TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘Let the ladies know’
T2 - queer women’s perceptions of how gender and sexual orientation shape their eating and weight concerns
AU - Simone, Melissa
AU - Askew, Autumn J.
AU - Beccia, Ariel L.
AU - Cusack, Claire E.
AU - Pisetsky, Emily M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - This exploratory study aimed to describe the lived experiences of queer women affected by eating and weight-related concerns. Qualitative data from young queer women (n = 105; Age = 23.6 ± 3.4 years) with eating and weight-related concerns in response to open-ended questions related to the influence of gender identity and body image on weight concern, behaviours, and perception were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Nine themes were created to describe participants’ experiences: (1) compensation for other internalised stigma, (2) to suppress body parts that can be gendered or sexualised, (3) comparisons to romantic partners’ bodies, (4) media representations, (5) queer signalling, (6) queerness as protective, (7) gender expression and dysphoria, (8) societal expectations of women’s bodies, and (9) internalisation of body/beauty ideals. Seven sub-themes were created to represent beauty ideals for specific subcultural communities (e.g. femme, butch). Findings suggest that queer women attribute individual, interpersonal and social factors to weight concerns, behaviours and perceptions. Findings highlight how complex tensions between the beauty/body ideals experienced in cisheteronormative and queer spaces influence eating and weight concerns among queer women. Gender, sexual orientation and subcultural ideals intersect in important ways, and may be useful to consider when screening, treating and preventing eating and weight concerns among queer women.
AB - This exploratory study aimed to describe the lived experiences of queer women affected by eating and weight-related concerns. Qualitative data from young queer women (n = 105; Age = 23.6 ± 3.4 years) with eating and weight-related concerns in response to open-ended questions related to the influence of gender identity and body image on weight concern, behaviours, and perception were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Nine themes were created to describe participants’ experiences: (1) compensation for other internalised stigma, (2) to suppress body parts that can be gendered or sexualised, (3) comparisons to romantic partners’ bodies, (4) media representations, (5) queer signalling, (6) queerness as protective, (7) gender expression and dysphoria, (8) societal expectations of women’s bodies, and (9) internalisation of body/beauty ideals. Seven sub-themes were created to represent beauty ideals for specific subcultural communities (e.g. femme, butch). Findings suggest that queer women attribute individual, interpersonal and social factors to weight concerns, behaviours and perceptions. Findings highlight how complex tensions between the beauty/body ideals experienced in cisheteronormative and queer spaces influence eating and weight concerns among queer women. Gender, sexual orientation and subcultural ideals intersect in important ways, and may be useful to consider when screening, treating and preventing eating and weight concerns among queer women.
KW - Body image ideals
KW - disordered eating
KW - lived experiences
KW - queer women
KW - weight concern
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85151362934&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85151362934&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13691058.2023.2189931
DO - 10.1080/13691058.2023.2189931
M3 - Article
C2 - 37000045
AN - SCOPUS:85151362934
SN - 1369-1058
VL - 26
SP - 108
EP - 125
JO - Culture, Health and Sexuality
JF - Culture, Health and Sexuality
IS - 1
ER -