Asian American men’s body image concerns: A focus group study.

Abstract

A qualitative study was conducted with 11 Asian American men to examine their body image concerns. From two focus groups, we identified five themes using the thematic analysis approach: (a) messages about attractive characteristics for Asian American men, (b) factors that contribute to confusion about the ideal body image, (c) effects of negative body image, (d) coping with body image concerns, and (e) defining masculinity traits for Asian American men. Participants’ perceptions of what is attractive were closely linked to Western hegemonic masculinity, the media, and Asian sociocultural influences from family. Participants reported feeling confused about what constitutes an ideal body image for them due to the lack of representation and negative stereotypes in U.S. media and gendered racism in U.S. society. Their confusion also arises from discrepant messages they receive from their family and the media. They described several adaptive strategies to cope with negative body image. Lastly, the role of masculinity appears to be a complex issue and may be related to Asian notions of masculinity, Western hegemonic masculinity, and gendered racism.

<p>Emphasizing the “Cultural” in Sociocultural: A Systematic Review of Research on Thin-Ideal Internalization, Acculturation, and Eating Pathology in US Ethnic Minorities</p>

“…For example, in a sample of 399 Latino college men and women, Menon and Harter (2012) 51 found that acculturative stress was significantly positively correlated with body image disturbance after controlling for BMI, age, and gender; and, thin-ideal internalization mediated the relationship between acculturative stress and body image disturbance. Similarly, Liao et al 56 described links between acculturative stress and athleticideal internalization, such as participants' resignation of the "dream" of an athletic/Western physique, because they are Asian men. As such, researchers examining both male and female samples should include acculturative stress in their conceptualization of acculturation and its relationship to eating pathology.…”

“…One study (Reddy and Crowther (2007) 18 ) examined adolescents and adults, while another (Liao et al (2019) 54 ) used a community sample of adults. All studies were correlational surveys, except Franko et al (2012) 55 and Liao et al (2019), 56 which were qualitative.…”

Substance use risk among Asian American men: The role of gendered racism, internalization of western muscularity ideals, interpersonal and body shame, and drive for muscularity.

“…A core theme in the three domains is that AAM are treated as being not masculine enough and physically unattractive to be considered as a competent and romantically desirable man. Similar to the models that found links between race-and appearance-related discrimination and internalization of mainstream beauty standards among Asian American women (Cheng et al, 2017;Ko & Wei, 2020), GR likely create confusion and distress among AAM that their Asian masculinity and appearance ideals are undesirable in the U.S., which can create a distorted perception that they need to internalize and align with the White hegemonic masculinity and muscularity ideals (Cheng et al, 2016;Keum, 2016;Liao et al, 2020).…”

“…Although the study was done with Asian American women, Cheng et al (2017) found a similar shame response among Asian American women who internalize attractiveness ideals in Western media and report unhealthy eating. Qualitative evidence also suggests that AAM experience shameful feelings associated with having to deal with White male attractiveness ideals in the media that are incompatible and invalidating toward images of Asian men (Liao et al (2020).…”

Gendered racism, family and external shame, depressive symptoms, and alcohol use severity among Asian American men.

“…For many AAM, racial emasculation represents an immensely shameful (i.e., negatively self-evaluative) experience that deters them from seeking acknowledgment, validation, and support. In coping with gendered racism, Liao et al (2020) found that AAM tended to internalize negative stereotypes and accept their body image concerns with feelings of resignation consistent with the notion of internalized racism (Choi et al, 2017). The negative psychological impact of gendered and sexualized racism among queer AAM is well documented, including the internalization and reenactment of emasculated stereotypes performed in an attempt to attain proximity to White hegemonic masculinity ideals (Han, 2015).…”