Boston researchers determined that gay women were more than twice as likely as straight women to be obese, while gay men were 50 percent less likely to be obese compared to their heterosexual counterparts, according to a report published in the American Journal of Public Health. After scrutinizing a health survey of more than 67,000 Massachusetts residents between the ages of 18 and 64, the researchers found that 14 percent of gay men were obese versus 21 percent of straight men. The opposite was true of gay women: 26 percent were found to be obese, as compared with 17 percent of the straight women.
The reason gay men are thinner? Men—gay and straight—are total assholes:
That explanation makes sense to Esther Rothblum, a professor of women’s studies at San Diego State University. “People in sexual relationships with men—heterosexual women and gay men—get more pressure to look thin and to otherwise conform to attractiveness norms than do people in sexual relationships with women—lesbians and heterosexual men,” Rothblum said…. Other researchers have found further evidence of this male effect while studying personal ads and dating sites like Match.com, Rothblum explains. “Men will say they are looking for a partner who is not above 35 years old and not above 135 pounds,” she said. “Women don’t typically do that. They say they are looking for someone with good sense of humor, intelligence, and creativity, or someone who is not an alcoholic.”
Why is it always the Mass residents that get pegged for this kind of stuff?
I wonder also if more lesbians are obese because of a rejection of societal standards kinda thing. Like, “women are encouraged by a male-dominated society to look pretty and be skinny… so fuck that, I’m gonna eat whatever and not exercise.”
Weird. I thought this was pretty much common knowledge. No research grant money for me.
This idea that men are more shallow than women, and that heterosexual women obsess over their looks to please men is kind of bullshit. OkCupid definitively disproved this with a much larger sample size than any study to date. (http://3.ly/H8hN)
A female friend of mine listed her top 10 ideal qualities for a potential mate (http://3.ly/Ct65) and tops on her list was height. Her exact words:
“Tall is important enough and nice is unimportant enough, that if you stand above 6’3″ and have a gambling addiction, crippling neuroses, poor social skills, are old, are a cabdriver, and worse, I’ll totally date you.”
Completely anecdotal evidence to be sure, but still evidence that women can be just as shallow as men.
I’d also like to see a study showing how each sex discriminates based on income.
I could have conducted this study with 40 dollars in beer money and visits to a few bars with a clipboard.
I’m glad I can always fall back on my gender for the reason I’m an asshole.
Societal beauty standards might have something to do with maintaining an average normal size, but this is talking about obesity – a medical issue.
Not an alcoholic and single in this town, good luck. Thats like a virgin choirboy/scout at a scoutmaster/priest potluck. The only people who are teetotalers are churchies or ultra-hippies, bleh.
Interesting findings, but absurdly shallow conclusions as to the reasoning why. Just as there are starting to be some startling links between poverty and obesity, some researchers are coming up with similarly holistic studies about the LGBTQ communities and mental illnesses such as depression and the like; the link is believed to be related directly to issues of family/society acceptance. I hope that possible explanation is more related to the dim-witted nature of Dan Savage and not the researchers themselves; while it sorta sounds like it might kinda be true, I’m sure there are significantly deeper links relating to socioeconomic, race et al status of the LGBT community as to why these patterns might exist.
Just saying,
Anyone orbit around Sam Adams lately?
Hahaha, our fat mayor FTW!