the sheik

Valentino in "The Sheik" was clearly a sex symbol, object of all women's desires, even if they weren't saying it! (pun on silent films). Anyways, this reverse trend of male as spectacle has completely blown up in todays society. To think that a poster like the one to the left could have aptly portrayed Valentino's physiology to the point that women would swoon is hard to believe when we consider images that are available today, on billboards all over the country. For example, Becks. In his Armani campaign, David Beckham was shown in his skivvies across the world, hundreds of times larger than life. The image of his muscular body seems incomparable to this representation of Valentino from so long ago.