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| The typical Tom of Finland man. |
Gay and bisexual adolescent boys in the U.S. are almost six times more likely to use illicit steroids than their straight counterparts, according to a new study from the Fenway Institute, the research arm of a Boston health center that treats gays and lesbians. Researchers said the stats show a “dramatic disparity.” Overall, 21% of gay or bisexual boys said they had ever used steroids, versus 4% of straight boys. This disparity can be traced back to a fantastically hyper-masculine image of the male body which goes all the way back to the homoerotic drawings made by Tom of Finland to contemporary gay porn. With the advent of the Internet, on-line gay pornography often comprises a confused young boy’s first mental picture of masculinity. As on the real-life gay meat market, as the study below proves, the most prized bodies are those that best mirror the gross homosexual exaggeration of maleness: tall, muscular, and beefy. The need to inject steroids merely reflects the psychological struggle inherent in all gay man: to somehow possess the ultimate masculine ideal, in a vain attempt to heal their woundedness and longing for male love. In the gay world, I saw this go in two directions: the need to bulk-up, dominate, and prove one’s masculinity by sexual aggression; the other was to completely capitulate, become submissive, and allow other men to “top” you. Either way, the problem remains unsolved.
In Europe: although legal and social equality for gay people is further advanced in the Netherlands than in most other countries, Dutch gay men have much higher rates of psychological distress than heterosexual men, Sanjay Aggarwala and Rene Gerrets wrote in the February 2014 issue of “Culture, Health & Sexuality.” A representative study of Dutch adults found that gay men were three times more likely than heterosexual men to report a mood disorder or anxiety disorder, and ten times more likely to report suicidal thoughts. The authors note that different body types are valued by different men and in different gay subcultures: “Men with a more typically masculine body type and behavior were often seen as particularly attractive, and many respondents wanted a man who was ‘straight-looking’ or ‘straight-acting…’” Not surprisingly, even within one of the most gay-friendly nations, homosexual men are still unhappy. Part of it has to do with the unrealistic mythologizing of maleness that is rampant in gay culture. In the American gay-mecca of San Francisco, I saw it every day: the restless and never ending quest for the ultimate prize – a gay super-god that will make all the pain go away. This inevitably leads to promiscuity, disappointment, bitterness, depression, and inescapably, disease; and tragically, sometimes, even death.
*It’s becoming more and more self-evident that the gay community offers no solutions to the very real problems suffered by homosexual men. It’s obvious that healing can only take place once one is removed from that world. Your life is precious and fleeting, don’t waste it chasing after phantoms.