How does LGBT media affect body image and health?

i'm trying to do some community work/awareness wrt body image, health, and self-esteem in the gay community. i'm looking for personal feelings on how gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered are affected by media images within the community. Do you feel that seeing certain body types or identification portrayed more often makes you feel left out? have media images ever made you less likely to be part of cultural/political/social events in the LBGT community? Do you think media plays a role in contributing to negative body image or poor decisions/life styles (eating disorders, drug use, unsafe sex, etc.)? How would you go about changing this (if you feel it needs to be) and what types of awareness/activities do you think could help those who might feel marginalized within the LBGT community?

How does LGBT media affect body image and health?
That is quite a question! I do not feel like I am represented in the media, but I understand that it would be very difficult to be a mirror of every kind of person. Especially since there is not a lot of programing for the LBGT community. For me, I have a love/hate relationship with The L Word. I love that there is a show that shows relationships/lives as "normal", but in reality, it is still just another show that doesn't reflect the life that I live in. I am so thankful for networks like LOGO, the N, Showtime, and others that are wiling to play media for our community rather than just using us for increased ratings during sweeps.
Reply:I'll go with the transgender/transsexual aspect...





Most of the time, they show transgender or transsexual people as "almost but just not quite" their true gender, especially with transsexual women. Like someone who looks ALMOST like a woman, but with a hideously exaggerated deep voice, or whatever... Or someone who looks ALMOST like a man, but then they label him lesbian or some junk.





The LGBT community is severely lacking in a strong "T" support. I have been utterly shocked to see people who avidly support gays and lesbians denounce trans-folk, and gay and lesbians claim that transmen and transwomen aren't "real men" or "real women"... You think these people would KNOW better than to say such hurtful and ignorant things!





It just seems the LGBT media often falls into the same "men in dresses" and "confused lesbian" stereotypes that everyone else does... And that's terrible. Trans-people need a LOT of support, and seeing people who should be supportive being as hateful as anyone else... It's extremely disheartening.





I would change it by adding information booths about trans-folk to Pride events (or floats, as the case may be!), introducing less stereotypical trans-folk to television shows/radio shows/magazines and that sort of thing...





Cheers.
Reply:As a heterosexually oriented true transsexual woman, it is damaging my mental health tremendously.





The selfish queer lobby and their media allies keep grouping their gender queers and she-males (psychosexual males that use their birth sex organs on other people) with people like me. They even have the selfish audacity to group heterosexual cross dressers and intersex (a later category of people with mixed biological sex traits including hermaphrodites).





They are trying to promote Queer Gender Theory or Gender Fluidity Theory that I believe can be summed up as follows: No person is completely male or female psychologically. Everyone is somewhere on the continuous gender spectrum in between.





This view is not only strongly opposed by the Religious Right and Conservative groups in general but also by most feminist organizations, transsexual specific organizations (those that deeply despise the gay lobby for identifying them as peers with she-males and to a lesser extent gays) as well as intersex specific organizations (same as parenthesis above for transsexuals). I have not heard of any opinion on this by heterosexual cross dresser specific organizations on this topic, but it seems to be overall unsupported by its individual members.





Four truths people should know about Gay Media lies.





1)Mathew Sheppard was not killed by a redneck hate monger. His primary killer was a bi-sexual meth addict looking for an easy target to rob.


2)Calpernia Adams’ boyfriend Barry Winchell was not killed by hatemonger but a jealous admirer who paid to have Barry killed.


3)Aphrodite Jones hijacked the life story of Brandon Teena to push her own propaganda. She presented him as a lesbian and did a good job in erasing some of his transsexualism for the good of gay/lesbian people at the expense of transsexual people. The whole story is full of gross inaccuracies and outright lies, that is why so many liable and slander lawsuits are based around it.


4)Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevy has been described by people that know him as more bisexual than gay.





Since I am a mainstream woman who used to live in a city and then a rural area and now the suburbs, I have to take extreme caution just being around heterosexual men that I have no sexual interest in. I even have to be careful about the women I befriend until I know what their man is like. My life depends on it. I have to socialize with such fear because of this false image of transsexuals being portrayed by the gay media allies. I don’t have a corporate closet or private sexual subculture to go back into when I am endangered by their propaganda unlike these people.





