Ideal beauty… it’s a tough nut to crack when one thinks about the male body and male fashion. The subject conjures up homoerotic fears in most men as can be attested in the latest “letter from the Editor” of the September 2009 Details Magazine. Male Beauty is a subject that necessitates the couching by either locker room slang or a anatomical dryness to put most men at ease in the conversation. But in fairness as well, it is a subject that is idealistically different from the start AND from the views of beauty towards woman. It does a disservice to the conversation to equate the two. Most men would shudder to think of themselves as “pretty”. The mere suggestion that a man can be or is “beautiful” is libel to totally piss him off.

To the point, my plastic surgeon (yes, I’ve had work done and I’m damn proud of it) tells this story when he meets new patients. He is Dr. David Teplica. He is a board-certified plastic surgeon and he is one of this nation’s best. He is one of the very few and rare that specializes almost exclusively in male cosmetic surgery. Dr Teplica states when he describes male beauty, the participant/patient in the conversation usually use a totally different vernacular to discuss male beauty. Women want to look youthful, refreshed, curvaceous, supple, smooth and/or bodacious. Men want to look powerful, virile, chiseled, lean, muscular, tight, imposing and/or perhaps, debonair. To achieve that result, Dr Teplica has had to perfect different plastic surgery techniques because these two groups require a different finished outcome. Also remember, society dictates it is more acceptable for women to wear make up than men to hide imperfections.

With that notion in mind (that male beauty and female beauty is different), let's dive into what history equates as “male physical beauty” through the lens of desirability. Put aside the notions of gay/straight/male/female as these references only perpetuate a cluttering of the mind. Let’s discover what looks or did look HOT.

• What qualities raised the desirability temperature when a guy walked into a room?
• What made people stand up and take notice and perhaps lend a ear to the aspirational
  side of the viewer’s mind?

The target market/viewer of that desirability (whether opposite sex or same sex) doesn’t really matter for this discussion. The discussion is about raising the temperature of the room in general. What made people break out into that sweet sweat of desire? What made men/women's brains bleed with obsession and passion? The room can be filled with men, women or both. Whom our ‘ideal beauty” leaves with at the end of an evening really happens behind closed doors and is left open conjecture on our part.