Eew.
I remember one family trip we took to King's Dominion when I was a young kid - maybe 10 years old. My mom was a big Conway Twitty fan (a trait I myself inherited), and he was going to be performing at their concert pavilion that day.
There I was, a young boy sitting with his mom (and maybe a brother or sister or two) among a sea of three or ten thousand adoring Conway Twitty fans. Out walks Conway - a 50-ish, somewhat chubby guy with this ridiculous hair do and wearing some snug fitting outfit. He starts singing and the crowd - mostly middle aged women - starts clapping hands, tapping feet, and singing along.
Then, it happened - a moment that is seared into my memory as only traumatic childhood experiences can be. He turns around to present his backside to the audience and - before I had time to wonder to myself,
what the heck is he doing? - he starts shaking his not-so-small-now heinie like he's a nudie bar stripper teasing the dollar-wielding patrons. My immediate sensation was much the same as yours -
ewww! That sensation was fleeting though, being quickly overwhelmed by a building tidal wave of middle-aged female swooning.
WTF wasn't an expression I was familiar with back then, but it succinctly captures the essence of the thought that ran through my head. It was like a nude Elvis Presley (the young version, not the 70's train wreck version) had been dropped in the lap of every single woman in the audience. They all went crazy. I dared not glance over to confirm my mom's reaction.
I think I might have been a little too young to appreciate concepts of sexuality then - or perhaps I was just becoming familiar with them. But, something inside me realized at that moment that sexiness wasn't necessarily all about physical traits - that attitude might somehow factor into the equation. At any rate, it was scary... or maybe funny... or maybe disturbing... or maybe humiliating... I don't really know what it was, but it was something.
The point being, I don't necessarily see it, especially in the middle-aged version of Conway, but a lot of women of a certain generation - and apparently even some of younger generations - found him quite sexy, or at the very least, swoon-worthy.