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GaldraChevaliere wrote

Men aren't sexually objectified, they're sexually idealized. Compare a Frank Frazetta or Kit Rae styled fantasy painting of a man to a woman. Both are going to be in the same state of general undress, wearing similar accessories (loincloths, scraps of chainmail, leather underwear), but the pose, the lighting, and the environment all convey very different things. The woman will be buxom and have a huge ass, powerful legs, and long flowing hair, and she might also be carrying a sword like the man is. But her pose will be consistently more 'submissive'. The angle will show off her assets, often in ways that require a lot of contortion to actually achieve that angle. She'll be positioned so that her ass is the first thing the eye is drawn to, her weapon will be held improperly, or close to her body and at a resting position to signal vulnerability. A man will be just as nude as her, but his body will be covered in rippling muscles and his long hair connotes Samson-like virility. The bulge of his penis is exaggerated, but his penis itself isn't on direct display. He holds his oversized, phallic weapon aloft and ready for battle, or is already engaged in it. The women in these paintings are what men want them to be, but the men in the paintings are what men want to be. It's an idealisation, the 'perfect' man who kills and conquers and fucks. The woman's a setpiece or eye candy, a potential conquest for the viewer.

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Xylanthius OP wrote

Up until recently all paintings were made by men.

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GaldraChevaliere wrote

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ende_%28artist%29

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diemoth

These two might interest you. There's a long tradition of woman artists and a significant portion of the artists we hail now would be considered Non-Men by a modern standard of homophobia. Michelangelo and Botticelli come to mind, and Shakespeare's sonnets are overwhelmingly about his love for an androgynous person that in the period would've likely been identified by others as a 'baeddel'.

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