[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I am still not quite sure (at age 60) what makes a man attractive to women, other than the obvious. What seems to make men attractive to homosexual men is generally a soft feminine looking man, at least the way you described it. I'm not so sure that such men are necessarily attractive to women. I know form practical experience that men who are attractive to women are often attractive to gays, but a lot of swish looking men are not particularly attractive to most women. Also, women's taste in men varies greatly, but if a man is attractive to one gay man, he is generally attractive to all or at least most of them.

Some gays like hypertrophied (over-muscled) men, while I have never met a woman who does not claim to find that look repulsive. As to penis size: large ones seem to be an obsession with gays, while most women only find them a nice benefit, but not the sole object of lust.

And in the cases you cite, men isolated on ships, I doubt that most men would be interested in another man's genitals, they might fantasize about the other man being a woman. Gays seem to be obsessed with male genitalia.

[lonevoice]

I am still not quite sure (at age 60) what makes a man attractive to women

In praise of alpha males: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2584612/posts

[ichabod1]

Well, you discount the leather-clad, Ernst Roehm Nazi style of faggot.

[cycle of discernment]

A gay friend of mine—who had been a practicing heterosexual for some years told me:

Men generally have a more rampant, indiscrimnate sex drive than females..they will do it pretty much with anybody, given the choice. They don’t necessarily complicate it with emotional bonding which most women ( whether they admit it or not) want.

With gay guys, you can have ‘no strings’ unattached sex with as many, as much as you want-they all want the ‘act’ too. Nobody necessarily gets their feelings hurt. Even when in a ‘committed’ relationship, lots of gay men have “open” recreational sex with other gays.