Body image and the gay media

“Anybody who says they don’t like to see hot bodies is lying, something that is reflected by the fact that magazine covers with hot bodies sell more copies,” says Matthew Todd, former editor of Attitude.

“But we do try to have a balance. We run lots of non-shirtless covers including with Stephen Fry, Beth Ditto, Jonathan Groff, Marcus Collins, Daniel Radcliffe, Waheed Alli, James Franco, Kele Okereke and many more. We run a monthly feature called Real Bodies with a ‘normal’ shirtless guy – whoever applies goes in, something I don’t think any other gay magazine in the world does, and there are lots of regular guys throughout the magazine including on the dating pages, relationships pages and so on.

There’s an element of hypocrisy. Someone complained to me that we only put shirtless ripped men on the cover – and on the shelf that month was Andrew Scott for Pride, a handsome man but not shirtless or ripped. The places I see the most body fascism are on apps and social media, propagated by other gay men. There is a larger question about self-esteem. I wrote about this in our ‘Issues Issue’. Many of us, including myself, have a hangover from growing up and living in a homophobic society, which can make us feel bad about ourselves from very early on. 

Often we strive to outrun these feelings, sometimes with drink, drugs or sex and sometimes by feeling we need to have perfect bodies, jobs, relationships, friends, whatever. That can leave us feeling that nothing is ever enough, that we are never good enough. To me this is the basis of so many of the problems that LGBT people have – from body image issues to depression to drugs and even unsafe sex.”

“It’s not true to say that the gay media only show shirtless, fit and young models,” agrees David Bridle, MD at Boyz. 

“Any cursory glance at Boyz covers and features over this year would show that all ages and body types are represented – especially when you look at photo coverage and features for clubs like XXL, Eagle London, The Hoist, SM Gays and many others, along with pictures taken at bars like Halfway and Two Brewers which attract a wide range of ages and body types. I think it’s too easy to generalise the arguments about body image which are not based on the reality of editorial coverage. 

In Boyz we do genuinely try to be as representative as we can be. Having said that, it does mean sometimes our cover will feature a cute muscle boy from Ku Bar or WE Party but such guys want to be represented too and the gym fit guys make up quite a big part of the gay scene.”

“The problem is that often people don’t distinguish between fantasy and reality. I think these problems begin in the fact that schools still don’t address LGBT+ lifestyles like they should,” adds Cliff Joannou, editor of Attitude magazine. 

“Gay men grow up with shame attached to their feelings. They seek examples out online, in print, in film. There is currently no requirement for schools to teach young people any type of sex and relationship education. As such young people go to the media and search the internet for information and to find gay representation, and this carries on in life as they get older. There’s nothing wrong with fantasy and looking at sexy hot guys with their clothes off, but when people aren’t being educated about the reality of gay lifestyles at young ages, fantasy becomes the only source of information. Magazines are a representation of fantasy.”

“Like TV, music videos or films, what we need is for gay relationships to be treated on a par with heterosexual lifestyles at an early age so that gay men don’t grow up only seeking out the answers to our questions about our sexuality through porn and fantasy images.”

“Going forward we are always open to discussing these issues and where we get it wrong we apologise,” adds David. 

“However I invite you to check out recent spreads in Boyz from XXL for instance and you will see that we feature lots of larger, bigger guys of all body types. Guys who don’t fit the stereotype muscle guy will see themselves represented, but Boyz is in the entertainment business and so we do produce a magazine with a good selection of classically sexy guys of different ages and types. 

I think what matters more is whether our readers feel we are caring for them and helping them enjoy their gay life, giving them advice and information about HIV and drugs, etc. 

We try to make Boyz an ‘older brother’ for our readers, but to do this job we need to get them to pick the magazine up. Sexy pictures of cute and hunky guys help us do that – but there are bears, chubs, drag queens and ‘ordinary guys’ pictured in there too.”

HERO's CEO, Ian Howley says: "Let’s be honest here, it’s unfair to blame gay magazines solely for body image issues. We can clearly see from the survey that there is a lot of aggression towards gay magazines. The community still looks up to a lot of the publications so I can understand why gay men feel angry but we need to realise that the people in charge have a job to do otherwise there will be a lot of people unemployed. 

“However saying all that, the magazine industry does need to realise that for a lot of younger gay men, their publications can be the first point of contact with gay life.

“That 14-year-old boy who snuck a copy of Attitude into his bedroom will look to the magazine for guidance. Does this mean that Attitude, Gay Times, Boyz, QX and FS shouldn’t put shirtless or naked men on the cover? In my opinion it’s about having a correct balance - mixing hotness and health issues together. 

“The issue here shouldn’t be that gay magazines are making you feel bad about yourself. It should be why you are letting a gay magazine make you feel that way. 

“In an ideal world who we put on the cover of our magazines shouldn’t have a negative effect on how you see yourself. We all need to work on helping gay men build their self-esteem and confidence. 

“I can’t speak for any of the other editors, but here at HERO we will try to get the balance in FS magazine between hotness and health correct.”