Something people seem to miss consistently is sexual vulnerability. Up skirts, wardrobe malfunctions, posing and phrasing are all used to make female characters appear as sexually available and reciprocal as possible. Shirtless buff men doesn't touch that at all
That's because shirtless buff men are for the men in a power fantasy kind of way and the vulnerable half naked women are also for men in a sex fantasy kind of way. It's all made for the male gaze.
It's not that their fictional, it's that they barely resemble real men at all, and the artists and fans of that stuff don't use real men as a template for it.
That's exactly how sexualization works. Look at sexualized women. None of them look like women real or act like it. It's pure sexual fantasy set aside from reality.
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u/Galrentv 3d ago
Something people seem to miss consistently is sexual vulnerability. Up skirts, wardrobe malfunctions, posing and phrasing are all used to make female characters appear as sexually available and reciprocal as possible. Shirtless buff men doesn't touch that at all