The moment Marlon Brando took off his shirt in one of the early scenes of A Streetcar Named Desire, a sex symbol was born.
Brando is only one of a long list of icons whose improbable good looks have pegged them as legendary and timeless sex symbols.
It's arguably easier than ever for people, celebrities or not, to come onto the scene as sex symbols thanks to social media.
But how well we'll remember these self-promoted, arguably manufactured people remains to be seen, while we continue to be dazzled and entranced by the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Raquel Welch, Sean Connery, James Dean, and others decades, in some cases even centuries, after they came on the scene.
Redditor Improv92 was curious to hear who people considered the most powerful sex symbol of all time, leading them to ask:
"Living or dead, who do you think has been the most powerful sex symbol the world has ever seen?"
The One Responsible For Starting It All
"Sigmund Freud's mother."- dreamwarrior22
Top Of The Liszt
"Franz Liszt, a 19th century Hungarian classical pianist and composer."
"Everything you've heard about obsessed fans of rockstars like Elvis or The Beatles was happening to perhaps an even greater degree a century earlier."
"People's obsession with him was so intense and so widespread that it was called Lisztomania and it was considered a genuine mental disorder."
"They threw underwear on the stage, they fainted just seeing him, they collected any scrap of anything he touched (some even wore his cigar butts as jewelry), and his shows caused full on riots."
"Both men and women were obsessed, common people as well as royalty, truly everyone."
"I remember hearing something about him playing for a Catholic mass at a cathedral in Rome, and got kicked out for making the nuns too horny."- paraworldblue
He Could Resist Anything, Except Temptation...
"How has no one said Oscar Wilde yet?"
"His grave was literally covered in lipstick kiss marks until they had to protect it."- LanceAlgoriddim
Age Could Not Wither Her
"Well, it's been about two thousand years and we're still talking about Cleopatra and her lovers, so I'm enclined to give her that."- emissaryofwinds
Eternal Beauty
"I’m going to say whom ever inspired those Paleolithic Venus figurines."- Tricky-Engineering59
Extinction Be Damned!
"The turtle who single-handedly brought his species out of endangerment by having a f*ckton of sex."- abitsussy
Marine Life Swimming GIF by Nature on PBSGiphyNothing Is Sexier Thank Kindness
"Paul Newman because of 'all profits to charity', $600 million so far."- tracyinge
Sexy, Or Sexist?
"Victor Hugo."
"Supposedly all the brothels in Paris closed on the day of his funeral."
"The prostitutes attended by the hundreds and draped their privates with black cloths as a sign of mourning."
"His sexy exploits include:"
"Having sex 83 times in the 4 months before he died at age 83."
"Having sex with over 200 women in 2 years."
"It was not unusual for him to have 3-4 different lovers in a day."
"For seven years he had a mistress he kept secret from his wife and a second mistress he kept secret from his first mistress."
"Had sex 9 times with his wife on their wedding night."
"She got pregnant 5 times in 8 years."
"He was married to his wife for 48 years til her death."
"Both had lovers outside the marriage."
"One of his mistresses was his unpaid 'secretary' and traveled with him for 50 years."
"He seduced his son's lover."
"His son said he didn't blame her for it."- heimdahl81
Victor Hugo Pamela Chougne GIFGiphyThe Face That Launched A Thousand Ships
"Helen of Troy."- destro23
They Always Love The Drummer...
"Roger Taylor in Queen's 'I want to break free' video."- vickinga
Snakes Medusa GIF by PBS Digital StudiosEveryone Could Just Eat Her Right Up...
"The green m&m."- Plenty-Row4359
No Matter What Name He Was Using...
"Prince."
"He will steal your girl, then steal her clothes, then steal someone else's girl in your girl's clothes."- LeChefK_Tang
Sexiness is in the eye of the beholder.
Though, anyone who doesn't think Paul Newman was the sexiest man that ever lived may need to get their eyes checked...
