Exploring "Obesity" and the Health of Gay Men using Feminist Poststructuralism

Popular health discourses on obesity tend to highlight the negative impacts of excess weight. Obesity, however, also has the effect of ranking and stationing individuals in the neoliberal health paradigm as unhealthy, immoral, and undesirable. The effects of obesity discourses can be prominently observed in gay men’s culture where muscular, white, thin bodies are glorified. This paper employs a feminist poststructural framework to examine how desired bodies are constituted in gay culture, the effects this has on gay men’s experiences of food and exercise, and resistance within gay culture to dominant obesity discourses. A review of the literature on obesity, gay culture, gay men’s health, body image and eating practices was undertaken to inform this work. Various studies have shown that the views within gay culture on fat bodies result in feelings of body dissatisfaction, rejection, and isolation for many men, especially for those that fall outside the privileged version of male bodies or who are labelled as ‘obese’. A critical review of the literature will explore how these experiences are produced through the sexualized culture of gay men.

Preexposure Prophylaxis and Patient Centeredness

Preexposure prophylaxis has transformed HIV prevention, becoming widespread in communities of gay and bisexual men in the developed world in a short time. There is a broad concern that preexposure prophylaxis will discourage condom use among gay men (i.e., “risk compensation”). This commentary argues for broadening the focus on gay men’s health beyond sexual health to address the holistic health and well-being of gay men. Gay men may benefit from being offered candid, nonjudgmental health promotion/HIV prevention messages not requiring condom use for anal sex. Lessons can be drawn from the family planning movement, which has undergone a similar shift in focus. The principle of patient centeredness supports such a shift in gay men’s health toward the goal of providing men with the knowledge to evaluate various prevention approaches according to the specifics of their life circumstances and health needs. Bringing more nuance to discussions of sexual risk and sexual pleasure could facilitate more universally healthy attitudes regarding sex among gay men, in turn enabling healthier decisions more compatible with men’s own values and preferences.

“Aren’t Labels for Pickle Jars, Not People?” Negotiating Identity and Community in Talk About ‘Being Gay’

Understanding how people in any given population think about and experience their sexuality is fundamental to developing and implementing good health policy, research, and practice. Yet despite several decades of focus on sexual identity and HIV risk within health research, gay men as a category are often treated in an uncomplicated way. This article reports on focus group discussions held with 45 gay and other men who have sex with men in New Zealand to identify how they talked about issues of gay identity and gay community/ies. The men negotiated and renegotiated their gay identity and being gay was reported as just one part of most men’s lives. Many men did not like to be labeled as gay and downplayed aspects of their gay identity. Only a few men proclaimed being gay. Men reported very mixed experiences with the gay community/ies. Understanding how men experience being gay, provides information vital to enhancing policy, research and practice responses to gay men’s health issues. A major challenge for health service provision to appropriately engage with men who have sex with other men but resist being labeled as gay was identified.