According to this video’s introductory slides, gay men face eating disorders three times as often as straight guys. Because being told to hate your body is not the exclusive territory to women. Joshua Johnson is 27, and an anorexic and bulimic. He lost sixty pounds after breaking up with a boyfriend. And he’s just one example of tens of thousands of gay and bi and trans men and women who cannot see how beautiful they are.
eating disorders
Joshua Johnson Doesn’t Know How To Stop Throwing Up And Start Loving His Body
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Sadbuttrue
I feel sympathy for the guy. There’s not much that friends/family support alone can do for bulimia and anorexia, though. A psychiatrist can help him through it with therapy and/or anxiety medication. I wish him the best in his recovery.
bobby
chubby guys are cute, beefy guys are cute. sites like this promote this behavior by posting nothing but but ripped guys as “hot” in there daily PHOTOS.
busby
this site plays partner in contributing to said eating disorders. I’m with Bobby…
L.
I agree with the previous commenters that there is a slight disconnect between this post and what the site keeps “offering” in its Morning Goods.
L.
(And I’m not suggesting the MG guys aren’t cute, or that bulkier/skinnier/whatever guys aren’t – just that there is more diversity in the “real” world, and that you can’t have you gay cake and eat it too, by appearing to be about “issues” and yet being a pictorial stereotype. Pick one, because when you try to do both it makes the “care” look a tad insincere.)
Phil
The whole article is insincere. “Why can’t you just love yourself and stop throwing up?” That whole idea is offensive to everybody suffering any form of body dysmorphic disorder and the professionals who treat them.
Do you think they can just go “I think I’m going to start loving my body today” and just be done with it? How offended were you when somebody asked you “Have you ever, y’know, tried being straight?” I’m baffled as to how you can’t see how hurtful this idea can be to transgender individuals.
alejandro
the stats at the beginning were wrong, but great vid anyways.
j
I find this headline ignorant and offensive. Its amazing how insincere queerty can be some times. Actually, I’m not gonna type any more, I’ll only get angry. But if you think that headline is doing anyone a f**kin’ favour then pull your head out of your h**e.
Ben
@J
I think the headline is intended to be ironic.
Josh
THANK YOU for talking about this. People don’t stop to think that men actually DO care about how we look too. It’s just seen as weakness to ever talk about body image insecurities.
BB
Blah… Ok Ok…. its like riding a fence…. being bulimic or anorexic is just as bad as all those damn diet pills…
When I was in the USAF I felt like throwing up and running constantly was the norm right… We would all eat our asses off… feel guilty…. throw up and go running…. It felt justified…
Now im a few years older… a few pounds heavier … and I honestly wish I could still justify
blue
@BB: What are you talking about? I’ve been in the USAF for almost 10 years and throwing up and running has never been treated like the norm. That was a really random and false statement.
Fitz
The issue is interesting, but the handling of it here is crass. And the irony of queerty’s MG selections being all 20 year old hairless anorexics is not lost on me.
Can someone recommend a decent gay website to me? Something that sort of covers what this one does, but better.
Justaboringusername
Thats great to see Queerty is trying to tackle some important issues.
I battled with bulima through my teens (well, Im 19 now and have been pretty good for a couple years) and can say that it is a little more abstract than weight regulation…
It is a dangerous road to walk (at a certain point keeping food down isnt physically possible) and I hope no one else sees that point… Education of this danger is important and I assume would prevent much of it.
Aaron in Honolulu
The gay male community can be very harsh. I would think most of us create relationships with other gay males based on appearance and income whether it be subconscious or not. It’s true.
I think the gay media and advertisements accurately portray this truth. There is one class of gay men that seem to be at the top: white, upper middle class, age 18-25, athletically shaped. Hey, it may be different 50 years from now, but this is just how things are at the moment.
j
@Ben: Yeah? Why would you want to express irony over something like this? See my point? This is a serious health issue and nothing to get all, postmodern, “so ironic” hipster about. I am absolutely convinced that sarcasm is no longer the lowest form of wit; infact, anyone that thinks that making light of something like this is helpful deserves to wallow in their rediculous irony for the rest of their days.
Dinodogstar
thank you for sharing your story, Joshua.