Curious to hear from strangers online about their developmental growth, Redditor 1234kyou_ asked:
"What did you swear in your childhood you would never do, but ended up doing anyways?"
Some hobbies that delighted us as kids never really go away as these Redditors have experienced.
The "Bird Creep"
"Birdwatching. I used to think it was the lamest way someone could spend their time when I was a kid. How could anyone just sit around and look at birds? What are you, some kind of bird creep? ... 20 years later and I'm obsessed with birds. Love hearing their songs and seeing all the beautiful colors."
– Koala-teas
Unfilled Dream
"Give up drawing."
"I actually broke my own heart when I recently found a school project we did back when I was a kid. We had to write a letter for our future selves and mine starts with: 'Hey, did you become an artist already? I really hope you did not become a boring adult with a boring job who gave up on his dreams and passions.'"
"Well, sorry little me, but I kinda did."
– Aesma_
Tending To One's Garden
"Gardening. We had a large garden. We raised and preserved what we grew. It was me and my sister's job to care for this garden. This was back when whipping your child was acceptable punishment. I was whipped sooo many times, because I hated that I had to grew and preserved vegetables I did not like. I hated it! Swore I'd never have a garden. Never do THAT to my kids. Then I had kids. A switch flipped in my head. I had to have a garden! I never made my kids take care of it. Gardening was my 'me' time. But being little kids, they wanted to be with mom and 'help' with the garden. I 'gave' them an area and they were allowed to grow whatever they wanted. If it was a fruit or vegetables , they had to eat it. As a result, they both love gardening and neither are picky eaters."
– Eogh21
When it comes to keeping it in the family, it's not always the goal.
Like Father...
"I have become my father."
– jer1303
Like Mother...
"I have become my mom.... even the voice is similar."
– rogue1206
Dad's Cynicism
"I've taken on a lot more of my dad's cynicism than I would like, but mostly I have my mom's wonder and carefreeness."
"But my dad is rich and mom is poor."
"He does not share the wealth he just shares 'you should've done X like this'. But his advice is the level of 'tear down the sign punch them in the face and say you're looking at your new employee'. I've also never heard a single dad joke from him."
– BugTester350
Posthumous Disapproval
"When I was touring houses to buy before the pandemic, my mother's spirit must have possessed me because I opened my mouth and her voice said 'i don't know, i don't think I could live in a house without both a coat closet and a linen closet.'"
– TJtherock
Adulting is hard.
The Financial Hole
"Get into debt I can't pay off."
– lilviviv
Potty-Mouth
"I said I wouldn’t curse unless a nuke was dropped on my house. That was a f'king lie."
– -notjosh-
Can't Wait, Don't Hate
"Have sex before marriage. Thank f'k I never made good on that one since I'm 41 and have never been married."
– squid1891
I'm a pretty fussy eater. Always have been.
I grew up in a Japanese family where regularly eating natto was a thing.
Natto is a Japanese dish made from Bacillus subtilis-fermented soybeans. It's known to have magical health benefits but the smell is overwhelmingly powerful, and the nutty taste leaves little to be desired.
Many people not used to eating exotic foods can't stand the flavor and slimy, sticky texture–let alone the pungent aroma.
I swore as a child that would be the one food I would never eat again after having a bad experience.
And yet, here I am as an adult, eating it for breakfast 2-3 times a week after truly understanding the health benefits.
Natto–which is rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals– helps maintain healthy cholesterol levels, reduces blood pressure, and can prevent heart disease. Some studies have suggested it can prevent certain cancers.
Once I trained myself to get used to flavor and smell, I actually crave it now.
It's definitely an acquired taste, but it's crazy to know that we are all capable of liking or appreciating something previously thought of as repulsive once we set our mind to it.
"Hiring managers of Reddit: What makes you immediately throw out a résumé?"
Not In It For The Long Run
"I once received an application from a man in his 60s."
