Sexy Professions

Have you ever considered your attorney sexy (when you're not grumbling about how much you pay him)? I suppose thanks to TV shows like L.A. Law, lawyers do have a somewhat sexy image. The hero and heroine in my upcoming story for eRed Sage, Sex and the Single Pearl, are both attorneys. I don't particularly find attorneys sexy (especially since I've been dealing with a few for the past five years or so - ugh!), but the profession worked well for the story since the H/H begin as adversaries. Law is a good, adversarial profession and can get your H/H all worked up!

Another decidedly un-sexy profession is that of a librarian (although sitting in the library surrounded by books sounds pretty sexy to me). However, my heroine in my novella, Virgin of the Amazon (Secrets Vol. 21), is just that - a university librarian. I chose that profession for her because it's NOT sexy. She is, of course, the typically repressed librarian (I think that all started with Marian, Madame Librarian in The Music Man). What could be more sensuous than an uptight woman slowly unfurling for the right man?

I went for the opposite extreme in my novella, Hot on Her Heels (coming soon in Secrets Vol. 24). The heroine owns a male strip club in Vegas and the hero is a private investigator working undercover as...a male stripper. Again, their professions function as a plot device to bring them together on the one hand and put them at odds on the other.

For the same reasons, my H/H in Aphrodite's Fire (coming in the fall from eRed Sage) are both bounty hunters. Now, I don't find Duane "Dawg" Chapman sexy, but there's just something about a bounty hunter. Even the label, bounty hunter, is kind of sexy in an outlaw kind of way.

For me there are "sexy" professions and professions that can definitely lend themselves to sexiness and professions that I use just to make the story work better. I recently had to make sure I portrayed my cosmetic surgeon hero in an upcoming Intrigue as a selfless, heroic kind of doc who also worked in a children's burn unit because my editor didn't find cosmetic surgeons very sexy! Is she kidding? They're gods here in So Cal!

Are there any professions you find sexy? Any that you avoid? Any that make you go "ick"?

11 comments:

Terry Spear/Terry Lee Wilde said...

Hmm, a garbage collector..uhm, sanitation engineer would not be on my list of sexy men, though they'd have muscles. LOL

Sandy said...

Carol,
Love the post. I really never thought about my h/h professions
being sexy or not. I'll certainly give that more consideration next time. I wouldn't think of a janitor as sexy, but usually cowboys, lawmen, military, or CIA and FBI are considered sexy. lol

Another great post, Carol.

Sandy

Mia Varano said...

Terry, Hmmm, you just got me thinking about a new Intrigue where a garbage collector stumbles on something he's not supposed to see - a bag of cash, a battered briefcase with top secret papers, drugs - and there are all those muscles!

Anonymous said...

Hmmm, I'm a sucker for a pediatrician and the cowboy (but he has to town the ranch, of course:)

Out of all my heroine's occupations, I think my favorite has got to be the chimney sweep.

~Tina

Mia Varano said...

Sandy, I think you named all the top sexy jobs for heroes! Although has anyone ever really met a cowboy? A guy I was dating once told me his brother was a cowboy. I just looked at him blankly and asked, "what does he do?" Can you tell I'm a city girl? I guess they round up cattle, which seems decidedly stinky to me and not sexy at all, but then they have those hats, boots, and tight jeans. Maybe they all look like Brad Paisley!

Mia Varano said...

Tina, to continue the Musical theme here, Mary Poppins certainly found her chimney sweep sexy!

Pediatricians don't really do it for me. When my son was five he had a physical for kindergarten. After the doc checked his testicles, my son just stared at him while the doc and I were talking. Then my son said, "You're sick." I gasped and scolded him. The doc asked him why he thought he was sick, and my son responded, "because you look at people's privates." The doc was trying not to laugh and explained that that was OK for him because he was a doctor. My son then embarrassed me further by asking if him if he looked at his brothers' and sisters' privates too. The doc was snorting by this time, his eyes watering as he responded, "Not lately." LOL I loved that doc (he was my doc too) and then he moved. But I'll never forget that story. My son's 10 now, but I always tell him that story and he just grins and rolls his eyes.

Nicole North said...

Great post, Carol! The heroine in my first novella "Devil in a Kilt" Red Sage Secrets Volume 27 is a psychology professor, perhaps an unsexy profession (unless we're talking sex therapy or something) but she isn't typical, uptight or bookish. She's a fun gal. I like for my heroines to have professions that show they have intelligence.

For heroes, any job that requires them to be tough, fearless or a leader can be sexy, say like a Highland clan chief. Other professions I've used for heroes were undercover cop, inventor, charter boat captain, log home contractor, professional superbike racer.

Nicole North said...

Mia, what a hilarious pediatrician story!! Thanks for the laugh!

Amber Leigh Williams said...

Love this topic, Mia!

I think the sexiest of sexy male profession for me would be a firefighter. Gotta love a man who'll run into a burning building to save your pet Flossy. I also think the forbidden types are really hot. Like Todd, the jewel thief from FOX & HOUND. Mark, the deadly bodyguard, in DENIED ORIGIN. Robin Hood always gets me going because he's an outlaw. And Richard Gere who played a criminal in the movie The Jackal.

Lawyers are oddly sexy, I agree. Your story reminds me of that movie with Julianne Moore and Pierce Brosnan, Laws of Attraction. It's one of my favorites. Can't wait to read Sex and the Single Pearl :)

Amber Leigh Williams
www.amberleighwilliams.com
Steamy Romantic Adventure & Suspense
FOX & HOUND, SR Reviews "Outstanding Read"

Mia Varano said...

Amber, I gotta read Fox and Hound! Nothing sexier than a jewel thief! Do you remember in the original Pink Panther that David Niven played a jewel thief? And Inspector Clousseau's wife was having an affair with him. LOL

Anonymous said...

the ups or fedex man are cute. spys