“But he was so much taller than me!”: How self and partner body characteristics influence condom use between gay and bisexual men

For most gay and bisexual men, casual anal intercourse partners (AIPs) are selected on the basis of physical attributes. The height, weight, hairiness, muscularity, and penis size of oneself and one's partner can play crucial roles in whether sex will occur. However, the role of these physical body characteristics has been understudied regarding safer sex. That is, do such characteristics contribute unique variance towards condom use? Does how far individuals vary from their AIPs on attributes matter? A sample of 536 men (cruising for sex online) completed questions regarding sexual behaviors, self-body characteristics (i.e., comparative height, weight, hairiness, muscularity, and penis size), and partner-body characteristics. Results indicated that the average man in the sample reported 7 AIPs in the previous year and “usually” wore condoms. Increased number of partners was associated with being more muscular and taller; decreased number of partners was associated with being heavier. Contrast scores of the men's attributes subtracted by their partners' showed positive main and quadratic effects for height and muscularity on number of AIPs. Finally, while only a negative linear effect was found for men's weight predicting condom use and none of the partner characteristics alone predicted differences, 4 of the 5 contrast scores (all but weight) showed negative quadratic effects towards condom use. Men with more valuable male physical traits (e.g., muscularity) tend to have more partners; however, when factoring in condom use, the traits themselves are somewhat irrelevant. It is the higher perceived positive and/or negative difference between the self and the partner that drives decreased condom use. Attention might be made towards men who tend to gravitate towards physically exotic partners (e.g., “chub chasers,” “size queens”). Men who choose a partner with contrasting body attributes may use such differences as proxy measures of serostatus (i.e., “taller men don't have HIV”).