gillbrooks opened this issue on Mar 10, 2005 ยท 116 posts
XENOPHONZ posted Thu, 10 March 2005 at 2:59 PM
but the plethora of cheesecake over beefcake is more than just biology. As someone upthread pointed out, the Greeks and Romans seemed to like pretty males an awful lot. What's changed since then? Not our DNA, but our culture.
The Ancient Greeks had plenty of sculptures of beautiful women, too. Also, much of Greek mythology is based around various men and gods lusting after women -- and going to great lengths to satisfy that lust. Including turning themselves into animals, etc...etc......
The DNA of the ancient Greeks was exactly the same as ours.
However -- with ancient Greece, one is talking about a truly male-centric culture. Women didn't count for much in those days. Kind of like they still don't count for much in about 70% of the world today.
If a married woman was caught (disgused) among the spectators at the Olympic games, then she was summarily executed. Single young women were allowed in -- but only so that they could absorb a proper appreciation of Greek manhood through watching the (all male) athletes perform.
In addition to which: the ancient Greeks also romanticized the open practice of pedophilia. Modern-day peodophiles frequently attempt to use this history to justify their own current behaviors........
.......I will not allow them to say that "because the ancient Greeks did it, we should follow their example".
it was the men who dolled themselves up
Yes, they were called "fops".
Being called a "fop" was not a nice name.
And it started to dawn on publishers that women don't want to look at women, they want to look at men. And suddenly Fabio was on every other romance cover.
Oh, I'd never deny that women like to look at handsome men. I've seen the effect in action.
However, it's also been established that women tend to be even more attracted to money and power in men when they are considering a potential mate.......more so than the man's looks.
Whereas men largely tend to seek out the looks first. For men, other considerations tend to be secondary.
As far as the covers of magazines go, and what sells: I believe that the marketers and publishers (many of whom are women) know their business.
That's why they prominently feature pictures of women -- and not of men -- on magazines.
Novels in general, and Romance novels in particular, are a different matter. They appeal to people in a different way from magazines. No matter how good the cover: if the story inside doesn't grab the attention, then the novel won't sell.
Whereas magazines tend to be 85% to 99% about the pictures.
But even so -- the equivalent of NVIATWAS is often featured on the covers of sci-fi/fantasy books.
There must be a reason.........especially since quite a few of the publishers are female.