There's so many shaded of being "masculine bodied" or "male bodied" people anyway. I do think it's legitimately a very heterosexual leaning attraction for many men. These feminine male people or characters are just an addition to the female characters they already like and aren't specifically searching them out. It's a bit something like "heteroflexible" in that case. They're not totally %100 straight, but they're pretty straight.
While for guys like me, it goes a bit further. I like characters considered "traps" or "otokonoko" characters. But I also find at least some degree of attraction to more masculine characters. There's a point at which it leaves my comfort zone or being most attractive to me while still being some degree of attractive. And there's all sorts of shades of "most attracted" to "least attracted". In fact I'm quite attracted to several characters who are at least slightly masculine or at least decently male passing. Mikleo isn't exactly a macho man but he is also a male passing character. Then there is Nagisa Hazuki who is strangely either physically attractive or not physically attractive depending on how he is depicted. When he's slender and cute like here he seems quite attractive and cute. And here he looks quite beautiful and dreamy as well. Despite the fact I'm generally not into such muscles on guys and like them better on girls. But in a lot of other art or depictions, not so much, it's really weird. He's still some degree of attractive in most depictions of him. But how pretty and attractive he looks really depend on the piece of art.
And he is definitely a male passing character in all instances. I think that it shows that, there are definitely fuzzy limits and edges to how homosexual my comfort zone of attraction goes, I am attracted to both genders and features of both men and women either way.
And I don't think I'm anywhere near the only bisexual or even kinda straight leaning bisexual trap lover who has feelings like this. I went to trap subs like /r/hungtraps and would find these guys who were definitely very male passing or would have random masculine traits like being very muscular, or very very tall.
Also there is an overlap in the way some of the more feminine but very male passing characters in anime and manga look and how many otokonoko or "trap" characters looks. Not every "trap" character is equally feminine or hyperfeminine. For instance, you wouldn't have to make too many changes to Totsuka Saika's character design to make him look, well, as masculine as Nagisa Hazuki. Also Totsuka uses male pronouns(boku), has a clear male gender identity, wears male clothes, wears a more masculine short haircut, and so forth.
And honestly, for a lot of us so called "trap fans" or "otokonoko otaku", those are all positive things. Being a bit male passing is okay.
And at that point, it is definitely getting further outside of the realm of straight for a man to be attracted to.
But alas, we still live in a world where homophobia still exists and LGBT people are still discriminated against and treated as icky. And a lot of straight guys are understandably, totally afraid of this. Also a lot of male anime fans, while nerdy, are total bros as dudebros get. They just want to be another one of the boys so they want to make excuses for the male characters they find attractive, "hey, I'm not gay! No no, I'm just GAR for Archer! Yeah! He's just so cool!" or "hey being attracted to traps isn't gay, they basically designed a girl and then said she has a penis. Totally straight, this is just anime shenanigans and a penis is just like 2% of the human body anyway! It would be gay not to be attracted to traps! I'm still a straight bro, right? Right?"
For a lot of people it's just a joke and a meme. They'll say that "traps are gay" or "traps are not gay!" just to get a rise out of people. Even more so since a convention controversy brought the phrase back into the internet's collective conscious. But there is an apparent internalized homophobia and fear in people. Fear of not being straight or being seen as not straight. Being afraid of not being who they thought they were, and fear of not being accepted or having an attraction that is seen as wrong. For a lot of people, being LGBT in other people's backyard is okay, but when it's happening to them it's terrifying. What do I do now? The easy path a lot of people make is to just make excuses. Deep down some people want assurance, because we all know that being LGBT still has some stigma to it, in some cultures worse than others.
I would guess it is probably about something like 33% very very straight leaning guys who vaguely inclusive of only the most feminine of men. About 33% dank memers who are saying this for a reaction or joke or to show off that they're in on the joke, and about %33 legitimately insecure people saying this phrase because they're legitimate insecure about the fact they might not totally be straight.
But that's kinda how the whole trap phenomenon came to be to begin with. Trolling heterosexual men's heterosexuality and shocking them with the idea they might not be straight in male dominated internet spaces. Trying to invoke sexual insecurity for a troll. The more insecure in and attached a person is to their heterosexuality, the more it could get a rise out of people and be a successful troll.
And it's still an interesting topic to look at because I think that human sexuality is fascinating and still so little is known about it. For most people it's a joke, but I'd legitimately like to know how orientation and sexuality works and why.
