Symbolic Annihilation in People’s Sexiest Man Alive

People Magazine’s annual sexiest man alive award may be one of the most blatant objectifications of men in media. It upholds conventional ideals of male beauty: chiseled facial features and big muscles. The award reinforces the gender binary, is aggressively heteronormative, and is celebrity obsessed. Winners are typically straight actors or singers, although there have been athletes as well. Despite the award being rooted in objectification and unrealistic standards, winners and viewers alike look forward to the annual reveal.

Idris Elba is 2018’s sexiest man alive. He joins a small group of men of color who have been granted the award. In the last 10 years, Elba is the only black man, and Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson is the only other man of color. Although 2 of 8 is a larger ratio than past decades, the winners do not accurately reflect the makeup of men in the world.

People magazine underrepresents men of color and symbolically annihilates non heterosexual cisgender men. Despite slight increases in diversity, I doubt we will see a time when the sexiest man alive is not a straight cisgender male.