Do Dating Apps Affect How Sexual Minority Men Feel About Their Bodies? It Depends on Who You Ask

What is it about?

Many gay, bisexual, and queer men use dating apps, and past research has linked frequent use to feeling worse about one's body. But this assumes all users experience apps the same way. This study looked more closely by asking: does it matter which type of app someone uses, and does it matter whether someone identifies with a specific body-based community like "twink," "jock," "bear," or "cub"? These identities, called "subcultural appearance identities," are common in sexual minority male culture and roughly split into two camps: some (twinks, jocks, otters) center around being lean and toned, while others (bears, cubs, chubs) celebrate larger bodies. We surveyed 532 sexual minority men about their use of six popular dating apps—including Tinder, Hinge, and Grindr—and about their body image, including how much they wanted to look leaner or more muscular, how much pressure they felt to look a certain way, and how satisfied they were with their bodies overall. Men who used dating apps, in general, wanted more muscular bodies and felt less satisfied with their own bodies than men who didn't use any apps. Among app users, using swipe-based apps like Tinder or Hinge more often was linked to wanting a leaner body and feeling worse about one's body. Grindr use, on its own, wasn't linked to either. Men who identified as "lean" types (twinks, jocks, otters) wanted the leanest bodies. Men who identified as "nonlean" types (bears, cubs, chubs) wanted the largest bodies. Men with no identity fell in between. Interestingly, everyone, regardless of group, wanted to be more muscular, suggesting that muscularity is valued across the board even among communities that reject the "lean" ideal. For men who identified with body-positive communities like bears or cubs, using Grindr more often was associated with less pressure from the media to sport an ideal appearance and less dissatisfaction with their bodies. But for men who identified with lean-oriented groups, more Grindr use was associated with more pressure from the media to sport an ideal appearance and a more internalized pursuit of the lean, muscular ideal.

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Why is it important?

The association between dating app usage and body dissatisfaction among sexual minority men varies based on each app’s features and intended audience, as well as the user’s own appearance-based subcultural identity. These findings can inform future research on dating apps and sexual minority populations, and in practice, encourage mental health practitioners to consider whether and how their sexual minority male clients use dating apps and how they identify with particular appearance-based subcultures.