People magazine just named Jonathan Bailey the Sexiest Man Alive in 2025. That they didn't choose the most boring and outdated choice imaginable is already surprising enough, but this choice in particular is great news for several very different groups of people.
Bailey achieved fame after playing Fiyero in Wicked film adaptation, and then consolidated this with the main role in the last Jurassic World: Rebirth. These are probably the main reasons for his award. However, what's really important here is that he also played G'rah Tia, the Crystal Exarch. Final Fantasy XIV: World Reborn magician who became so popular that he received larger roles in Bearing shadows And Dawn trail. Bailey has also provided voice acting for games such as Hymn And Forza Horizon 2 before exploding in a live-action scene, but I'm guessing that probably didn't make much of a difference to the outcome.
So, remember when society as a whole shunned gaming, anime, and especially the unholy mixture of these two aesthetics as “unsexy”? Well, that's it. Or maybe the people at People magazine weren't meticulous enough to realize that Jonathan Bailey also played one of the most coveted characters in history. final fantasy story, who is also a cat boy. In any case, this door can no longer be closed.
But seriously, this is actually a great choice for two main reasons. First, we're looking at the first openly gay person to win the award. The second, as one wise Twitter user pointed out, is that this is one of the few guys to win the award while they're still sexy.
People have been facing this kind of criticism for a long time now, and it's not that older men can't be sexy, but rather that the magazine doesn't respond to trends and often ends up giving the award to guys under 50 who no one cares about anymore.
And of course, this is a stupid competition. You can easily argue that sexuality is in the eye of the beholder. It's even easier to argue that the eyes of the people who cast Blake Shelton, or that guy who plays Jim in the office and the CIA shills, and even late-stage Johnny Depp aren't seeing much. And yet I am ready to close my eyes to all this for once. Let's celebrate Jonathan Bailey's Battle Royale victory over all other sexy men on this historic day for gamers, the LGBT community, and all cat lovers.
