I found what explains the odd experiences with AAG, at least in my mind, by googling "all american guys" to find their affiliate's sites.

I only checked out a couple of sites. One blog supposedly was about all things to do with men, supposedly culture and fashion but with lots of male underwear banners. The other was about "hunks" and refined men with a header advertising the site as "Mom friendly." What? I didn't look further because it was just too weird.

Compare those sites to beautifulmag.eu, a more honest blog about beautiful men and fashion. No tension or concern about whether something is porn, sex or not. It's a comfortable celebration of the male body and all to do with it - sexuality, fashion, so forth. (The "email me" address looks French?)

The few AAG affiliates that I checked out show an underlying tense, driven focus on sex that is more obsessive, closeted, and sexually repressed. It's like the rabid tease you get from closeted game-playing men. Each word in AAG is interesting and noteworthy: super American "guys". That sure is hot to me, but not the the flip side. Not that Europe necessarily has it all together with sex, but AAG affiliates epitomize sexual attitudes in America, particularly about recognizing male beauty and sexuality in a Puritan based culture.