Sexualized Men

Overview

While many males in video games can be found who have idealised physiques, or even wear revealing attire to display them prominently, this is generally done for the purposes of fulfilling the power fantasies of the player, and is very rarely done for the purposes of sexual gratification, due to the fact that AAA video games produced in the Western world are almost entirely marketed towards 15-35 year old heterosexual males.

On the other hand, it is not uncommon for Japanese video games to target female audiences, with entire genres revolving around sexualized males, such as Otome games, the "Boys Love" genre, or reverse harem genre. In contrast to their Western counterparts, the males in these games are often portrayed in a more effeminate or androgynous manner. Sometimes, sexualized androgynous males such as this can crossover into some of the more mainstream Japanese video games, such as Vaan from Final Fantasy XII, for example.

There is some debate, however, over whether characters such as Raiden from the Metal Gear series are sexualized, and some rare instances of men being sexualized for the purposes of surrealism can be found in niche games such as Muscle March or the Cho Aniki series.