It's an ongoing problem. No one agrees on what makes men attractive, even when hyper sexualized. Some people will point to Hugh Jackman on the cover of Good housekeeping as an example of a mans thirst trap. But that doesn't exactly feel equal to the kind of thirst traps we see with women.
It reminds me of the saying, "No one knows who discovered water, but we know it wasn't the fish." As in an environment that's familiar to you becomes invisible. Women being sexualised is so common it doesn't register that it's a trend a lot of the time. People point to men being sexualised in defence because it's so abnormal that even one is worth commenting on.
Personally my take in sexualisation is that it's a mix of the design of the character and the observer. I'm not sexually attracted to myself when I look in the mirror, but someone might be sexually attracted to my body because they like skinny white guys. So is it attractive or not? In being observed do I become hot? If an ass claps in the wood does it make a sound? I think this also goes for personality since being into a certain personality can make a character way hotter than if it's not the type of person you find attractive (which doesn't necessarily rely on sexualised design). But like I suspect it's evolution making you want to procreate with someone with specific physical traits and those traits have been identified and exaggerated in various ways through media. It's fine to have that reaction but separating yourself enough from it enough to be respectful in the day-today is the key.
Generally I think the two parallel problems are "is this sexualised character sexual without being objectified?" and "What are the types of experiences that deserve to be represented?" The first one is about execution on a specific type of person and the second is, I suspect, what people actually mean when they say that they're pissed off by sexualised characters. It's not necessarily that it's objectification (although it might be), it's that it could be something else, but isn't. I think you need both to really get at the core of the issue since sexuality is as much a part of the network of human experience as everything else.
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u/mace30 15h ago
All I get from this is we lack interesting and varied ways to sexualize men.