Men have traditionally been the main consumers of explicit sexual images. But females looking at softly sexy pictures of women may actually comprise a larger market. Fashion magazines exploit this apparent fact. The impulse is more than women simply seeking to research the competition. In Western culture, female sexuality is society's sexuality.
Sexual desire is expressed principally through depictions of seductive or aroused women.
Men's cravings are a given. Women's desire must be cultivated and nurtured, hence it has great value, and greater power as a symbol of desire itself. From early in life, women's privacy around others of their own genders is more encouraged than men's. For us, bathing and elimination always happen in private booths. Our bodies must be more covered up.