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Gay men experience eating disorder rates 42 to 49 percent higher than heterosexual men.

Gay men face unique body image challenges driven by minority stress, internalized shame, and pornography.

Research suggests that fostering body positivity is crucial for improving mental health in gay men.

Earlier this year, Olympic gold medalist Tom Daley opened up about his struggles with an eating disorder and the shame he's carried about being gay in a documentary, Tom Daley: 1.6 Seconds.

His willingness to speak openly about his experience points to something many of us already know but don't always say out loud. Even with visibility, success, and legal progress, the internal wounds of growing up in a world that tells us we're wrong still linger, and for many gay men, they can appear most painfully in our relationship with our bodies.

The term "male gaze" was coined by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey in 1975 to describe how visual media is structured from a masculine, heterosexual perspective, depicting women as objects of desire while positioning men as the ones doing the looking. Women learn to see themselves through this lens, internalizing how they're perceived rather than how they actually are.

For gay men, something similar happens, but with its own distinct texture. We don't just internalize the broader culture's judgments about masculinity and femininity. We also absorb the specific beauty standards, body ideals, and hierarchies of desirability within our own........

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