Obesity Among Lesbians And Straight Men

Ann Althouse quotes from a story the NIH giving out some grant money to researchers trying to figure out what is going on with orientation and obesity:

It is now well-established that women of minority sexual orientation are disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic.... In stark contrast, among men, heterosexual males have nearly double the risk of obesity compared to gay males.

Althouse goes on to ask:

What is your seat-of-the-pants folk wisdom on the subject — that those who want to be sexually appealing to males must deal with the way males sexuality is visually fixated?

So I guess that's her folk wisdom right there - that males, regardless of orientation, tend to be visual lusters, in a way that women are not. And that this drives straight women and gay men to worry about their weight and relentlessly pursue diets, etc. And that this is actually somewhat effective.

Well, I'm inclined to agree with her.

Strangely enough, this is a case where the demanding male gaze, statistically, may be leading to greater female health.

Somehow all those diets in the women's magazines,
may actually be useful for fitting into jeans.