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As the dating app , new research shows have more body image concerns and lower self-esteem.

appearance take centre stage. In other words, the , the more likely you are to be clicked, swiped or hit upon by other users.

But whether men use Tinder or not, most will dissatisfaction with some aspect of their appearance. This could be anything from height, body hair, muscularity, skin tautness, shoe size, penis size, facial symmetry, head hair amount and more. Sadly there are few areas of the body men .

The body beautiful?

Over the last few decades boys' and men's appearances have come under increasing scrutiny. This is largely because in the 1980s businesses finally started exploiting a relatively untapped market: the appearance insecurities of men.

To demonstrate - today men are sold anti-cellulite cream for their pecs, hair transplants for their facial hair and "manscara" for their eyes. Then there are the boys' action dolls that have gained muscle and . Add this to the fact that 80% of the men featured in popular media such as are of a muscular body build – with many of these models in the weeks leading up to photos shoots to .

These models also tend to have a full head of hair and symmetrical faces. The same goes for – where almost all of the men featured are equally ripped and stereotypically "handsome".

It's unsurprising then that boys today feel they are growing up in a world which focuses . Of course, this is a problem that . And in the way that this has impacted girls for so long, now this pressure is impacting on boys' well-being. found almost one in five boys had resorted to diet pills, purging, skipping meals, steroids or tanning products to change their appearance.

White washing

But beyond appearance pressures, dating apps are doubly damaging because they often operate in a sphere where .

The dating app OKCupid recently . The company found that compared to black, Asian or minority ethnic users, white users got more messages. White users were also found to be less likely to reply or match with users of a different race to themselves, and more likely to question interracial marriage.

from Australia also found that 15% of gay men on the dating app Grindr included sexual racism on their profiles. This was more likely to be the case if the profile user was white, and if the user held broader racist views.

I too have noticed gay men who write offensive terms that specify race preferences on their profiles – such as "Black=block", "no gaysians" or even "no chocolate or rice". In its terms and conditions Grindr bans offensive speech. Which is in part why, three years ago, I started a Twitter account, to encourage Grindr to remove offensive profiles. Disappointingly Grindr has often been slow to act though – meaning present .

Dating elite

Of course apps aren't the cause of racism around sexual preferences. Instead like appearance pressures, users are influenced by what's going on in wider society. By not tackling those problems in society, however, – for example cracking down on offensive speech – apps can act as enablers for racism and insecurity.

So while in some ways, these apps have brought our dating lives into the 21st century – where and where gay men can meet other – in other ways, they also remind me of the 1950s, a time when shops would hang "No Blacks" and when magazines like Playboy relentlessly .

Ultimately given that more people are using , they need to work for everyone – not just those who are "attractive" or white.

This article was originally published on . Read the .