"Solid CV, lots of experience."
"In his cover letter he wrote 'I'm applying because the Job Centre asked me to'."
"Please note that I intend to retire in 6 months time'."
"We had a good laugh, then sent him a very polite rejection letter and wished him a great retirement."-BeerPoweredNonsense
Season 1 Lol GIF by NBCGiphyMake Sure They Actually Get The Right Document...
"One time I had someone upload how to upload their resume from Dropbox instead of their resume."- rabidwhale
Always Proof Read!
"I'll usually still interview unless there is no relevant experience, but I've seen some atrocious resumes."
"I've seen people use crutch words like 'uh' in writing for a job description."
"I've also seen a sentence 4 lines long with zero punctuation."
"The same resume will have 'attention to detail' as a skill set."
"I've interviewed for one of those resumes, and the applicant said 'I dunno" to about 80% of my questions, and it turned out he didn't even know what job he applied for'."
"It's not that I'm overly picky, but if someone can't spend the 20 minutes or less that it takes to proof read their resume, are they going to put a lot of effort into their job?"
"Maybe, but it's hard to know."- ChristyM4ck
Read Book Club GIFMake Sure It's Legible
"The only time I have ever had to throw out a resume was because someone possibly had it in a bag with their lunch and the paper was soaking wet and dissolving as I tried to unfold it."
"It was just unacceptable to process."
"The application was left in a drop box so I don’t know if it was a prank or an actual applicant."- 416unknown
Unprofessional Email Address
"Back in 98 I asked a new group of hires at GIECO to write their email addresses on a list that was passed around."
"Remember email was kinda new back then.. "
"One young female employee's email address included 'mybaldc**tchie'."- catjugglinpimp
the messengers aol GIFNever Send Someone In Your Place
"It’s been a long time but I used to do hiring for a cinema."
"Staff were often young, for many it was a first job, making popcorn and selling tickets type of gig."
"I would not pursue anything where parents came in with a CV for their teenager or if parents were contacting me on behalf of their teen."
"Big red flag."
"Either their kid didn’t want he job in the first place or they’re incapable of taking initiative and it doesn’t bode well for how they’d be as an employee."- FigJamAndCitrus
"Having your parents submit your resume while you stand silently beside them."- krim2182
It's Pure, Dumb Luck!
"I remember a meme or maybe a tv skit from a while back."
"The hiring manager had a huge pile of resumes on his desk."
"Someone asked how he was going to sift through them all."
"He took 2/3rds of the pile, threw them in the trash, and remarked 'I don't hire unlucky people'."
"Lol."- SpecialSpite7115
Im Out Breaking News GIF by Homes.comGiphyAll About The Formatting
"This doesn’t matter 100% of the time but bad formatting."
"If it’s hard to read I probably won’t read it."- Far-Gain-3081
Depends On The Job
"If it's a professional position, significant spelling errors will make me pass on a resume."
"If it's a warehouse job or something, I'm less concerned."- staffsargent
Don't Treat It Like A Text Message!
"Former hiring manager here."
"I tossed MULTIPLE resumes that used text message abbreviations throughout the resume and cover letter and one that included emojis."
"While you can do pretty much anything from your phone, it doesn’t mean you should."- spectacularuhoh
text texting GIF by Fifth HarmonyGiphyChoose Your References Wisely
"Not me, but a friend who checks resumes/CVs had a belter."
"Candidate had a conviction and his reference was his friend 'Baz'."- LexiRae24
Make Sure You Have The Relevant Skills
"I know it’s pretty specific but If your looking for a scheduling job make sure you know how to use Excel and clearly state it on your resume."
"It will probably get thrown out otherwise."- LoyalPlanets
As stated before, no two hiring departments will have exactly the same prerequisites and red flags, so no matter how hard you work, your resume is never going to please everyone.
That being said, multiple misspellings and a cheeky e-mail address are a surefire guarantee of not pleasing anyone.