Straight Guy says...

[Bottlebrush]

Straight Guy says "I have a ton of single friends, I should hook you up."
Girl says "Are they good looking?"
Straight Guy says "How would I know? They're dudes. I don't notice that shit."

Am I the only one calling bullshit on this? It isn't about sexual attraction. It's simple aesthetics. We've all spent our lives being bombarded from every direction with images of what our society deems attractive. How can so many of my fellow straight men claim not to have noticed? Why are they unable to acknowledge that Brad Pitt is better looking than Seth Rogan, or that Randy Orton has a better body than Paul Giamatti? Do they genuinely not see the difference? Or are they just scared that their heterosexuality will be called into question? I'm not for one moment suggesting that they're suppressing an urge to giggle like school girls at the sight of a shirtless Eric Bana, but the admission that "Yeah, I get it", would be bloody refreshing.

 

[whattheduck]

i call bullshit on it, too. i do think it's an issue of their heterosexuality being called into question, but it's really no different than a girl saying another girl is pretty or cute. i guess it's not as socially acceptable for guys to openly express that another guy is attractive even if they think so for fear that people will think they're a raging homosexual.

 

[DiscoBoy]

Well, beauty is subjective so your comparisons aren't necessarily true, but outside of that, I totally agree, bullshit. Men are just too insecure about their sexuality.

 

[CUBE]

straight guys act like they don't know about looks yet they tend to group on the same handsomeness

 

[rob_just_rob]

Straight Guy says "I have a ton of single friends, I should hook you up."
Girl says "Are they good looking?"
Straight Guy says "How would I know? They're dudes. I don't notice that shit."

Am I the only one calling bullshit on this? It isn't about sexual attraction. It's simple aesthetics. We've all spent our lives being bombarded from every direction with images of what our society deems attractive. How can so many of my fellow straight men claim not to have noticed? Why are they unable to acknowledge that Brad Pitt is better looking than Seth Rogan, or that Randy Orton has a better body than Paul Giamatti? Do they genuinely not see the difference? Or are they just scared that their heterosexuality will be called into question? I'm not for one moment suggesting that they're suppressing an urge to giggle like school girls at the sight of a shirtless Eric Bana, but the admission that "Yeah, I get it", would be bloody refreshing.

It is ridiculous to claim to have no idea of what makes someone of the same sex attractive, in general terms.

However - I can produce a mental image for only 1 of the 5 "celebrities" you cited. So it's not unreasonable to say that some of us are less focused on this sort of stuff than others.

 

[puslover]

I agree. I do not think there is anything wrong for a guy to be able to say when another guy has attractive qualities. I am comfortable with who I am to be able to do that

 

[Principessa]

Straight Guy says "I have a ton of single friends, I should hook you up."
Girl says "Are they good looking?"
Straight Guy says "How would I know? They're dudes. I don't notice that shit."

Yeah, so what's the problem?

Am I the only one calling bullshit on this? It isn't about sexual attraction. It's simple aesthetics. We've all spent our lives being bombarded from every direction with images of what our society deems attractive. How can so many of my fellow straight men claim not to have noticed?

Probably because male attractiveness runs the gamut from John Wayne and Sam Elliott to Zac Efron and Eric Bana. FWIW:As a woman Eric Bana does nothing for me and Zac Efron looks 12. Way too boy next door for me. If a friend were to say I've got a great guy for you and he's a dead ringer for Eric Bana I'd have to Google him first to see if it would be worth the effort to meet him.

[quote ]Why are they unable to acknowledge that Brad Pitt is better looking than Seth Rogan, or that Randy Orton has a better body than Paul Giamatti? Do they genuinely not see the difference? Or are they just scared that their heterosexuality will be called into question? I'm not for one moment suggesting that they're suppressing an urge to giggle like school girls at the sight of a shirtless Eric Bana, but the admission that "Yeah, I get it", would be bloody refreshing.[/QUOTE] I'm tired of googling, who are Seth Rogan and Randy Orton? I hate to split hairs, but maybe the men in question are that rare breed of 100% straight. :yup: I've known and dated these men for years. They truly do not notice male attractiveness. They may notice, manliness or machismo as in a John Wayne or Chuck Norris; but I have never heard a 100% straight man say I wish I had curly hair like Patrick Dempsey or Ashton Kutcher's smile. It just doesn't happen. I don't think thats them fearing being called gay, it's just not how they are wired.

straight guys act like they don't know about looks yet they tend to group on the same handsomeness

What does, group on the same handsomeness mean?

 

[BigDallasDick8x6]

"How would I know? They're dudes. I don't notice that shit" sounds like macho posturing to me. Desparately so.

A more objective response would have been "Well what one girl finds attractive another girl doesn't, so you'll just have to meet them." That would have left HIM out of the equation. There was no need for him to say he doesn't notice how attractive men are unless he was trying to make a point about his masculinity.

 

[B_Nick8]

It's unnecessary posturing, yeah. It's bullshit.

 

[crescendo69]

I don't really know what is beautiful in a woman, but I know when one is unnattractive. When watching the Miss America contests in my youth, my opinion of who was the most beautiful was met with complete disagreement from my father, who said, "I don't think you have a well developed sense of beauty in women."

I also find myself disagreeing with men on men's attractiveness. I don't think "straight guy" is clueless because of his sexual preference, but probably 1) doesn't want anyone to think he is gay or 2) just doesn't know.

 

[BigDallasDick8x6]

When watching the Miss America contests in my youth, my opinion of who was the most beautiful was met with complete disagreement from my father, who said, "I don't think you have a well developed sense of beauty in women."

