What is it that can turn a typically sane, mature, knows-how-to-act woman into someone not much better behaved than a horny 14-year-old boy? The World Cup!

Once every four years, women who wouldn't know a hat trick from a corner kick find themselves all excited about the prospect of an entire month of soccer (or football, if they're from anyplace other than the US). Then they get to ooh and aah and text and tweet about abs and butts and thighs and arms and shoulders that seem too perfect to be real. If other athletes are like models when it comes to attractiveness, then soccer players are the supermodels, a bar that few, if any, cannot ever hope to meet.

In other countries, drooling over hot soccer bodies can be a year-round obsession. That's because the sport is as common as reality TV there, on every weekend from September through May. There's no shortage of toned torsos if you just run through the TV channels. Women abroad know that if you're patient, at the end of games the players often take off their shirts and walk around the field, congratulating or consoling each other in nothing more than a low-slung pair of shorts.

This is why the Internet is a beautiful thing. When the World Cup is over, there are still the websites, Tumblrs and Facebook feeds full of photos of players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Alex Song, Yaya Toure, Claudio Marischio, Neymar and the appropriately named Hulk. Even if you don't know their positions on the field, you still understand that they are special.

In truth, a lot of women do appreciate and understand the game beyond the player's high levels of attractiveness. But for all of those who don't, why are these men so exciting? Is it because they are just so perfect? Yes, there's that. But it is also because women are starved for eye candy. Men get to oogle and drool every time they turn on the television or log onto the internet. Hot women are everywhere. Hot men? Not so much.

So until advertising execs and casting directors finally get that women can be just as good at objectifying people as men, there is the World Cup. And for anyone who wants to argue that objectification is always wrong, just take a look at the photo above.  

(Photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of BET Networks.
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