Body Image and Disordered Eating in Sexual and Gender Minorities: a review of the intersectional literature

Sexual and Gender Minorities (SGMs) have been found to be at a heightened risk of developing negative Body Image (BI) and Disordered Eating (DE) behaviours, in part due to specific minority stressors. A growing body of literature (Nowicki et al., 2022; O’Flynn et al., 2023) suggests the intersection between multiple identities (e.g., sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity, etc) may play a role in determining related health outcomes in SGMs, particularly identities that heighten the risk of stressful experiences. Specific intersections may compound or reduce BI-related and DE-related risks, which may partially explain the significant differences in prevalence observed between SGM groups (e.g., the experience of bisexual cisgender women, or bisexual black men). Moreover, an intersectional perspective may be helpful in explaining specificities related to symptomatology in each subgroup, as culturally specific factors shaping body image ideals and subsequent BI-related and DE-related perceptions and behaviours can vary by subgroup. These findings highlight the importance of developing intersectionality-informed research (e.g., collecting identity-related data, avoiding grouping separate identities) and health practices and services (Burke et al., 2020) that respect and take the uniqueness of identity-related personal experiences into account.