Lesbians ‘Have Higher Heart Disease Risk’

14 Sep 2003 By

Lesbians are generally fatter and have a higher risk of heart disease compared to other women, a study suggests. They say it’s because lesbians are less concerned about their body image (and previous research shows lesbians are less likely to think they’re overweight). They also say that lesbians tend to have more problems controlling their weight (but they’re not sure why).

“Weight control is often perceived as a conventionally feminine behaviour,” she said.

“A strategy that de-emphasises traditional feminine values may be the most effective for lesbians.”

Folks joke about “chubby lesbians” all the time. The health risk aspect of being overweight is not something to take lightly. And it’s not like people haven’t heard that message. I’m not sure a new marketing campaign is the way to go.

The related body image issue is the bigger story. We already know that the boyz have a higher occurrence of body image concerns than the general male population. Lesbians do not feel the need to entice the fellas (and the general public). Are we fat and happy? Or depressed fat? Is it an act of rebellion against the idea of what a woman should look like in this society? Are we permissive? Do we just not care? Is that good or bad?

Interestingly, the lesbians in the picture accompanying the article are not chubby.

(via DykeWrite)

  • http://feministe.us/blog/ ms lauren

    i know this was not the intended reaction i was supposed to have, but this article made me laugh.

    i’ll come back and address it once i put my maturity hat back on.

  • http://www.swirlspice.com Erica

    Heh. Time out for Lauren. ;)

  • http://feministe.us/blog/ ms lauren

    okay – questioning 300 lesbians in CA and comparing them to 300 hetero women in CA is a big difference than actually conducting REAL research. first off, to make claims like this one, you have to have a larger population to question,. secondly they have to live somewhere other than CALIFORNIA – the state most concerned with VANITY. thirdly, i’m still laughing a little. i’ll have to come back again and make REAL real comments.

  • http://www.nvelopes.net Heather

    Sorry but as far as “heart disease risk is higher for lesbians” — bring it on! I’d rather fight that than live in the stressed societies of having to “look good” (whatever that means) for a man. On the other hand, I think people, in general, are more at risk these days than ohh say 1960s or so. No real surprise there! It cracks me up that people get paid to study this. It’s logical. But then again Lauren’s right, try studying an array of people rather than from one country, state and most probably town!

  • http://www.swirlspice.com Erica

    Though the study itself may be a bit flawed, the conclusions don’t seem that far-fetched to me. It seems to me the real message is “lesbians are more likely to be overweight” than jumping all the way to [insert health consequence of being overweight]. I’d like to see more on the self-image issue. There probably is stuff out there but I don’t feel like researching at the moment.