The American public has always had a special relationship with its sportsmen. Beloved sports heroes can ascend to positions of cultural import that not even movie stars or politicians can hope to claim. But in recent years, the way in which sportsmen (and women, although the focus here is on male athletes) are promoted and packaged to the public has shifted significantly, particularly overseas.

While successful athletes have long been associated with advertising and branding opportunities, there's a new kind of promotion on the horizon that emphasizes the sexier side of our sports heroes.

In Europe and Australia, the trend of sexualizing and sexually objectifying high-profile athletes is well underway. One of the highest-profile examples is gay fashion monolith Dolce & Gabbana's decision to use five members of the Italian soccer league to model underwear in a racy and well-received ad campaign. The men are seen lounging in their skivvies in the locker room and the shower, and in one photograph are even touching one another (innocently, granted — or as innocently as two nearly nude men in a locker room can seem to be).

Athletes modeling underwear is not new to the States, either. Jockey has long used male sportsmen as spokesmodels, but never in sexualized, homoerotically charged environments and situations such as this. Even Joe Namath's legendary pantyhose-wearing television ad played up the image of the famous quarterback in ladies' leggings for comedic effect, not sex appeal.

The trend overseas of promoting athletes as sex objects (and specifically, sex objects to both women and gay men) can likely be traced to the Dieux du Stade series of nude and nearly nude calendars featuring members of the Stade Français, the French national rugby team (appropriately enough, Dieux du Stade translates to Gods of the Stadium).

The calendar premiered in 2001, featuring members of the team in provocative poses akin to the pinups of old: saucy, but not too explicit, similar to fundraising calendars commonly associated with firehouses.

But in 2002, a new photographer was brought in who began to push the boundaries in terms of gay subtext. One photo depicted four nude players with numbers painted on their backs in a tight huddle — not exactly common behavior for a sports team.

As the years progressed, the calendars evolved from being cheeky-but-harmless pinups to material bordering on gay porn. The lighting became more dramatic, the men became more naked, and group shots, which increased in number, became more provocative.

The calendars were so successful that behind-the-scenes books and DVDs were introduced to accompany them. These candid productions amped the homoeroticism even higher with more frontal nudity, horseplay among the players, and such bizarre goings-on as players trading underwear onscreen. The calendars had found a voracious target market — much of it made up of gay men — and the athletes and producers behind Dieux du Stade were more than happy to cater to this audience.

One reason behind the apparent ease with which athletes abroad show off for their gay fans may be that they don't perceive their behavior to be particularly gay-oriented in the first place. When AfterElton.com recently spoke with celebrated Dutch physique photographer Ewoud Broeksma on the subject, he noted that perceptions of homoeroticism are very different in Europe than they are in the United States.

“They are not seen as homoerotic, but first of all as art,” Broeksma said. “This is true. I'm not saying this to put the context right in my view, but it is what I hear. They don't think in terms of gay or straight, probably — they're just boys acting like they are in control of the world.” He added, “Athletes are more aware of their bodies and are more inclined therefore to show themselves — that's internationally the same in Western cultures.”

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