Bitchery reader Joyce sent us the following article about a composite sketch of “the perfect man.”
Go ahead and check out that article. I’ll wait.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Duh-duh duh-duh DUDE LOOKS LIKE A LADY!
Now that Steven Tyler is shimmying around in my brain shaking his be-ribboned groove thang about dudes what look like ladies, let’s discuss. What is UP with that? Are all the women in the sample group outlandishly gay? Did the researchers look for women with Danskos and one of the seven lesbian haircuts? As Joyce pointed out, that image isn’t even on the same planet as the “ideal man” in the CG-artist’s realm. That image needs man titty like DAMN.
Aside from the discussion of what specifically constitutes attractiveness and beauty, and whether it’s a person’s features linearly adhering to a grid or just simple symmetry, the article raises a question that must plague the art department – what does an attractive male look like? Is there a common denominator for most women that can be drawn, or better yet, Poser-ed? Granted the sample of images used to generate Mr. Girly Hot Man was very small, and the sample of women rating the ballot of images was small as well, so we’re not talking about a major study. But are we working with dichotomous images of manhood that can’t be merged – the sexy studly macho alpha mantitty-sporting mega dude, and the “slightly effeminate image of a man with such traits as willingness to help, honesty, an emotional temper and love for children.” Or – do we want Mr. Girly Hot Man trapped in the body of Fabio DeSalvo?
In the opinion of a woman who likes her men short and dorky, neither image really does it for me. What about you?
Soul Patrol are fans of Taylor Hicks from American Idol.
Taylor Hicks? Sorry, he doesn’t belong in the same room with Jeffrey Dean Morgan or Hugh Laurie.
Now if someone gave me a composite of Hugh Jackman, Vin Diesel and Brad Pitt, then we might be getting somewhere.
You can have all of them. I’ll take my composite of Sean Bean, Nathan Fillion, George Clooney, Ioan Gruffudd, and Ichiro Suzuki, thankyouverymuch. Only I doubt they’d be as hot composited as they are as individuals.
Oh, and on a geekier note, I’ll also take some Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Alton Brown, please. But not that bundle of baby blandness in the article.
I love it when we discuss attractiveness and we all start the greatest lists of “I’d hit that.” Seriously. I love it. I am giggling on the bus right now. People are staring.
I’m with Candy. My DH is geeky, smart and skinny. I am attracted to skinny.
That drawing did not make me go ‘oh, attractive’. It made me think ‘the perfect guy doesn’t shave yet?’. I also think he is too perfect of an oval. I’ve always heard we aren’t perfectly symmetrical and he seems to be.
So, maybe he just looks too fake?
Sam…
Viggo, Christian, Hugh, Gerard – but no one has mentioned Eric Bana! I watched Blackhawk Down AND Troy this weekend, fastforwarding through all those lame Orlando and Brad parts (sorry, wasn’t into him after Thelma and Louise, and now he’s covered in Angelina fungus). I’ve always gone for the big, built guys, preferrably with dark hair and decently thick eyebrows (but no monobrow!) Vaguely eastern european is also a plus, but not a necessity. All I think about when I see femmy, pretty little things is, “I bet I would crush his hips if I got on top.” I need to be the cutest, smallest one in the bed. I don’t know if that means I like to be dominated, but well, if I’m in bed with a guy, I don’t really want to be able to take him.
My idea of hot hot hot hits its peak with Christopher Walken, so…
Also, Lauren V, write me an article. To paraphrase Lord Robert (Elizabeth) Why waste all that beautiful research?
SpecRom Joyce
I have no perfect man. I’m generally attraced to tall skinny men. I like long hair.
Except for this one guy who comes into my store. He’s tallish and chubby and has a shaved head. As long as he doesn’t talk because he does not have a deep voice to match his manliness. *sigh* Can’t have everything can i? He does have a great smile. (I need something to look forward to at my job!)
Gamer/geek is good too. Or just geekish in general.
OF course there are exceptions to every rule. SO I’ve given up stereotyping myself into like one type of guy.
Not to put a damper on anything but I don’t think that study properly reflected anything resembling proper scientifc analysis.
On a personal note, while I can enjoy a pretty boy as much as the next girl, this guy was just ugly. He looked like a composite sketch of a serial rapist with a serious oedipus complex, but that’s my opinion.
I agree with Vivi Anna, I like cheekbones and a jawline, and some muscles to him, if he looks like he has lived life, even better. As much as I laugh about man-titty, I like me some of that too, can you imagine the body on that guy I can totally see saggy man-boob, saggy beer gut, flat ass, and small penis. ugh.
If I wanted a feminime face I would stick to my own sex or just look in the mirror for inspiration, hrmm, narcissitic, will shut up now.
