Poll: How do you rate your own appearance?

[Grabbin Keelz]

I'm not muscular nor fat, just a stick with devilishly good hair and a sweet hat.

 

[Riobux]

I'm an ugly mess.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

Gay or straight scales matter a lot here. Expectations differ substantially.

So true. Sometimes I think gay men are worse than straight women with body issues.

Fixed it for you.

 

[DustyDrB]

Spoiler: I'm a real good lookin boy

No, I used to say I was average. But then I got in shape and finally found a haircut that works for me. Now I'm...dammit I'm gonna have to youtube link twice in this post...

Spoiler: My view of myself at 0:24

 

[SovietSecrets]

I'm an all right looking guy I guess.

 

[loc978]

...there's no option for incredibly sexy yeti-man hybrid...

 

[Dags90]

Fixed it for you.

But gay men aren't any worse off than straight men [http://www.msoe.edu/life_at_msoe/current_student_resources/student_resources/counseling_services/newsletters_for_mental_health/body_image_dissatisfaction.shtml] when it comes to body issues. They're just more likely to do the wrong things about it.

 

[144_v1legacy]

Gay or straight scales matter a lot here. Expectations differ substantially.

So true. Sometimes I think gay men are worse than straight women with body issues.

Fixed it for you.

I don't believe that to be true. As a guy, I think that guys, straight or gay, have the ability to sense how attractive another male is and put themselves in the position of, say, a girl looking for a partner. I imagine this is similar for girls. I also imagine that these expectations only seem to exist to straight people or other gay people because of limited supply. But who knows.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

Gay or straight scales matter a lot here. Expectations differ substantially.

So true. Sometimes I think gay men are worse than straight women with body issues.

Fixed it for you.

I don't believe that to be true. As a guy, I think that guys, straight or gay, have the ability to sense how attractive another male is and put themselves in the position of, say, a girl looking for a partner. I imagine this is similar for girls. I also imagine that these expectations only seem to exist to straight people or other gay people because of limited supply. But who knows.

My experience has suggested that it's pretty true. I've seen countless men that women swoon over rejected as "average at best" by a gay audience. This is the classic problem of the gay guy constantly told by women that they don't understand why he can't get a date since they perceive him as extremely attractive. Hell, you can roughly quantify this pretty easily - just ask women what number they rate a guy and then ask gay men. The numbers trend pretty systematically downward in almost all cases.

I'm completely willing to believe, as another poster pointed out, that self-esteem and self body image are pretty identical for gay and straight males, but when it comes to the judging of others, gay culture fetishizes youth, thinness, and physical attractiviness in men far, far beyond the level of straight culture.

 

[144_v1legacy]

I don't believe that to be true. As a guy, I think that guys, straight or gay, have the ability to sense how attractive another male is and put themselves in the position of, say, a girl looking for a partner. I imagine this is similar for girls. I also imagine that these expectations only seem to exist to straight people or other gay people because of limited supply. But who knows.

My experience has suggested that it's pretty true. I've seen countless men that women swoon over rejected as "average at best" by a gay audience. This is the classic problem of the gay guy constantly told by women that they don't understand why he can't get a date since they perceive him as extremely attractive. Hell, you can roughly quantify this pretty easily - just ask women what number they rate a guy and then ask gay men. The numbers trend pretty systematically downward in almost all cases.

I'm completely willing to believe, as another poster pointed out, that self-esteem and self body image are pretty identical for gay and straight males, but when it comes to the judging of others, gay culture fetishizes youth, thinness, and physical attractiviness in men far, far beyond the level of straight culture.

Huh. I've been touted as attractive by both genders alike, but more gays have made (obvious) advances upon me than girls. If what you're saying is that gays simply have higher standards, then I find contradiction. If what you're saying is that gays and straights have the expectations expected from their opposite gender, than perhaps they should judge themselves as though they are the other gender for this study, I wonder. Just a curiosity, I guess...

