Sexy is as sexy does. But only if you are a dude.

Last week Salon put up a list of the sexiest men alive and boyyyy they sure were sexy! The list included some hotties including, Kal Penn, Robert Downy Jr., Van Jones and even our favorite, Ill Doctrine. I had no choice but to tease Jay about his sexy status, but realized as I was joking that when I get written about as sexy on other people’s blogs it is usually in a “get back in the kitchen-shut up bitch-you are hot” kind of way which is far from flattering.
So this morning I was reading through the HuffPo and came across the world’s sexist woman alive. Here is the list as decided by E!

1. Karolina Kurkova
2. Bar Rafaeli
3. Angelina Jolie
4. Gisele Bundchen
5. Scarlett Johansson
6. Adriana Lima
7. Heidi Klum
8. Penelope Cruz
9. Manuela Arcuri
10. Shakira

OK, obviously one main difference is that one of these lists is via E! and the other via Salon. But there are never lists of women that are considered sexy because of what they do, but always for how they look, in either outlet type. The list of sexy men was extremely diverse and picked from an array of men doing different types of work. Salon is cool and progressive like that. So these men are not only sexy, but they do different, unique and innovative things that make them sexy.
However, women are only sexy if their physical sexiness fits into standard definitions of thinness and beauty and that factor outweighs the work they do.
Get my point? So I am happy to see lists of sexy men that try and shift our gaze to view men that do great work as sexy, but it is rare that those lists are based on just their sexiness. It is generally based on what they do, giving what they do more merit than their sexiness. If you are a woman that is sexy because of the work you do, you are rarely, if ever, put on a list of sexy women. You must first and foremost, look hot in a bikini.

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