Aesthetic attraction or admiration is not identical to sexual attraction or admiration, and though the former is exclusively visual by nature, the latter is not. There is absolutely nothing wrong with explicitly sexual displays of the human body or sexual appreciation of the human body (Deuteronomy 4:2), so I am not implying that any such thing is immoral. But it can be deeply liberating and refreshing for someone to see or engage in admiration of the bodies of men and women without invoking the fallacies of a culture that perceives nonsexual things as sexual.
Platonic admiration of the human body signifies an intellectually mature understanding of the metaphysical nature of the human body--it is objectively nonsexual in itself. Accepting that other people have bodies, and in turn accepting that corporeal shells are a significant part of the way God created humans, can produce a peace about our bodies in the midst of legalistic, ascetic traditions of the modern church, which can consequently enable a deeper embracing of the fact that we are both spiritual and physical beings.
As logic easily proves, platonic admiration of one’s own gender is not impossible as well. Yet American culture holds up a sexist double standard here. It is asinine that men are often perceived as possessing homosexual inclinations just for making positive aesthetic judgments about other male bodies, since aesthetic appreciation in itself is totally divorced from sexual admiration, and since women are outright expected to comment on each other's appearances regularly. This gender-based expectation is nothing but a byproduct of arbitrary cultural constructs and sexist stereotypes, none of which have anything to do with reality.
American culture elevates female beauty over male beauty, with men not expected to be anywhere near as concerned about their appearances as women are. This is to the detriment of both genders: the male body is often trivialized or ignored, while physical appearance is often treated like one of the most defining features of being a woman. Both of these sexist ideas have harmful results. Men are taught subtly and overtly that their bodies are not particularly attractive, and women are taught that attractiveness is an integral part of what it means to be a woman.
These ideas about men and women are thoroughly untrue, and can have injurious, lasting effects on both genders. Women are not beautiful just because they are women, and they do not deserve to be called beautiful just because they are women. Male beauty does not deserve to be denied or trivialized just because it belongs to men. Other cultures, to the contrary, reversed some of these ideas (as with the ancient Greeks). Americans often ignore this, of course--it's inconvenient for their assumptions, after all.
Celebrating the beauty of both genders in a nonsexual way is entirely Biblical [1]! When brothers and sisters in Christ as a whole find peace with their own bodies and the bodies of those around them, the ripple effects are enormous. There is no small impact on our lives when we embrace our physicality as the metaphysically good thing that it is, and platonic admiration of the bodies of other people can serve as an effective reminder of this.
[1]. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2016/12/beauty-of-both-genders.html
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