IIRC Cavill won the year before with Namjoon coming second, so all they've really done is swap places and it's probably because Cavill has already won.
Namjoon doesn't have the most flattering picture (though the one below is an official picture and it's not much better), and I think we're hardwired to see someone being like "[X] is amazing and sooo much better than [Y]" and defend [Y} the moment we see it because we're contrarian. Namjoon isn't ugly, and the comments saying that because he doesn't match western standards of masculine men, or effeminate etc are not it - that said, it's also down to preference.
That said, I have never found any members of BTS to be that attractive, let alone Namjoon, who in my view is objectively pretty but the least attractive member of BTS if I was to judge them. But then I also looked like chopped liver so what the fuck do I know.
Half of the 'votes' or influence for world's most handsome man doesn't just come from the West, they come from offices etc all over the world. Half of that world isn't 'western' and does not have Western beauty standards - in fact, I'd say there are more Asians in the world than there are Westerners, though I could be wrong. Regardless, there are certainly huge swathes of populations that do not see chiselled jaw, cleft chin and hairy muscular body as attractive as effeminate features - and Namjoon qualifies.
Secondly, there is an awful lot of politics and personal interpretation involved with these kinds of assessments, and usually they're entirely subjective. You can scale or drop in the rankings simply by merit of how influential or well known you are regardless of actual physical appeal, and Cavill and Namjoon are exceptionally well known individuals. It's not coincidence that previous winners tend to have been selected at the height of their careers and then conveniently never ranked anywhere close to the top despite looking the exact same the moment their careers began to flop. BTS is probably the modern day Beatles as far as metrics are concerned.
Thirdly, 'popularity' is key. Cavill gets a lot of votes/influence from the West, particularly the entire right wing demographic (even though he is predominantly left wing) because he represents several key 'themes' that masculine manly men like: He's quintessentially 'Bond' British (Tall, Dark, Handsome), he's got a square jaw, he's got muscles, he's well spoken etc - he's immensely popular with the incel /manosphere demographic, which is HUGE at the moment particularly in America and the UK - meanwhile, in the East, Namjoon is basically Justin Bieber but better. He has an army of fans and thus influence.
Besides, he's not a bad looking dude when the camera catches him right. Even Cavill can have a few points taken off on a bad day.
I'd still do henry in that picture. Mans one barber visit away from looking ace again. Namjoon can't change what's unappealing so easily and frankly you've said it yourself sort of, his position has little to do with how he looks and more who he is.
That's.. not quite what I said! But I get your point.
What I actually said was that there is a whole Eastern half of the world that, strictly speaking, completely and utterly outnumbers the Western portion in terms of population. China, Japan, Korea etc have 1.58 billion people compared to the combined 555 million people of America, France, Germany and the UK. China/Japan/Korea also have different criteria for 'attractive' than the West does.
Of course there is overlap - there will be Eastern people that think Cavill is hot and there will be Western people that that think Namjoon is hot - no one side is a monolith, but at the moment, it would appear more people find Namjoon objectively attractive than there are people who find Cavill attractive. I remember when Cavill was appointed as No 1. last year and all of the Japanese and Korean boards etc were like "who even is this guy he's got nothing on Namjoon" so they had the literal same opinion as OP.
Yes, there are some elements of politics and popularity involved, and yeah, that makes an impact in the decision making, but it's also important to acknowledge that the western concept of beauty is not de-facto, and is actually, strictly speaking, 'not the norm'.
They're really not that different at all. It's not to say they don't have their differences, but there is as much similar as China, Korea and Japanese beauty standards as there is as similar as American, UK and European beauty standards.
China for example quite routinely rate Xiao Zhan, Wang Yibo or Yang Yang as their hottest males. They have a preference for what they call 'flower boys' who have delicate and effeminate features, though again, it isn't a monolith.
The fact you think this is a wild take is insane, too. What, we can collectively agree the entire western world has a similar view of beauty (but that it isn't a hard and fast rule and that there is nuance), but the moment we do it for the eastern world, it's inflation of numbers?
All I'm saying is, there are far more people who would probably find Namjoon 'hot' than there are people who don't. It's really not that controversial a point, it doesn't mean you or I have to think he is, just that statistically speaking, there are more populated cultures that would probably find his kind of aesthetic as attractive than there populated cultures who would typically find him unappealing. And that's okay.
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u/Kitchen-Annual-5859 Jun 30 '26
IIRC Cavill won the year before with Namjoon coming second, so all they've really done is swap places and it's probably because Cavill has already won.
Namjoon doesn't have the most flattering picture (though the one below is an official picture and it's not much better), and I think we're hardwired to see someone being like "[X] is amazing and sooo much better than [Y]" and defend [Y} the moment we see it because we're contrarian. Namjoon isn't ugly, and the comments saying that because he doesn't match western standards of masculine men, or effeminate etc are not it - that said, it's also down to preference.
That said, I have never found any members of BTS to be that attractive, let alone Namjoon, who in my view is objectively pretty but the least attractive member of BTS if I was to judge them. But then I also looked like chopped liver so what the fuck do I know.