Well Stu, you certainly make a good point about gay men being able to declare women as attractive. I agree we can look at a woman; e-v-al-uate her attractiveness, without fancying her. It's same for other men too of course; for instance I'd rate Jason Manford as attractive, but I don't fancy him.
However attractiveness is an subjective quality too: Whether somebody is (not) "attractive", regardless of whether somebody is your 'type' or not, is still a matter of personal opinion. Indeed you demonstrate that in what you put about Rooney's looks:
If you're into rugged men, and don't know anything about him, he's n,ot ugly.
Thence Rooney's attractiveness would hinges on whether one likes rugged men, regardless of whether you would fancy him/whether he's your type; even then somebody may like rugged men, but still not find Rooney physically attractive (they may like rugged men, but dislike gingers, for instance). Depends what you, I or anybody else considers attractive. I'm sure plenty of people here would be baffled at my deeming Jason Manford attractive!
Similarly you and I could sit down and look at some pictures females, disagree about who is attractive-- despite not fancying any of the women. I may find blue-eyed women attractive, you may not. I may consider a lady with strong cheekbones attractive, you may not. I don't find tatoos at all attractive, you might etc. And that was my point, to answer your question Jumbler, we cannot be objective about looks (or attractiveness): Since to be objective means to avoid personal feelings/opinons, and you cannot do that in this context, since such things are in the eye of the beholder. I'm pleased that it is the case, the world would be a very dull place otherwise

>>> He only becomes ugly when you hear things about him and realise what a unapologeticly festering piece of smeared human effluent he is <<<
I would agree with you on this one Stu, his ugliness in terms of personality

Although I'm sure there are people out there, who would find that 'bad boy' reputation/attitude appealing...
This post has been edited by Roger Mellie: Jan 31 2012, 19:59