Four Decades of Images in Gay Male-Targeted Magazines

Abstract

This study content-analyzed 1,578 male images from the highest-circulation magazines targeted to gay men, The Advocate and Out, from 1967 to 2008. Social comparison theory served as a theoretical framework. Images consistently had low levels of body fat and high levels of muscularity. Moreover, the percentage of images with the lowest level of body fat increased over time while the percentage of images with the highest level of muscularity also increased. Compared to magazines directed toward heterosexual men, images directed toward gay men were about as muscular but substantially thinner.