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Some people and cultures are averse to the notion of male beauty.

Jonathan Bailey

Well-Known Member
My father once told me some men thought it was OK to look like a dog (not a beautiful one like a German Shepherd, but a shaggy mangy one like a sheepdog or an ugly one like a bulldog or a basset hound) while expecting their woman to look like a Roman goddess. In my high school, some boys were drawing rough sketches of a man and a woman. They carefully drew the woman to look rather neat then they drew some deformed looking thing in a few seconds and called it "a man" and all laughed about it.

Is this attitude that men and boys should "look like a gorilla" sexism, homophobia, insecurity or some other thing?

I have a deep appreciation for nature and see male beauty in it: the lion with his noble mane, the peacock, many male birds, the deer buck with a magnificent rack, the majestic bull moose, the graceful and strong stallion and many large male dogs and wolves with regal coats, awesome muscle tone and kingly facial features. See how proud that Tom cougar looks in my avatar.
 
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Darkforbid

Well-Known Member
Hey I like going for the 'bag of crap' look

5044198632_bb7dc80136_z.jpg
 

ImmortalFlame

Woke gremlin
My father once told me some men thought it was OK to look like a dog (not a beautiful one like a German Shepherd, but a shaggy mangy one like a sheepdog or an ugly one like a bulldog or a basset hound) while expecting their woman to look like a Roman goddess. In high school some boys were drawing rough sketches of a man and a woman. They carefully drew the woman to look rather neat then they drew some deformed looking thing in a few seconds and called it "a man" and all laughed about it.

Is this attitude that men and boys should "look like a gorilla" sexism, homophobia, insecurity or some other thing?

I have a deep appreciation for nature and see male beauty in it: the lion with his noble mane, the peacock, many male birds, the deer buck with a magnificent rack, the majestic bull moose, the graceful and strong stallion and many large male dogs and wolves with regal coats, awesome muscle tone and kingly facial features. See how proud that Tom cougar looks in my avatar.
It's probably more a secondary effect of patriarchy. It's not so much that male beauty is maligned in and of itself (although it often can be), so much as the idea that a man is required to be beautiful in order to have value is significantly less strongly enforced historically than it can be for women. In other words: to appreciate the physical beauty of men is discouraged in largely patriarchal societies because what should be appreciated in a man are their characteristics, not their appearance, and to objectify a man is therefore a reducing of those characteristics. Almost the exact opposite has been historically true for women, however.

When we look at classical art, there certainly is a large number of depictions of men that can be considered classically attractive, but their attractiveness is always presented as a secondary virtue. By which I mean that the exaggerated musculature of men in art isn't how it is in order for the man to found "attractive" - it's to portray the man as "strong". Men are often placed in frame because of who they are or what they are doing, whereas women tend to be placed in the frame because of how they look. This is of course not universally true, but it has been the pervading trend in western art for centuries, and large parts of it still remain today.
 

Estro Felino

Believer in free will
Premium Member
My father once told me some men thought it was OK to look like a dog (not a beautiful one like a German Shepherd, but a shaggy mangy one like a sheepdog or an ugly one like a bulldog or a basset hound) while expecting their woman to look like a Roman goddess.
That's Italia...I mean... we have this standard. Women are supposed to be divinas (perfect body, perfect clothes, perfect hairstyle) while men are allowed to be scruffy....

But that is the opposite stereotype we Italians have thinking of Americans: that is...in the US handsome pretty males usually marry not that pretty women.;)

And yes...we do think US males do deserve better
 

Jonathan Bailey

Well-Known Member
That's Italia...I mean... we have this standard. Women are supposed to be divinas (perfect body, perfect clothes, perfect hairstyle) while men are allowed to be scruffy....

But that is the opposite stereotype we Italians have thinking of Americans: that is...in the US handsome pretty males usually marry not that pretty women.;)

And yes...we do think US males do deserve better

Ancient Greeks put a lot of effort into male beauty in their art and whatnot. Men, not women, were originally portrayed in paintings and sculpture as nudes.
 

Father Heathen

Veteran Member
And yes...we do think US males do deserve better
If Italian men are as chauvinistic and predatory as they're stereotyped to be, then perhaps Italian females deserve better.
I remember when I was in high school there was a group of seniors who were going on some trip to Europe. For what I don't recall, but of all the European countries they were going to visit, the female students were warned about Italy specifically because apparently it is/was common for female tourists to be sexually harassed/assaulted by locals.
 
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Estro Felino

Believer in free will
Premium Member
If Italian men are as chauvinistic and predatory as they're stereotyped to be, then perhaps Italian females deserve better.
I remember when I was in high school there was a group of seniors who were going on some trip to Europe. For what I don't recall, but of all the European countries they were going to visit, the female students were warned about Italy specifically because apparently it is/was common for female tourists to be sexually harassed/assaulted by locals.
Speaking of stereotypes...yes...I guess the average male here is used to objectify women.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
My father once told me some men thought it was OK to look like a dog (not a beautiful one like a German Shepherd, but a shaggy mangy one like a sheepdog or an ugly one like a bulldog or a basset hound) while expecting their woman to look like a Roman goddess. In my high school, some boys were drawing rough sketches of a man and a woman. They carefully drew the woman to look rather neat then they drew some deformed looking thing in a few seconds and called it "a man" and all laughed about it.

Is this attitude that men and boys should "look like a gorilla" sexism, homophobia, insecurity or some other thing?

I have a deep appreciation for nature and see male beauty in it: the lion with his noble mane, the peacock, many male birds, the deer buck with a magnificent rack, the majestic bull moose, the graceful and strong stallion and many large male dogs and wolves with regal coats, awesome muscle tone and kingly facial features. See how proud that Tom cougar looks in my avatar.


All life is beautiful.
 
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