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Lesbian Body Dissatisfaction: The Roles Of Gender Identity, Body-Gender Identity Incongruence, And Internalized Appearance Ideals, Christine Laura Beck

Doctoral Dissertations

Given the gendered nature of body dissatisfaction and the especially varied experience of gender identity within lesbian subculture, the current study investigated how lesbians’ gender identities may account for differences in lesbian body dissatisfaction. More specifically, I examined gender identity, body-gender identity incongruence, and lesbian subtype as predictors of lesbian body dissatisfaction. In addition, I examined the potential moderating role of internalization of trait appearance ideals (both thin and mesomorphic ideals) in the gender identityàbody dissatisfaction link. The current study of 427 lesbians revealed that some aspects of gender identity uniquely predict lesbian body dissatisfaction, namely measures assessing stereotypical male …