Describing Good-Looking Men

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Clayton from Joplin, Missouri.

Hi, Clayton. Welcome to the show.

Thank you.

What’s up?

Well, I had a question for you. The other day, one of my co-workers was in my classroom, and I was emailing another co-worker for her birthday, and I sent the Ryan Gosling hey girl meme to her.

Tell us what that is for folks who don’t know.

Well, it’s just a picture of Ryan Gosling, and it says, hey, girl, on it, and then it says all kinds of various things. So the first one that I saw said, hey, girl, hope you do well on your finals. And this one was just, hey, girl, happy birthday. And it’s usually, you know, an attractive picture of him.

Okay, and it’s a hey, girl.

Right.

Yes.

A little more sexy.

Yeah.

So anyway, I said I was sending that and thought it was funny, and I told him about it, and he said, ooh, Ryan Gosling, he’s so handsome. So I sort of cocked my head a little bit as if to say, you know, what would your wife think about you saying this? And so we went on to a conversation that since then has lasted a few weeks as to exactly how you call someone of the same sex attractive, but not saying that you’re attracted to that person. There’s a distinguishment there.

So your coworker is heterosexual and married to a woman?

Yep, he is.

Okay.

And so for him to say that, you’re like, oh, I didn’t know that you liked guys, basically. I just think perhaps for women, there are other distinguishing attractive words, but it doesn’t seem like there are as many for men. So that was confusing to me.

This is a tough one.

It is a tough one. And it all depends, like, do you mind giving the wrong signal?

I don’t care.

Right.

If I say that a man is attractive and people go, well, what are you, a homosexual? I might be like, as far as you know, is it any of your business, you know? Because I don’t really care about that. I don’t care about being judged. That’s not the world I live in.

Right.

Yeah.

I actually got a chance to ask his wife this a few days later and what she thought of it. And she basically said, why does it matter?

Well, yeah.

That’s a good point.

I thought that was good. I think we’ve got some answers here, Clayton. It’s a great question. You know what’s going to happen. You’re going to blow up our email box with this one.

Great.

So drop your email bombs at words@waywordradio.org or try us on Facebook and Twitter. We have a lively audience there. Or just give us a call, 877-929-9673. If you’re heterosexual and you’re a man, how do you describe another good-looking man? And women, what do you think?

Clayton, thank you so much for calling.

Thank you.

Take care now.

Thanks, you too.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.