Instagram influencer Mina Gerges first went viral in 2015 for his hilarious recreations of celebrity divas’ artistic fashion photos. In most of them, he posed and dressed seductively like Beyoncé, Rihanna and Kim Kardashian, but often with a slice of pizza accentuating his curvy bod. Now, in a recent interview with Paper magazine, 23-year-old Gerges reveals the fame attracted homophobic and body-shaming commenters who compelled him to deactivate his account for eight months. But now he’s back and pushing back against gay body shame, an issue prevalent on the photo sharing platform (and in the LGBTQ community in general).
“Growing up, I never saw men who looked like me in magazines or in movies, so I always felt invisible,” Gerges says. “We’re used to seeing representations of men that set up impossible standards and imply that the only men who are entitled to being considered attractive and being seen by the public are white and thin.”
Gerges says that at age 20, he developed an eating disorder — something that affects the LGBTQ community at high rates than the general population — and started spending three hours a day at the gym, running 10 kilometers everyday staring at a picture of a man with six-pack abs every time he wanted to eat junk food.
“It makes me sad to think about how much I punished my body and hated it for its inability to look a certain way,” he says.
Indeed, a September 2017 study found that gay and bi men who watch lots of gay porn (filled with idealized muscular bodies) tend to experience more anxiety and body dissatisfaction.
From October 2015 to June 2016, he deactivated his account for a mental health break. But now he’s back in the spotlight for sharing his story of reclaiming his mental health and body.
He lost nearly 60 pounds from February to September 2016, not to become more “attractive” but to embrace healthier living. And he’s trying to embrace his stretch marks and curves for the other queer men also struggling with body image issues.
“[Gay body shaming] filters into the kind of attitude people have when they write ‘no fats no fems’ in their dating app bios, and it’s evident when you see the Instagays who post shirtless pictures to their thousands of followers who idolize their bodies,” he says. “I hope that as a community, we can dismantle these problematic attitudes that so many have normalized and work to be more inclusive and diverse.”
Check out more amazing posts by Mina Gerges and his hilarious fight against gay body shame:
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