Abstract: Gay men’ body image have been the focus of research over the past 30 years. Gay men report greater levels of poor body image, body dissatisfaction and eating disorders compared to heterosexual men. The ideal gay man’s body is constructed by researchers and theorists as thin and muscle. To account for the phenomena of body image in gay men, researchers have tended to speculate about the contribution of a range of social-cultural and psychological factors. It includes the sexual objectification theory, sociocultural theory, internalized homonegativity, evolution psychology hypothesis, the role of sex role and AIDS/HIV. Integration and diversity should be the future directions of research. Two factors should be concerned in the method, which are Internet-based recruitment and phenomenological analysis. Culture specificity of Chinese gay men is also should be concerned.

Key words: gay men, body image, sexual objectification theory, internalized homonegativity, AIDS/HIV