These scales make the assumption that if an individual does not want to be more muscular, they must be more accepting of their body.īody dissatisfaction may be more salient for GBM versus heterosexual men. Furthermore, others like Morrison and colleagues (2007) have used scales examining only muscularity, which focuses on how important muscularity is to individuals in terms of gaining muscle or wanting particular parts of one’s body to be more muscular. However, social physique anxiety is restricted to examining the extent people feel anxious while showing their body in public and not how they feel about it when they are alone or in other situations. For example Duggan and McCreary (2004) reported a significant positive association between SEM and social physique anxiety for gay and bisexual men (GBM). However, measuring body dissatisfaction among men varies as there is no gold standard definition, scale, or operationalization that has been used across a multitude of studies. A meta-analysis by Fiske, Fallon, Blissmer, and Redding (2014) reported that as few as 8% and as high as 61% of men in the United States have body dissatisfaction, which is thought to be in response to media representations of men presenting the ideal male figure meeting masculine norms as “strong with broad shoulders and muscular” ( Mishkind, Rodin, Silberstein, & Striegel-Moore, 2001 Raudenbush & Zellner, 1997). Numerous studies have found that the media is one of the largest factors influencing body dissatisfaction ( Cafri, Yamamiya, Brannick, & Thompson, 2005 De Jesus et al., 2015 Jones & Crawford, 2005 Ricciardelli & McCabe, 2001 Ricciardelli, McCabe, & Banfield, 2000 Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999). One of the mechanisms through which SEM consumption may be associated with negative mental health outcomes is through the development of body dissatisfaction. Schneider (2000) conducted qualitative interviews with 45 men and 10 women, many of whom were current or former sex addicts, and found associations between viewing SEM and “depression and other emotional problems”. creating harm in work, school, or personal relationships) via loneliness ( Kim, LaRose, & Peng, 2009 Yoder, Virden III, & Amin, 2005). Similarly, other studies have linked SEM consumption to negative life outcomes (e.g. Results showed that viewing SEM resulted in higher levels of anxious symptomology for those that were also experiencing clinical levels of experiential avoidance, but not for those whose levels of experiential avoidance had not reached clinical levels. Levin, Lillis, and Hayes (2012) utilized a sample of 157 undergraduate college males and investigated the association between SEM consumption, anxiety, and using experiential avoidance as a moderator. The association between SEM and negative affect has received some attention in literature, but is often overshadowed by research examining behavioral outcomes such as sexual violence and sexual risk behaviors ( Hald, Malamuth, & Yuen, 2010 Nelson et al., 2014 Rosser, et al., 2012 Rosser et al., 2013). anxiety and depression) ( Levin, Lillis, & Hayes, 2012 Morgan, 2011 Ybarra & Mitchell, 2005 Zillmann & Bryant, 1988). Research on SEM consumption has suggested mixed effects, including some positive outcomes, but also negative outcomes such as unrealistic sexual expectations and negative affect (i.e. With more than 4.2 million SEM websites (12% of total internet websites) and over 28,000 people viewing SEM on the internet every second ( Ropelato, 2006), consumption of SEM has become pervasive. Sexually explicit media (SEM) has proliferated rapidly since the advent of the internet, with the adult entertainment industry increasing in value by more than 1300% from 1970 to 2006 ( Carroll et al., 2008 Egan, 2000 Rosser et al., 2012).