The transgender lobby which primarily represents she-males has got laws passed for the entire Washington State and many other areas that allow people to use whatever bathroom and showers they feel they belong in at the moment. Cisgender Heterosexual Men can legally use women’s showers in Washington State as long as they claim they identify more as a female than a male at the time they are in the showers. The only thing that prevents this from actually happening is the lack of public knowledge about this. Many police officers and public accommodation managers are not even aware of this. It was said to me by a Washington State Human Rights Commission Investigator when I filed a case somewhat related to this. I was seeking a waiver to a degree required gym class and did not want to be put in an uncomfortable environment. I lost the case because of this and now won’t go to that community college.





The really sad thing is I actually support gay rights including same sex marriage. I even support she-males living as they please. I just wish they could show more consideration for others including other people’s safety when doing so. They could have lobbied for the state to issue ID cards to publicly accommodate them in specific and not every sex trolling male in general at other people’s expense. Gay organizations can succeed in boosting their image and winning civil rights without trashing other people. They would actually do better at those endeavors if they refrained from that behavior.





I realize that she male is a derogatory term for a biological male who is sexually active as such and lives as a female. I know they prefer to called transgenderists. I do so anyway because they feel like calling me something I wish not to be called so I have the right to do the same thing back.





I expected the thumbs down I got and will be expecting many more. It just goes to show what this community that I do not belong to will NEEDLESSLY resort to in order to advance their cause. It will come back to harm them some day.
Reply:The world is the world..though we can help make a change people have brung so much pain and neglect...it would be a miracle to contain even a little purity in this day in time..as sad as it seems..but i believe a time will come where people will no longer focus on the media but rather..by what they see in the soul of people around them..but like i said only Death could liberate these crazy problems..but even then more are to come...the media is a big contributer to this crazy world body image,unsafe sex as you said it has gotten way out of wack...but thats life..people make there on decision's people can't change other people that comes from a deeper place...but i won't sit here and say to just not try..casue with a try brings more to the world..but who could bring such purity to the world? i wonder?.....yes i know girls and men who have stareved themselves to loose weight stolen exspensive makeup to coverup flaws...been hermits to there homes..i mean it's insane i can't say im perfect and don't feel insecure at times who doesn't? but i get over it i don't push to be like every body else i thrive to be different..of course i like having nice clothes and having good skin and good stuff but i won't go to extremes to get it..that just me....everyone is different.
Reply:An excellent question deserving a thorough response. We live in a culture of beauty and aestheticism where youth and what is perceived to be beautiful in mainstream media dominates on how we as members of the LGBTQ community view ourselves. Example, if you are to pick-up a latest copy of the local gay/lesbian-rags, what do you see; you see image of women and men with virility and vitality that are often young, mostly thin or muscular for the men, and images of perceived image of femininity for the women. Those of us who are outside of this image are often left with the feeling of being left out in the cold.


With that being said, I remember as I begin my search for my kinky identity, I looked for people with similar background (Asian to be specific) and found little or none in the media that I was looking in. I remember saying to myself, “I can’t be the only one” and started to be more visible in the community that led to where I am today.


I have discovered while on this journey, that while having little to no and inaccurate representation in the LGBTQ community, the leather community creates images of its own to defy popular media. It is with this spirit of defiance that defines the very essence of this community that I now dare call myself to be an intimate part of.


While all body types are represented with various posters, events and personalities, in my opinion, there still, remain somewhat of a gap for different body types and persons of color who identify as being kinky. While the community itself does not discriminate based on skin color or body type, there is that perceived ideal of masculinity. The concept of masculinity is constantly evolving and the gaps for body types and racial barriers are beginning to close. As these fissures conceal with time, it is important that we all realize that we are our own individual; and that one’s concept of beauty should not constitute the rest of the community’s.
Reply:The L part of me has no effect on my body image.


However the T part makes me hate myself with a fiery passion of a 1,000 suns.


Every day, I look in the mirror and wish I'd die on the spot.
Reply:I'm sixty-five yrs. old and feel sometimes in America that I have become invisible. Particularly in LGBT America. It's true that one gets the impression from such shows as Queer as Folk, and that straight show about gays, Will %26amp; Grace, we must all be well-dressed, good looking, under fifty, and have fabulous careers. While I think it is good for young people to be motivated to succeed and be healthy (and to some extent such tv models might have a positive effect) "ordinary" people should be represented, and the fact that success is not always measured in sex and popularity is another message that needs to be balanced in with the rest.
Reply:I think its like any other media form, depends on what you read. I'd be worried about body image, what people find attractive, do you really need this brand of clothing, ect....I don't buy into any of it but I'm sure many people would.

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