what people don’t realize about tumblr sexymen is a character being called one is a [bad] thing. the label was originally applied to characters that were lusted over by straight women who refused to engage with any other character who wasn’t a white twink. that’s why oncest exists. that’s why those bill cipher and wheatley gijinkas exist.
sans was a special case because people preferred his original design (short and not conventionally attractive) however the “refusal to engage with any other character” was very much still there like look at all of the AUs that were made specifically because of him.
the amount of mischaracterisation a character has to go through in order to truly count as a sexyman (and there’s about 20 sexymen proper) would cause most people to have a brain aneurysm like it sucks so bad.
times have drastically changed since the onceler, and the range of characters people hype up is far more diverse than it once was. the time period in which a character was most popular (between 2012 - 2018) is the most fundamental part in making them a sexyman.
this is why any sexyman poll made after the one that killed queen lizzy is completely null to me. 90% of the characters in them are just regular fan favourites like get this common real life dude out of there. if you could talk about liking a character with a coworker and not get viciously made fun of by them then that character is not a sexyman like that’s the full truth of the matter.
(this is also why anime boys like reigen and komaeda often count. hate for anything anime-based outside of the internet was especially egregious before 2020)
also. there is a huge distinction between “sexy man” and sexyman. this is why senshi does not count. Because he is genuinely sexy. My final message. Goodbye
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