A little while ago G4 came into the office to interview all the editors about their top ten lists - best FPS, best art direction, you know. I mentioned the art direction on Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and said, "besides the beauty of the surroundings, the prince is hot!"

They were like, "But what about his hair? Say something about his hair!"

Huh?

Later as we were wrapping up they passed by the life-size mock-up of Prince of Persia that stands guard right outside my cube. "You think he's hot? He just looks gay to me," muttered one of the camera crew.

Well, why can't gay guys look hot? Straight men shouldn't be surprised that women often find gay men attractive - and that's why straight men go to them for fashion advice, as in Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. The stereotypical young urban gay man is well-dressed, well-groomed, and well-coiffed - tailored, in fact, for attractiveness. Is it strange to acknowledge that?

And secondly, just because I mention that a character in a game is hot, I'm not saying, I want to have sex with them and expect them to comply. Haven't straight men ever thought a lesbian hot? I couldn't imagine a woman countering with, "You think she's hot? She just looks gay to me." (Well, perhaps a very narrow-minded woman.) It doesn't matter what the sexual orientation of said object of admiration really is; his or her attractiveness is independent of that. We can all be attracted to people who don't return our affection, for one reason or another.

Thirdly, exactly what about the Prince is "gay"? In the game, he clearly has a love interest - the equally hot captive princess. So then what about him "looks gay"? Gay guys have a monopoly on pretty eyes and hard bodies?

Oh, right I forgot; it's his hair. He definitely has gay hair. That's how you can always tell.