There is a Calvin Klein commerical for a cologne running currently with a very good looking young man/boy who looks about 18-19 years old, and he is so pretty he not so such “handsome” as he is “beautiful”. He is goofing around in his room and doing all kinds of goofy stunts with his skateboard for the camera as he films himself.
The way he is moving and trying to be seductive and the last shot with his pants at half mast showing his underwear as he rotates his hips makes me think (well screams really) this as must be mainly for a gay audience, but then it occurs to me that this is not necessarily the case and that young girls like pretty boys too.
The more I thought about it I realized that I really don’t have a good handle on what differentiates eroticism that appeals to gay men from eroticsm that appeals to heterosexual women. Is there really any substantive difference?
You mean besides the whole “men are usually more visually stimulated than women” thing? The biggest difference is there are a lot of women who wouldn’t dream of popping a porn DVD into the dvd player, but will read tons of erotica/romance novels (which are basically the same thing with a bit of plot thrown in.) I know that it’s not all women, since some women loves them some hardcore porn but…there are a lot of us who don’t find it all that appealing, anyway.
I know the commercial you’re talking about, and while I think the guy is pretty cute (and in his 20’s not his teens), it doesn’t “do” anything for me, if you know what I mean
Most women I’ve known enjoyed images of attractive men, but it wasn’t just any attractive man in general, no matter how cute or ‘beautiful’ he is - there’s usually a few that they fawn over, like a certain rock singer, or an actor, or random everyday guy. Others don’t get the same level of attention that men pay to your everyday sexy stranger.
Now that I think about it, I’m starting to think a lot of advertising I saw that I thought was aimed at women may have been intended for the gay male audience. Probably more effective with them, and I bet they have more disposable income than your average woman as well.
My husband is of the opinion that when it comes to objectifying and demeaning the opposite sex, “women are just as bad as men.” He’s very wrong.
He has tens of thousands of images of naked women on his computer, downloaded from thousands of porn sites. When I go looking for images of naked men, the only thing I can find is sites designed for and by homosexual men. As far as I can tell, there are no sites of any significance or size that are designed for and/or by women that have to do with seeing men naked. So there’s a big difference right there. A huge difference.
The homosexual sites that I sometimes find myself on, to my horror, are utterly revolting. So to answer your question, women (I’m probably not speaking for everybody, of course) are NOT turned on by shots of glistening genitals!