Reality check to your father -- If they had made it to the Miss America contest, they were all beautiful. You just had different tastes than he did. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[D_Doewell Dadong]

As a straight man if a women asks me if Joe Blogss is good looking i can give you an answer. Doesn't mean i'm bi or a gay guy. It just means i can make a judgement. I can tell you if a dog is a good looking dog, doesn't mean i fancy dogs. (I'm much more into pussy)

 

[D_Tintagel_Demondong]

It's unnecessary posturing, yeah. It's bullshit.

QFT.

I've found myself discussing this more than once with my straight friends at the bar.

I've often seen the concern that straight men get when their wives or girlfriends are near a good-looking guy. They know.

 

[Bottlebrush]

I've often seen the concern that straight men get when their wives or girlfriends are near a good-looking guy. They know.

Exactly.

Forget the individuals I mentioned in the original post. The individuals are not important. They're names picked at random to make a point. Of course different people see attractiveness in a vast range of characteristics. But I don't expect straight men to intuit the subtleties of male attractiveness to women any more than I expect them to be religiously reading People magazine to keep abreast of who's hot and who's not. What I do expect is that in their lives on this earth as part of a larger society, they have become aware of what is generally perceived to be attractive in another male. It's the idea that a straight man is claiming to be so thoroughly clueless and disengaged from even a passing recognition of social conventions that I find laughable. I could buy it if he'd spent his entire life alone in a cave. But for anyone else, I'm still calling bullshit.

 

[blg3floor3]

Probably BS. I'm not attracted to guys at all, but I've seen enough guys that girls have said are hot or good looking or cute or whatever term they're using these days to recognize good looking guys when I see them.

I can recognize the obviously good looking guys for the most part, and I can recognize the fugs (I think I've finally realized and accepted that this is my category, haha), but things I can't do are say yea or nay to the ones that are somewhere in the middle and and I can't put any sort of hierarchy into place for guys that are good looking. Like, I really don't know which of a group of guys most women would generally argree is the better looking one, and then the next good looking, and the next, and so on through the group of guys. I could say "well they're both good looking, but fuck if I know which one is better and by how much."

So BS in general; but personally, there are some caveats.

 

[Drifterwood]

"Why are all the girls so interested in that ugly fuck in the corner?"

"You mean the one licking his eyebrows?"

 

[D_Portelay Porquesword]

I know str8 guys notice these things, we all do. As NJ pointed out, the str8 brain is wired (speaking as a whole) a certain way.

For those of us who are able to express the obvious, it is easy for us to think that the next fellow (in the case a straight man) would be eloquent or gracious enough to say "He is very attractive. You two might actually hit it off ".

Not always the case.

What we consider bullshit is merely a fact of life for these men. No amount of coaxing or prompting is going to change that either. It is all in their wiring/make up.

IMO having grown up with two very masculine and str8 brothers, the further into heterosexual land you go the less likely a man is going to verbalize these things. Some gay men I have known in my life find it a HUGE turn on when an otherwise str8 man expresses these things outright.

Why? Because it is something that goes against the grain. When you do get blood out of a Turnip, there is a rush and a thrill that is seldom seen if at all.

I say: Don't expect horses to always follow carts. Let them be str8 men and allow them to be who they are, in spite of the fact it may actually be bullshit.

If you are like me, take your confidences where you can find them in these situations. This is a particular kind of man you are dealing with, there is always going to pitfalls and frustrations in interacting with them. It is to be expected.

They are only human and human beings are so very often insecure, why would a str8 man be any different?

 

[Drifterwood]

I don't think it's bullshit.

As NJ said, women's tastes vary enormously. It is prevalent to reduce beauty and attractiveness to some sort of hellenistic ideal. Gay guys seem to do this when wanting a certain male look, though I was surprised by Lex's taste in male eye candy. Women do it too when thinking of what a guy will like. I have been told so many times by women, "Oh you'll really like her she's so cute." No. Paris Hilton and Jordan (Kate Price) are ugliness personified to me.

You have to qualify whether someone is goodlooking.

Only in a way that a mother could love.

Yes in a rugged manly sort of way.

And yes, when the guy is drop dead eye candy, yeah, in that gay way. :tongue:

 

[mynameisnobody]

It's simple aesthetics. We've all spent our lives being bombarded from every direction with images of what our society deems attractive.

Don't confuse Madison Avenue with reality. We are fortunate that most of us don't conform to life as depicted by Hollywood or in the press. What "society" thinks of something is determined by the members of society, not by the arbiters of taste.

I wouldn't call a man's claim that he's not a reliable judge of masculine pulchritude to be BS at all. I'm certainly not. Not only do I have no opinion on the attractiveness of Brad Pitt, Seth Rogan, Randy Orton, or Paul Giamatti, but I don't even know who they are. I simply haven't noticed them. (I know that Pitt guy is in some movies, but apparently not the sort of movies I watch. Kinda funny-looking, if I'm thinking of the right one.)

 

[Principessa]

]"Why are all the girls so interested in that ugly fuck in the corner?"[/B]

"You mean the one licking his eyebrows?"

Ugly is international and transcends sexuality, race, and socioeconomic levels.

That said, why is it always the men who identify as bi or gay who get so bent out of shape if a straight friend or co-worker can't or won't identify a handsome man? Me thinks the insecurity lies with the one asking the question, and not the other way around. :yup: Afterall, they are just looking for validation that their opinion of a hot guy is okay.