Sitting in a pub in Brighton this week, I cast my eyes around the bar. Butch dykes with big bellies and big tattoos, eco femmes with their trademark dreadlocks, graceful androgynes, short-sporting gym bunnies and girly girls alike sat drinking in cocooned harmony. But in this room of gay ladies young and old, a staggering new realisation lurked. One in five of these women has an eating disorder.
Stonewall, the UK’s leading LGBT equality organisation, which was founded in 1989 following the struggle against Section 28 (a homophobic piece of legislation that was finally repealed in England in 2003).
In the biggest study of lesbian and bisexual women's health needs ever completed outside America, Stonewall surveyed over 6,000 women and has now released its results.
The entire report – or Pink News’ handy breakdown of the key findings – is really worth a read, but the section that’s making waves is the news that lesbian and bi women are four times more likely to develop an eating disorder than women in the general population. That’s one in five gay women with an eating disorder compared with one in twenty straight women.
For some, this comes as shocking news in a community historically known for its feminist leanings and rejection of conventional beauty ideals. How could it be that so many gay women are so distressed, either because of or about their bodies?
Well, for a start, perhaps that ‘anything goes’ feminist bodily utopia is simply a thing of the past; it certainly isn’t the lesbian scene I’ve experienced (though perhaps I’m looking in the wrong place; if you can enlighten me, please do!). Wide-eyed and just out of college, I had my naïve visions of an open, accepting, body-positive gay sisterhood swiftly squashed on my first visit to a lesbian bar, where I endured a more thorough and blatant ‘checking out’ than I’d ever experienced in a straight club.
Lesbian dating forums (where datees often exercise a ‘No Bis’ policy; more on that in a future Bi Weekly…) are a kind of gay ‘pick me’ parade, where women are searchable by body type, bust size and body hair, and photos and stats are rigorously examined; none of that old-school ‘personality first, looks later’ nonsense here.
And then there’s Role Model, a lesbian beauty contest that Eric Morley would’ve been proud of (slickness and sophistication omitted). As the competition unfolded earlier this year, 12 finalists paraded up and down the catwalk, nervously modelling a range of outfits, answering the odd question, and eventually, to a chorus of whoops, cheers and yells from the all-female audience, stripping down to their underwear for the ‘Lingerie’ category.
So is there anything wrong with lesbians and bi women taking the time to *fully* appreciate the female form, often in public and often with narrow requirements for body shape and size? After all, who doesn’t get a rush of appreciation when they see someone gorgeous in the street, and who isn’t looking for a partner – one-night, lifetime or otherwise – that they’re physically as well as emotionally attracted to? Is there anything wrong with gay women catching up with how men have been looking at women for decades, with an upsurge of lesbian club nights that feature a chorus of surgically enhanced strippers? Is all that baying for nudity a form of rebellion, a kind of lesbian ladette uprising after years of repression? It’s certainly an expression of what anyone sensible has been saying for years: that men and women aren’t that different, and men certainly don’t have the monopoly on getting off on visual stimuli.
But could it be that lesbian culture, in the rush to embrace the notion that sometimes women are nothing more than a great arse or a fine pair of toned arms, is doing women harm?
So, far no-one knows the answer. Clinical studies suggest that gay men are at increased risk from eating disorders because of the intense focus on appearance in gay male subculture. Other researchers speculate that it’s gender identity that determines your vulnerability to eating disorders, not sexuality (the idea being that if you have a more ‘feminine’ identity you’re more susceptible to feeling pressure around body image), while others conclude that younger generations are simply more vulnerable to media and social messages about the ‘right’ way to look.
Friends and colleagues are quick to highlight the pressures of coming out and coming to terms with your sexual identity as likely culprits for triggering disordered responses to food. One bi friend describes how a huge number of her gay female friends have experienced abuse, and wonders if eating disorders emerge as a kind of control mechanism to ‘take back the power’. Thinking back to a recent ex, I wonder if the body becomes a site of anxiety when you’re confronted with your same-sex partner’s different – and perhaps ‘better’ – one lying naked next to yours.
So far, little research has explored precisely why eating disorders are at such a high amongst gay women, and bisexual women’s role in all of this is still mysterious; does facing the gaze of both men and women mean double the pressure to conform to an ideal look or shape? Stonewall’s ground-breaking report is a resounding call for us all to start listening, and to start finding out. As one in five lesbian and bisexual women will tell you, we need to know these answers, and soon.
If you are concerned that you, or a friend, relative or a partner, have problems which involve eating disorder issues you can contact BEAT, on 0845 634 1414 or via www.b-eat.co.uk
London Lesbian & Gay Switchboard (LLGS) provides information, support and referrals for LGBT people across the UK. The helpline – tel: 020 7837 7324, textphone: 020 7689 8501 – operates from 10am to 11pm, seven days a week.