Face it – you know nothing about his intellect, his plans for the future, or even his name – but you are excited to take a look at his physique.

You can thank yourself for participating in the media’s trend of objectifying men. Although many people still make a fuss about the objectification of women, it’s become all too clear that various magazines, television shows and movies now also support showing scantily-clad men for the sole purpose of the viewers’ entertainment. And it’s about time.

The balance of the universe demanded that after so many years of exploiting women as sex symbols, now is the time that men be abused the same way. The media has always taken advantage of our natural desire to look at this kind of trash, so we can at least make things fair. It may be a case of two wrongs don’t make it right, but that didn’t stop you from wanting to open that Cosmo magazine, now did it?

"Perhaps this role reversal of the male characters shutting up and looking pretty is what keeps viewers coming back for more."

If you had been curious enough to turn to page 204 of the June 2007 Cosmo issue, the bold headline “Cosmo Peeks Inside His Pants” next to a full-page photo of a Calvin Klein model in his skivvies further instills the notion that this guy is just a piece of meat. While the field of male modeling regularly offers gorgeous men for our eyes, the June 2007 Cosmo issue ups the ante when it baits the reader with how “naughty” the photo will be. Despite their knack at drawing in readers with flesh-revealing photos of gorgeous guys, Cosmo can’t take the prize for being the first magazine to exploit men this way. Back in 1973, some 20 years after men all over the world began enjoying Playboy magazine, the first issue of Playgirl magazine set the stage as the first magazine to objectify men. Playgirl’s Web site clearly has no shame when it describes that “In every issue of Playgirl you'll find more of what you want, wrapped around the most gorgeous men. Our erotic photos are now displayed in a more sensuous and passionate style and we have found guys to fit every woman's ‘type.’”

However, despite Playgirl and Cosmo’s commitment to objectifying men, their nature as magazines limits them to presenting only a freeze frame of these exploited guys. On the other hand, television shows watched by millions of viewers present boy toys in action.

Desperate Housewives, a show about suburban wives who are looking for some pleasure outside of their homes attracted 21.3 million viewers in its first year on air in 2004. The male characters are only one-dimensional, while the housewives are given complex personalities. Perhaps this role reversal of the male characters shutting up and looking pretty is what keeps viewers coming back for more. After all, surely viewers can accept this inappropriate objectification of men for the sole purpose of watching the plumber Mike Delfino, played by actor James Denton, who is one fine figure of a man.

Similar audiences may have seen Just Friends, a movie about a formerly fat guy who seeks the affection of his best friend from high school who rejected him when he was heavy. Sure enough, Amy Smart chooses Ryan Reynolds once his body is as attractive as his personality. It’s easy to understand her decision to choose the slender Reynolds because the tendency to judge others based on appearance is a quality we all seem to share.

Just as Hue Heffner was bound to seek out the most attractive playmates and have them photographed in the first issue of Playboy in 1953, that same superficial tendency was bound to express itself in 1973, when Burt Reynolds was on the cover of the very first issue of Playgirl magazine. Today, shoppers can walk through the front doors of any Abercrombie and Fitch store and take photos with the shirtless male models. But fair is fair since Hooters waitresses have been taking photos with customers for years. Although all of these venues objectify the good-looking, at least both genders are exploited.

As long as it’s an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth, raunchy magazines, hokey romantic comedies and dramatic television shows can satisfy everyone’s superficial inclinations. After all, society just wouldn’t be fair and balanced if Cosmo stopped running photos of men in their skivvies.