SEX & RELATIONSHIPS
Wessex Scene Investigates: Body Image & Sex Positivity For this magazine, we conducted a survey into the sex and relationship habits of our readership to see how they perceive sex, body image, sexual activity and openness about sexuality
medical professionals or past partners altered their personal body image.
with regards to their gender and sexual orientation. We wanted to see if there is some correlation between gender identity and sexuality with body positivity and self image. We received 414 responses. We were eager to see how peoples’ sexual experiences affect their body positivity and their self esteem. With body and sex positivity seemingly on the rise across social and mainstream media, we wanted to see if this would translate to real people’s lives.
Moreover, with rising concerns over the effects of pornography and the media on body image, we wanted to see how people view their body and if that is affected by their consumption of pornography or the media. Many LGBTQ+ people may feel less represented in the mainstream media, and therefore less body positive or confident. With only 67% of our respondents being straight, our results with regards to body positivity later on do definitley correlate with this idea amongst those who make up part of the queer community.
The gender identities of those who participated in our survey are as follows: Number of cisgender women who responded: 283 Number of cisgender men who responded: 118 Number of queer people who responded: 1 Number of non-binary people who responded: 8 Those who preferred not to say: 2 Other: 2
In the first part of our results, we were keen to focus on the amount people say they feel positive about their body image. With growing levels of mental health issues, eating disorders and body dysmorphia across the country (and the world in fact), people are becoming more and more aware of the way their
Importantly, the sexualities represented in our sample were as below: Our largest proportion of respondents were straight or bisexual cisgender women. We were keen to see how the gender or sexual orientation of our respondents affects their body image, body confidence and self esteem. It was also important for us to see how the treatment of people of any gender or sexuality by
bodies look, or how they believe they look. We asked people how they feel about their body image on a scale from 1-10, with 1 being poorly and 10 being very happy with their body. We received very mixed responses to this question. Admittedly, when asking it, I expected the results to be a lot more black and white. However, what we can see is that our lowest answer in this question, 2.9%, belonged to those feeling most enthusiastic about their body image, and the highest sat at 3, a below 5 response to positivity about body image. I would therefore suggest that this question does show us that those who answered our survey are not particularly positive about their body image.
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Sex & Relationships
