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Anyway, straight men are finally discovering what some honest women and gay men have known all along: sometimes it's fun to be an object of desire.

That said, there's definitely a downside. Spent any time around a young man lately, gay or straight? They're often obsessed with abs, steroids, glutes, and protein shakes.

When I was that young, all I used to worry about was making it so my hair didn't stick out in back.

Oh, and these young guys almost all hate their bodies, certain that they don't measure up to the ideal. It doesn't matter how great they actually look.

In other words, they sound like women.

I admit that I find it kind of sad that straight society has been so eager to pick up the parts of gay male society that are potentially the most unhealthy –- our obsession with youth and looks, and the whole casual hook-up phenomenon. Admittedly, they've also picked up some of our strengths –- our ironic wit, and our interest in different cuisines. (Needless to say, we get blamed for STDs, but we don't any credit for Golden Girls and olive bars.)

Some of my dumpy straight friends are even starting to complain that they're being “oppressed” by the new male ideal. And they're right: who can measure up to an airbrushed fantasy?

But as one of my female straight friends likes to say, “Finally men are getting a small taste of what it's like to be a woman in this society. Imagine growing up with a female ideal that's anorexia with huge breasts. This new male ideal is at least possible without reconstructive surgery.”

She's absolutely right, of course. Modern-day Puritans who froth and rage at the “sexualization” of men don't seem to be aware that women have always been sexualized, only no one ever seems to notice. Why would they? It's so ubiquitous as to be invisible, except to the women and girls whose souls it is crushing.

And so, even now, Tom Ford stays fully clothed on the cover of Vanity Fair while Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley recline naked at his feet. Female celebrities, no matter how famous, must apparently always strip down to their skivvies for photo-shoots.

But things are changing even here. Increasingly, Ben Affleck and Colin Farrell are starting to unbutton the top two buttons on their jeans. Soon they'll be stripped down and spreading their legs wider than Charlize Theron in a high-profile glossy spread determined to prove that she's not really the dumpy coal-mining agitator of her latest movie.

This is America's idea of progress? The truth is, it just proves that this is still a man's world. Men like to look; now that gay men have some measure of power, and the stigma about them has lessened a little, corporate America has decided it's okay to give them something to look at.

It's ridiculous, it's exploitative, and it's dehumanizing. But as long as it's all around us, you can't really expect me to look away, right?

And that, alas, is the last gay word.

Brent Hartinger is the author of the gay teen novel, Geography Club, which is currently being adapted for the movies. The sequel, The Order of the Poison Oak, is just out in paperback, and his latest novel, Grand & Humble, is in stores now. Explore "Brent's Brain," his website, at www.brenthartinger.com.

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