The role of pornography consumption and body satisfaction on eating disorder symptoms in queer and heterosexual men

Abstract

Queer men experience higher rates of eating disorder symptoms and body dissatisfaction than their heterosexual counterparts and are more influenced by media, such as pornography. The link between pornography’s influence queer men’s body satisfaction and their eating disorder symptoms has not been heavily studied. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to investigate this connection, which could inspire more focused intervention methods for queer men. This study investigated self-report data of a sample of queer and heterosexual men in the Netherlands – including their pornography consumption, body satisfaction, and eating disorder symptoms. While the low number of participants may prevent the study’s generalisability, two multiple linear regressions showed that higher levels of pornography consumption were predictive of higher levels of eating disorder symptoms, with low body satisfaction moderating this relationship. No direct link between sexual orientation and eating disorder symptoms was shown.