Are there any consistent ways in which what gay males find attractive or arousing differs from what works for heterosexual females? In particular, are there any dead giveaways that something was intended to appeal to gays rather than women?
IME, porn and erotica intended for a male audience (gay or straight) is more likely to feature men with unusually large penises. Women don’t care about big cocks nearly as much as straight men think they do.
I don’t know if it has any bearing on what actual gay males or hetero females find attractive in a guy or if it’s just a conventional notion thereof, but it seems to me that material marketed for gay males is more likely to present an attractive guy “for your visual consumption” as a sex object, and material marketed for hetero females more likely to present an attractive guy with a roving eye and an attitude, as “hey how’d you like this one to be eyeing you?”. Not without overlap though. The pirates boarding the vessels in the hot romances marketed for women are still done as visually attractive, and in the material for gay fellows, the guys shown glancing back as they close their gym lockers seem to be expressing their own interest, not merely glancing to see if the viewer is checking them out.
On a side note, I was amused that many of my Lesbian/Dyke friends prefer Gay porn.
The running joke is that there are exactly three decent lesbian porn moves, that are traded around.
Most woman on Woman porn is by straight actresses directed by a straight male director for a straight male audience. My friends prefer porn where the participants are actually into it and know what they are doing.
Whether or not the equipment will got back in a drawer afterward is of less importance.
I has improved some over the years with videos produced/directed by women.
Huh.
I am interested to understand your question more clearly. What kind of “something” are you referring to? Are you talking about some separate product (like porn, but not limited to that) that is marketed as a sexual object of some kind? Or are you perhaps talking about the way a man dresses or grooms himself or carries himself so as to be attractive either to other men or to women? Or “something” else?
In porn (or erotica) for straight women, there’s a lot of camera following men’s hands touching women’s bodies, all over, not just erogenous zones, but faces, backs, hair. It’s like filming foreplay, I guess. They always show the woman’s face for a reaction shot to the “entrance.” In my limited experience of gay male porn, there’re lots of shots of one of the guys full frontal, usually approaching the other guy. And lots of boner shots. I saw one (of two I’ve seen) where a guy is driving home while his boyfriend is (unknown to him) slowly masturbating, in a long shot (and the guy is buff), and you’re waiting to see if the guy will get home to join his boyfriend before the money shot. (He does.) I’m really glad I didn’t see it in a theater.
Also, in lesbian erotica, there are a lot of coming out stories. I once asked a gay man if that was a turn on for men, and the answer was that there wasn’t usually enough of a story to encompass something like that. “The copier machine is broken, and hot guy comes to fix it” is enough of a plot for gay male porn.
FWIW, though, except for Desert Hearts, the experienced woman usually isn’t very aggressive in bringing out the other woman.
And let me tell you, the ones with no attempt at a real plot are just awful. “Going to the round up-- YEE-HA!” Ick.
What I have heard—I don’t know whether it’s true—is that, in general, the sexual urges, preferences, turn-ons, attitudes, etc. of gay men are a lot more like those of straight men than those of straight women, except for the fact that they’re directed toward males rather than females.
I think someone may have been typing one-handed 
The running joke used to be that there are exactly 40 lesbians in the world, who are traded around.
I really can’t speak for other gay men, since my taste in men (and in porn) is very atypical. My fantasies tend to be rather narrative- and dialog-intense, rather than action-intense. I think this is more typical of females in general. This is why I respond so well to tantric sex… especially the older I get.
Two (or more) performers in front of camera taking audible direction from an off-screen director is enough of a plot for a lot of gay porn. No 4th wall at all.
Conversely a recurring conceit in a lot of gay porn that the participants are actually straight, and not really into it (at least at first). Usually the setup involves something along of lines of them the girl not showing up to the shoot, them being somehow tricked, or just really needing the money. The reason they this conceit is so popular is that gay males spend their adolescence years surrounded by straight males that they both lust after, and get put in more intimate situations (eg sports, lockerroom, summer camp tent/cabins, etc) then straight boys ever do with girls.
IIRC it’s basically:
Straight men-----Gay men---------------------Lesbians-----Straight women
That is, there’s a noticeable tendency for homosexuals of either gender to have tastes somewhat more similar to those of the opposite gender than the norm; but they are still closer to straight people of their own gender than otherwise. Such as, lesbians being somewhat more into visual erotica than straight women, but not as much as men of either persuasion tend to be.
And this is all an “on average” kind of thing of course, there’s lots of individual variation.
Painting with a really broad brush here, but if I see a guy dressed up like Rob Halford (Judah’s Priest), I assume he is gay.
Or the amount of dudes who think it’s not gay so long as you’re the penetrator, it’s not gay so long as the other dude kind’a looks like a girl, it’s not gay if the other guy’s a transvestite, it’s not gay… I’ve met gay guys who claim to have had more sex with self-professed straight guys than gay ones. In the words of one of them, “straight my ass, dear”.
Gay male porn action is very similar to straight male porn but with guys instead of girls. Prelude is minimal and they get to the action pretty quickly and the focus is on the goal of orgasm. Female porn doesn’t really have a direct analog to male porn. Women are as likely to have a non-nude emotional scene in a PG movie like “Ghost” or “Dirty Dancing” get them just as hot as a highly charged nude erotic scene.
What does that have to do with ANYTHING in this thread?
And in my experience: guys who think it’s not gay as long as there’s no affection expressed. They’ll do every kind of sex imaginable, but they won’t kiss, because “that would be gay”.
I think you’re missing a word here. 
Does this mean they wouldn’t mind being with a man, provided they didn’t have to be the woman??
I guess the main example I had in mind was revealing clothing. I’ve never heard that any woman finds the “mankini” hot. Or things like leather-strap fetish wear. Or on a less porny note your typical male fashion model, buff and beautiful. (not handsome, beautiful; bordering on pretty).
The question was what are gay male vs female turn ons. The point I was making - sorry if unclear- is that that look is not something typically women find attractive. To me, that look is a dead give away that something (movie, picture, etc) is intended for gays and not straight women.
Well despite the “get to the action” impetus in both gay and straight male porn there is a behavioral difference and as a straight male it’s (to me) it’s the one that’s most transgressive in impact, much more so than the sex itself. In gay male porn with a group of men some of the men will behave just like flirting girls/women and I’m not talking about broad “La Cage a Folles” type stuff, but the subtle male gaze - flirting woman stuff you see in everyday interactions. This big buff, stubbled not all that gay looking guy is suddenly acting like … well… a girl who is being admired and courted and loves men paying attention to her. The toss of the head, the laughing smile, the posture it was like a woman in a man’s body. It was barely a few seconds of behavior but it had a greater impact than anything else including the sex.
The problem is, very few gay men find that look attractive either. Even people into SMBD aren’t attracted to that theatrical glitzy leather look. I honestly don’t know who his intended audience is, apart from the music itself.