She says even those who pass judgement might still be struggling. "For everyone there are unrealistic body ideals that are pretty hard for the majority of people to achieve but there's a lot of pressure to conform with them." "Different genders and sexualities might change the focus of what the ideal body is, but the main factor is unrealistic cultural ideals about body shape and size," she says. Some of Rachel's clients present with extreme eating and exercise disorders, anxiety and depression, and physical damage to their body.
Relationships Australia on 1300 364 277.Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.Psychologist Rachel Simeone says gay men have a much higher level of body dissatisfaction than other people.Īmong men who have eating disorders, 42 per cent are gay-identifying. So, after realising he wasn't acting his "cheery self", Andrew packed his bags and moved.
"It felt like my worth was based on how I looked and not anything else about me," he says. "The gym is a conversation that comes up so early: 'Where do you gym? What do you do?'"Īt one point though, he says he became "sucked into" the culture - and says people had "more time" for him when he was "more fit".īody-shaming took its toll on his self-esteem. He says in the gay community, appearance can be currency. "People sort of seeing you on face value and not really giving you much time of day if you didn't have a ripped six pack or if you weren't available to sleep around." But that sort of environment really made me shrink. "I considered myself to be a really outgoing person. Andrew*, 32, moved away from Sydney two years ago to escape what he describes as the crippling pressures of the city's "gay bubble".