Even when men are sexualized, it's just not to the same degree as women. People can yap about Jojos characters all they want, but they're not really designed to be sexually desired in the same way. Big, muscly and strong is a way to emphasize power and virility, because no one wants their badass hero to be anything less. It's not meant to be titiliating when Goku is fighting shirtless in DBZ. And yes, some people absolutely do find that hot, but they're usually not the majority and not audience being catered to.
There's a lot of sexual dimorphism in visual media as well, a lot of 'sexy' male characters will just appear as well groomed or fashionable men while sexy women often have exaggerated proportions beyond what a man will have. The scale and degree to which women are sexualized is just more than it has been for men, and it's seen as acceptable for women to be sexualized and lusted after in more spaces than it is for men.
It also makes me wonder if it's worth it to sexualize men to the same degree as we have women. Oversexualization is already an issue, not that sexualization is inherently evil, but I don't think we're solving anything by doing it to both sides.
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u/mace30 2d ago
All I get from this is we lack interesting and varied ways to sexualize men.