# Playgirl's "Real Man of the Year" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 29, 2004, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playgirls-real-man-of-the-year/257401 "2004-07-29T04:44:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playgirls-real-man-of-the-year/257401/21 "2004-07-30T07:10:07Z")
What’s the deal with calling him a “Real Man”? What kind of real men do you know that are that hairless? Bah, he waxes. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playgirls-real-man-of-the-year/257401/22 "2004-07-30T14:58:05Z")
I’ve never been one to sit around with the girls and talk about men, and usually the _Playgirl_ types don’t do anything special for me (they just do the regular amount for me…heh). I don’t regret starting this thread or anything, but it’s not typical of me. I must have been a little, um, ‘excited’ the other night. 😃 That said, I’m having fun… > [@twickster](#): > > Seriously, **misnomer** , you think he’s hot? Oh yes. 🙂 Whether or not you think he’s cute, I don’t think he can be called ‘scrawny’ – ‘lean,’ sure. Normally I’d say “you can’t judge just from one picture,” but the second link provided by **astro** is a pretty good one. Representative-wise, I mean. > [@Jodi](#): > > See, the home page of that site…is basically everything I don’t like about this stuff. It’s so contrived… I see a distinction. I agree that the “oops, is that my _penis_??” pictures – like some of the ones on that site – aren’t usually very sexy. But when they’re in _Playgirl_, it’s not an “oops” thing: the whole point of those pictures is that you can see what you’re seeing, and 90% of the time the models don’t try to pretend otherwise. I like the pictorials because they’re straightfoward…I usually skip the pictures that accompany the erotica, though, because sometimes those can be a little on the “oops” side. Maybe it’s a distinction that no one else sees, but it works for me. 😉 What _doesn’t_ work for me is strip clubs: if I’m looking at that sort of thing live and in person, I either want to be getting some action or being completely ignored. (That, though, is my voyeuristic side talkin’.) > [@](#): > > I like the fact he’s not beefcaked up to the nth degree; I like a built guy, but not so built his physique says “horse steroids.” I agree completely. I don’t care for ‘scrawny,’ but ‘a little skinny’ or ‘lean’ is fine by me, as is ‘athletic,’ ‘average,’ or ‘muscular.’ But the guys who are so pumped that they can no longer put their arms down at their sides almost never do anything for me. I’d rather have a guy whose build is on the soft side than someone who has confused himself with the governor of California. 😉 > [@chaoticdonkey](#): > > What’s the deal with calling him a “Real Man”? What kind of real men do you know that are that hairless? Bah, he waxes. Oh, he _definitely_ waxes. 😃 (But there _are_ men who naturally have no hair…on their chest, anyway.) I probably should have explained this in my OP: the “Real Man” designation isn’t used in the same way as, say, “real men don’t eat quiche.” Every issue contains a “Real Men” section, which contains amateur shots submitted by readers. They mean “real” as opposed to “model.” (While Vince Barone is considered a ‘model’ now, when his picture was first submitted he was just a guy from Minneapolis.) Most of the guys are worse-than-average-looking (IMHO), but they try to be PC in terms of representing various age groups, ethnicities, etc. There is always a “Real Man of the Month,” and – as we know – annually we have the “Real Man of the Year.” I’ve only been subscribing for a little over a year, but for my money Vince Barone is the best “Real Man” to come out of the magazine yet. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playgirls-real-man-of-the-year/257401.md?page=1)