 

[burningdragoon]

Above average at least. Sometimes I think I look pretty good, though I rarely see a photo of myself that I like. I've also had some lady friends inform me that I looked pretty good. So... I don't know what to vote on the poll...

I'm a pretty ugly girl, 2/10 on a bad day, 3/10 on a good day.

Well, not only are you not giving yourself enough credit, but you clearly have two eyes.
/lame joke



Okay one of the captchas had an umlaut, what the hell?

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

I'm a good looking guy. I could stand to lose a rather large amount of weight however. I've got a handsome face and personality, but the gut I could do without.

 

[Dags90]

Huh. I've been touted as attractive by both genders alike, but more gays have made (obvious) advances upon me than girls. If what you're saying is that gays simply have higher standards, than I find contradiction. If what you're saying is that gays and straights have the expectations expected from their opposite gender, than perhaps they should judge themselves as though they are the other gender for this study, I wonder. Just a curiosity, I guess...

That or gays are more likely to make overt advances, that would pretty much get rid of any contradiction. Or it could just be a sampling error.

 

[DefunctTheory]

I'm good looking. Nothing hansom about me, but everything's correctly portioned and in the right place.

Most women say my eyes are my best feature though. And they'd kill for my thick hair and eyelashes, it seems.

 

[templargunman]

I'm an average looking guy I guess. I don't particularly pay much attention to my looks.

 

[xdom125x]

Whenever I see myself in the mirror, I can say 1 thing for sure "My look is not sexually appealing. I look like I should be the uncool but cute(like a kid) brother of the guy getting all the girls."
So 4 out of 10.

 

[Odbarc]

I'm healthy looking. I'd say a 5 or a 6. But I'm one of those guys who rates people as 1's, not a "5 is a minimum" scale.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

I don't believe that to be true. As a guy, I think that guys, straight or gay, have the ability to sense how attractive another male is and put themselves in the position of, say, a girl looking for a partner. I imagine this is similar for girls. I also imagine that these expectations only seem to exist to straight people or other gay people because of limited supply. But who knows.

My experience has suggested that it's pretty true. I've seen countless men that women swoon over rejected as "average at best" by a gay audience. This is the classic problem of the gay guy constantly told by women that they don't understand why he can't get a date since they perceive him as extremely attractive. Hell, you can roughly quantify this pretty easily - just ask women what number they rate a guy and then ask gay men. The numbers trend pretty systematically downward in almost all cases.

I'm completely willing to believe, as another poster pointed out, that self-esteem and self body image are pretty identical for gay and straight males, but when it comes to the judging of others, gay culture fetishizes youth, thinness, and physical attractiviness in men far, far beyond the level of straight culture.

Huh. I've been touted as attractive by both genders alike, but more gays have made (obvious) advances upon me than girls. If what you're saying is that gays simply have higher standards, then I find contradiction. If what you're saying is that gays and straights have the expectations expected from their opposite gender, than perhaps they should judge themselves as though they are the other gender for this study, I wonder. Just a curiosity, I guess...

First, what I'm saying is that the overwhelming generalization is that gay men will rate men as less attractive than heterosexual women will. Counting advances might be a problematically indirect means of measurement since there are a lot of situations where gay men are far more willing to make advances than heterosexual women tend to be. As I said though, as a general rule, if you get attractiveness ratings from both groups, the ratings from gay men will tend to be lower. There's probably also a ceiling effect here - so if you're really attractive, the scores aren't going to differ a lot and people closer to the middle are going to be better indicators of the trend.

I think that you wouldn't see the effect at all as clearly if you asked people to rate their OWN attractiveness since the amount of self-doubt seems to be pretty even across sexuality. The reason I initially brought it up is that I was intending to answer according to what I think other people think of me, attempting to take into consideration the difference.

 

[Plurralbles]

199 guys ont he escapist are honest.

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

I'm... alright. I would just call myself average, but, according to others, I am actually rather good-looking. I don't know what to think.