By: Falene Nurse Category: ART+FASHION Date: 8.Jul.2014

DAVID

The Silver Fox

Real Good Looking… is a weekly visual exploration taking a closer look at how we look at men. And an excuse to ogle various photo sets of them. Albeit very pleasantly, in the same manner that women are. Constantly.

Has Magic Mike taught the mass media anything, it’s that straight women and gay men enjoy ‘looking’ too, we just don’t get the chance very often. Last year this happened in The Sun (British tabloid newspaper), when male underwear models were compared to real men. The discussion set the internet ablaze. Both  female and male audiences, regardless of gender, had  equal affinity for the ‘regular guys’ that posed as models. It’s just that these ‘real men’ had never before been put on such a public display, to be admired or judged. That must be nice.

 

To kick off this first set, I give you David by Phantom Photographer

 

 

Handsome with white hair, does that matter, or make him a Silver Fox?

Did the puppy change anything for you?

 

Dave has tattoos, surprised?

 

When – Once a week, images from guest photographer. Profiles, impromptu interviews, comments and mini-discussions thrown in for good measure, will be posted.

Who –‘real good looking’ men; celebs, baristas, bartenders, actors, models, musicians, artists, silver foxes and more. With the conversation being about male beauty (for a change) and what defines it.

Why – why ever not? Does height maketh the man? How about, age, sexuality or even ethnicity? What makes a man, universally ‘good looking?’ Let’s take short stature, responsible for Napoleon complexes everywhere and Prince’s lifts. If men don’t measure up in the height department, suitors (both male and females alike) often disregard them-immediately (Grindr & Tindr anyone?) Our collective psyche has been trained  this way, with special exemptions. After all, who would refuse the advances of Jared Leto…  all 5’9″ of him? But he’s positioned as a type of anomaly, the differentiator being ‘he’s Jared Leto.’  Truth is, that if he was the local high school physics teacher instead at just 5ft9, without the fame cache, oodles of talent or money, his bedroom dance card would still be equally full.

 

How – My interest wasn’t alone. Like-minded photographers, men, women, phantom photographers, gay, straight, white and not so much, were equally as excited to contribute exclusive shoots to this project.

Current photographic contributors include Guo Guan Jr, Nicole Anne Robbins, KJ. Medilo, Jolie Kinga, Matthew Mitchell, Sabina McGrew, The Phantom Photographer, Zane Peck and more.

What – Male beauty is indeed a tricky beast. We are programmed by our very DNA, then unceremoniously bombarded with outside influences. When really if we are just classing someone as ‘attractive,’ money, power and position has no place. That’s how the ‘real good looking’ project took shape. If some of these predisposed notions were removed, could a subject be at once just judged by his beauty and his beauty alone? In the truest sense. And more importantly as women always are?

Dave is universally good looking. End of story. Next week Dave’s story is revealed: will his sexuality, profession or even age, altar your perception of his beauty to you?

 

 

 

 

LET’S PLEASANTLY OBJECTIFY MEN, TOGETHER, FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF AMERICA: It’s time to remove the onus and often gaze, from a predominantly heterosexual male audience. When was the last time such a debate, visual showcase or discussion was presented to us about men? Regularly? Ever?

 

 

 

 

Please join me in the glorious objectification of men. So they too can ‘embrace their curves’ with the same wild abandonment (and more importantly semi-nudity), that women have so often been encouraged to do so recently.

Enjoy

And you’re welcome!