Male Models vol. 1

Who are your favorite members of the male persuasion who have graced magazine covers, fashion layouts, skin mags, websites, billboards and runways for the last 40+ years?

Male Models enjoyed a brief notariaty in the '90's with the likes of Joel West (http://joelwestcollection.com/), Marcus Shenkenberg (http://marcusschenkenberg.org/), Antonia Sabato Jr. (http://www.antoniosabatojronline.com/), Djmon Hounsou (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djimon_Hounsou), Tyson Beckford (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyson_Beckford) and a handful of others. But never before and certainly not since then have male models enjoyed so much of the spotlight.

Male models tend to be accessories, props, or worse yet relegated to being a slab of abs or a brainless neandrathal hocking work out supplements. To be fair, most aspiring male models don't do much to help this pigeon holing sitation as they fiill their porttfolios with empty gazes and "tough guy" machismo. This seems to me to be a "chicken or the egg" scenario. Are these neophite male models simply echoing what they see from their published counterparts or is that really all they are capable of? It's hard to tell but in my experience working with them behind the camera I'd have to say that the latter is true in most cases.

Prior to the Male Model heyday in the '90's there was not a huge pool of ambitious young men lining up to join the ranks of the guys being paid to be pretty. It was actually a fairly ridiculous notion to many. :Modeling is for chicks". "Male Models are gay". Those are just a couple examples of the majority mind set but suffice it to say that it wasn't a popular career choice. So one must consider the question, did the success of male models in the '90's also mark the end of a very short era? Supply and demand. With the aforementioned success stories making it O.K. to make a living being pretty, the attractive wannabes started turning out in full force. Nowadays there are nearly just as many nice looking guys out there as there are girls and all of them expect the fame of Marcus, Antonio, Tyson, etc. simply because alot of people tell them they are good looking.

It takes so much more than that to be a successful model, especially for a guy because even though the doors have opened up quite a bit for guys there simply isn't as much demand as there is for females. A contemporary male model really has to show his range and versatility in order to be noticed above the swarms of his counterparts.Stay tuned for more of my thoughts on the subject for now please feel free to comment, let me know who your favorites male models are or who they have been in the past.

Discuss!!!