‘Sexiest Man Alive’: Here’s Why Lusting Over Men Is Different To Lusting Over Women

‘Just immediate blackout,’ is how Krasinski described his reaction when he found out he had won, ‘other than maybe I’m being punked.’ The actor, who is married to Emily Blunt and has two daughters, said his wife was thrilled to find out he’d be crowned sexiest man and has plans to use the magazine cover as wallpaper in their house.

It’s safe to assume that the win will be something Krasinski can wryly boast about with friends and family, but it will have little to no consequence on his career let’s be honest. Even the cover line reads, ‘always smart, always funny & always bringing good news,’ suggesting that what makes Krasinski sexy is his largely down to his personality anyway (no offence, Krasinski).

While this isn’t strictly true – women, like men, are entirely capable of lusting over someone solely on the basis of their raw sex appeal – whenever this type of novelty award pops up, it poses some interesting questions.

There is no doubt that it would feel different if we were discussing this year’s ‘Sexiest Woman Alive’ – or that the surrounding discourse would have taken a different route. We’d likely see tabloid headlines that read, ‘woman x pictured for the first time since losing out on sexiest woman award’, comments from trolls detailing why they think the winner was unworthy, and a string of bizarre comparisons between every woman on the shortlist.

It might sound as though I am inventing a scenario for the sake of this argument, but this is the known and repeated experience of living in this world as a woman. On every level, most visibly for women in the public eye, being torn apart for your looks and pitted against your peers is an everyday experience. It’s even something we do ourselves thanks to social conditioning. Of course, men can experience gross judgement too, but it is not an unrelenting blanket experience in the same way.

The socioeconomic (and legal and medical and…) power imbalance that is the patriarchy denotes that awoman’s lust typically does not pose the same threat to a man as it would the other way round. Krasinski can sleep easy as the sexiest man in the world, women can’t even go for a run in the dark.

Yes, a lot of women who never think about the Roman Empire will discover a new interest on Friday when Gladiator II starring Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal comes out. Yes, the recent spate of lookalike contests for celebrity crushes like Timothée Chalamet, Paul Mescal, Harry Styles and Dev Patel attracted hundreds of female spectators. And yes, women have the power to select an unexpected sex symbol out of their favourite deli dramedy (we’re looking at you, Jeremy Allen White) and turn them into a Calvin Klein model, but for the most part it’s all in the name of harmless fun.

All these sexy men know that they are ultimately valued for more than just their looks. They are all thriving in their careers and, more importantly, they are all ‘good guys’.

In an ideal world, we’d be able to hold silly little competitions for all genders – obsessive fans would remain at bay, winners, losers and voters to be able to laugh about the results together, and no one would feel cheapened or exploited.

But we don’t live in an ideal world. In fact, women’s rights are rolling back at an alarming rate and Donald Trump has just been re-elected president. If lusting over unproblematic men is all we have – men, it’s your own doing. See you at the cinema.

Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things TV for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow shows with equal respect).