Here's a picture of a handsome young man in his early 20s, wearing a baseball hat and showing off a ticket to the gun show by flexing one of his arms. It's the kind of half-lit bedroom shot that could be anyone's Facebook profile pic or Instagram avatar—except his rather large cock is at full mast and pointing towards the ceiling. This is not a dick pic texted to someone, or a slice of revenge porn posted by a spurned lover: This guy put this picture on the internet on purpose, bearing the headline "Love showing off."
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That headline could be considered the motto for Lady Boners Gone Wild, Reddit's most popular place for nude dudes who post pictures of themselves for the amusement and arousal of others. The subreddit currently has nearly 80,000 subscribers and sees about 100 fresh posts a day. "When you see me post myself on the internet, I'm looking for someone I'm attracted to to say something to me," says "Dick Tripp," a 32 year-old who lives overseas and has been posting on the board for a few months. "I'm basically fishing with my abs and penis." Considering his handsome face, tight torso, and smattering of tattoos, it's not surprising that he gets the attention he's looking for.LBGW isn't just about clicking through a sea of dick pics, though, as cock close-ups are banned from the board. "If you look at other [subreddits], they're just all dick pics," says Star, a 21-year-old LBGW moderator. "That's not what we do." She's right—a visit to the MenGW subreddit, for instance, turns up an endless parade of one-eyed snakes staring down the visitor as if they're about to attack. It also has a fraction of the subscribers LBGW's snagged. Conversely, the slightly more popular LadyBoners features a litany of sexy male celebrities— fully clothed, mostly, but sometimes shirtless.
LBGW's posters are made up of Redditors from across the world, almost all of them shirtless and many of them sporting a hard-on that would make Ron Jeremy proud. Besides the cock close-up ban, another LBGW rule is that guys must also show at least half of their face—either a profile shot, their nose and eyes, or their lips and chin. Posters will often use a phone to block whichever part of their appearance they want to keep hidden.
"You really get a full picture of the person posting it, and we feel like that is more attractive to the audience and gets more of a response," Jose, 27, a gay male moderator who lives in Dallas explains. "You're not just staring at a body part—most of the time, you're staring at the whole person."
LBGW's posters tend to get playful, too. One recent gentleman took pictures on a construction site wearing only his tool belt and work boots, showing off a trim body and a rather impressive hard dick. The photos show a bit of personality amidst a sea of gym locker room shots and dudes taking snaps in their dirty bathroom mirrors. Other posters aim to achieve an artsy look with black-and-white galleries; indeed, the bros seem proud when they can pull off a truly artistic shot.
There is a fair amount of diversity among the posters, but fit white guys tend to get the most upvotes, which drives them to the top of the subreddit—and the act of posting on LBGW gives some of the dudes drive to stay fit. "I built this body for sex," says Dan, 32, who lives on the West Coast and has the type of torso you'd see on the cover of Men's Health, along with one of the most beautiful asses the world has ever known. He says the compliments he gets from LBGW's commenters are motivation for him to keep hitting the gym.
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"I've seen very little negative feedback," Dan says. "Only when people think I'm posting pics from some male model I found online—and hell, that's a fucking compliment!"Since LBGW is a site for lovers of the male body, it attracts a fair number of gay male readers along with women; some moderators estimate that the readership is probably an even split between the two demographics. All of the posters I spoke with are straight guys and say they hear from men pretty often, and they always appreciate the compliments. "About half of my responses are from gay guys—which is fine and I'm appreciative, but I'm just not interested," says "Dick." "A quarter of the girls that write me are really accounts created by guys that send me a fake picture of a girl from an escort site." For his part, Dan estimates he's interested in about one out of every 10 girls that send him photos. "I like seeing their boobs."Cameron, a 23-year-old poster from Colorado, says most of the women who contact him like to share pictures as well, and they're often quite attractive. However, none of the guys I spoke to have met a woman for sex or dating from posting on LBGW. "Dick" says if he didn't live overseas, it would've happened by now—but all three posters claim they're introverts and find it easier to interact with people online than IRL.Cameron, a sexy ginger with a large chest tattoo and legs that anyone who's ever approached a squat rack would envy, posts on LBGW regularly but doesn't use any online dating services. The irony is not lost on him. "I'm a weird dude, I guess," he says. "Even though I show my face [in my nude pictures], I like the anonymity. I like to talk to people, get good feedback and boost my confidence. I'm not that great dealing with women in real life."
While he waits to meet a girl through more conventional means, he's happy to show off alongside all the other wild dudes hoping to give the ladies boners. For that, the whole internet is appreciative.Follow Brian Moylan on Twitter.