in comparison to straight men's. This study sought to assess the respective appearance potency of each subculture by a content analysis of 32 issues of the most read gay (Attitude, Gay Times) and straight men's magazines (Men's Health, FHM) in the UK. Images of men and women were coded for their physical characteristics, objectification and nudity, as were the number of appearance adverts and articles. The gay men's magazines featured more images of men that were appearance ideal, nude and sexualized than the straight men's magazines. The converse was true for the images of women and appearance adverts. Although more research is needed to understand the effect of this content on the viewer, the findings are consistent with a more appearance potent gay male subculture.

The Mental Health Impact of Physical Appearance Concerns in the Context of Other Life Domains Among Australian Gay Men

“…Nonetheless, that sex life satisfaction played some role in gay men's wellbeing is consistent with past studies (Biss & Horne, 2005;Martins et al, 2007). This is not surprising, not only because the gay male community is highly "sexualized" in media representations (Jankowski, Fawkner et al, 2014), but also because gay men are typically more sexually active than other groups (Biss & Horne, 2005;Gil, 2007). It warrants mentioning, however, that sex life satisfaction is associated with better wellbeing among heterosexual men and women as well (Smith et al, 2011), so this finding is not limited to gay men.…”

“…For instance, McArdle and Hill (2009) postulated that gay media presentation of the ideal male body type has a strong effect on gay male body image, as it promotes a certain body standard that is supposedly desirable but very difficult for most men to attain. This is consistent with recent research reporting more "appearance potent" content (i.e., more idealized, sexualized, and nude pictures) in gay men's magazines compared with heterosexual men's magazines in the UK (Jankowski, Fawkner et al, 2014). Jankowski, Diedrichs et al (2014) also found that gay men report more appearance-oriented conversations than heterosexual men do, and that this mediates the association between sexuality and body dissatisfaction.…”

“…Some researchers have suggested that these phenomena may be a result of the idealised stereotype of a lean yet muscular body which is promoted in gay media and within the gay community more generally (Duncan, 2007;Jankowski, Fawkner, Slater, & Tiggemann, 2014;Yelland & Tiggemann, 2003). For instance, McArdle and Hill (2009) postulated that gay media presentation of the ideal male body type has a strong effect on gay male body image, as it promotes a certain body standard that is supposedly desirable but very difficult for most men to attain.…”

Internalization as a mediator of the relationship between conformity to masculine norms and body image attitudes and behaviors among young men in Sweden, US, UK, and Australia

“…It is possible then, that the differences found in the UK sample are instead related to other factors that may differentiate British men from men in the other three countries (Swami et al, 2013). UK depictions of masculinity may be less clearly related to the internalization of body ideals (Jankowski, Fawkner, Slater, & Tiggemann, 2014). It has previously been reported that, among British males, the embodiment of masculinity was associated with resistance to conformity and the rejection of vanity or conscious and discernible efforts to improve physical appearance (Gill, Henwood, & McLean, 2005).…”

Influence of personality traits in self-evaluative salience, motivational salience and self-consciousness of appearance

“…These differences can be related to the fact that gays are particularly vulnerable to dissatisfaction with their bodies (Jankowski, Diedrichs, & Halliwell, 2014). Jankowski, Fawkner, Slater, and Tiggemann (2014) verified that the magazines aimed at gay men have more "appearance potent" male photos than the magazines aimed at heterosexual men by presenting more images of men with an ideal appearance.…”