What's the skinny on Gay Skinny?

Gay Skinny.

It's something I have joked with my friends about for years.

"Oh, he looks great for a straight guy, but he's morbidly obese in the gay world."

A Google search of "gay skinny" popped up this op-ed piece from The Redeye, a Chicago daily news publication.

"A guy such as myself who is 6 feet tall and weighs 175 pounds is considered thin by most hetero standards. But the minute he steps into a gay bar he is met with screams of terror. OK, I exaggerate, a bit. You may be Ryan Reynolds at the Hangge-Uppe, but you quickly become Kevin Fat-erline as soon as you enter Minibar. It's hard to celebrate your body as it is when you have an entire community and marketing campaigns saying you could be better.

Just as women are faced with airbrushed female models on fashion mags, gay men are smacked with a barrage of unrealistic body images. Open any national gay magazine or local publication geared toward the gay community and you will see ridiculously buff men." -- Jason Steele

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/redeye/2010/02/heres-the-skinny-on-gay-fat-spanx.html

I couldn't have put it better myself.

I would say that that not only is it ridiculously buffed men, but it's also hairless twinks, etc.

I am a product of the marriage of French and English genes -- I have body hair. There, I said it. And I for one don't have the time, energy or budget to remove every bit of it. Do I let it grow into my own personal Chewbacca costume, eh no. But I'm also not going to dip myself in Nair every time beach season rolls around.

Why are the conventional hotties in the gay world hairless, chiseled or twinkish? They certainly aren't the majority?

I remember one session with my therapist when I talked about my experiences with Weight Watchers in 2008 (remember, when I was surviving on about 300 calories or so). I was recounting how I had went to a popular gay bar in Chicago for Musical Theatre Monday's and a guy who had rejected me the year prior when I was heavy approached me and asked me out. I had thought that a moment like this a) only happened in movies and b) would feel great, but it just felt lousy. I guess I was "pretty" but more than that I was F***ING HUNGRY!!! :)

I'd like to be done with the ambition of "gay skinny."

New goal: "Healthy AJ"