Oh hell yeah, I couldn’t agree more. In fact, most of the studies in the links Laura V. provided raised more questions than they answered. If nothing else, the birth control study rang a bunch of alarm bells, because I have no idea if they controlled for factors other than birth control that may explain why the women preferred what they did.
And these researchers were going on and on about how feminine facial traits meant that the men were nicey-nice and sensitive and shit—but they didn’t really cite any convincing research that somehow proved this was so. There seemed to be some wholesale buying into cultural perceptions and prejudices and not enough scientific rigor.
Dirty and craggy…exactly! In fact, I even have a problem with men who have smooth hands. I like rough, used hands that have seen their share of grease and dirt.
I like the face #2 that someone pointed out in the comments, but it is still too smooth. And I like a more well-defined facial structure…more angles.
I think most men look their best between the age of 35 and 45…some can get away with 55 even! A little bit of gray hair, some crow’s feet by the eyes, throw a couple of scars in there…
Rachel Maddow is the Perfect Man?
I like Rachel Maddow. I really don’t know how she will feel about this. There as soooo many levels of weirdness.
I love evolutionary theory, and I always get pissed when some researcher tries to link sexual selection with natural selection. They aren’t the same thing! There’s no reason to believe that men and women instinctively choose mates based on perceived survival traits, such as “good provider” status. We certainly might make rational decisions about mates based on their ability to provide for children, but that’s a different matter.
Sexual selection is not “logical,” and is often based on traits completely unrelated to survival—such as color or song, as we see in the mating displays of birds. In addition, nurture clearly plays a part in what we humans find sexually attractive.
Obviously, some of us like big men, some like skinny men, some like craggy and some like smooth. Many (most?) of us like men with a good sense of humor, which is a particularly interesting issue. Some of us want real “he-men,” and other like the androgynous type. Thank the gods for variety!
I want a man who is as tough as I am. I really don’t want to be in bed with him thinking “Gawd I could break him in half!”
Also I love dark hair and green eyes. A man with a great set of eyes can be forgiven of many shortcomings. (Physically speaking)
OMG- the guy/kid looks like one of my nephews. Talk about squicky. If my sister thought I found this composite attractive or sexy there would go my “special day with Auntie Em” privliges with her boys!!! I like men to look like men. Period.
Oooh, one of my favorite subjects: Men!
I read a lot of genre fiction, including manga and manwha and a few non-superhero comics. I also watch anime. My son is massively into RPG video games. I see lots of pretty men in those genres, and maybe that’s having an influence on what some young women consider attractive.
Initially I had to make a lot of adjustments as to what defines “masculine” when it came to the ambiguously-gendered characters in anime and manga. This kind of male was a little alien to me, since the current measure of Western European masculinity seems to be big muscles, hairiness, aggressive behavior, and equally aggressive heterosexuality.
The other day I watched FFVII: Advent Children with my son. I suppose it’s a measure of my adjustment to what can be male and attractive that I didn’t blink an eyelash when Sephiroth appeared.
I think Vincent Valentine and Dante Sparda are teh sex as much as Christian Bale, Clive Owen, Johnny Depp, Denzel Washington, Ralph Fiennes, Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Mel Gibson, Will Smith, Harrison Ford, the Rock, Kenau Reeves, Sean Bean, and so on and so on.
Hmmm, I appreciate a wide variety of good-looking guys: cute, rugged, pretty, sophisticated, alpha, dorky. Some guys definitely get better with age, like Orlando Bloom and Tom Cruise.
Tom’s personality issues aside, he never did much for me until he grew older and developed a few imperfections. Ditto for Orlando Bloom. Guys like Liam Neeson or Samuel L. Jackson aren’t conventionally good looking, but they’re really sexy. Same for Gary Oldham. I even thought V from V for Vendetta was hot, and he was wearing a freaky mask throughout the entire story.
Could be I’m just easy, though.
Too young and too bland. But my preferences are pretty far from the pretty boys and the macho men. Give me a nerd with glasses who can beat my cranky computer into submission, and that says masculine to me.
And while I don’t think there are too many men who look good with heavy beards, the ability to grow facial hair is a good thing. The guy in the picture looks like he has less than most of the older women in my family.
If you go by this recent cover, it appears someone at Silhouette thinks the perfect guy is Steve Carrell-
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0373767285/qid=1148577261/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-4659410-4922453?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
Um, so, most women want to do 16 year old extras from The EastEnders?
Scary.
He doesn’t do it for me. My faves:
George Clooney in anythng and Harvey Keitel in The Piano.
Hey y’all, I think we have the “Ken Doll Syndrome” going on here. I’m sure the folks at Mattel did their own market research before crafting Ken, the ultimate date for Barbie, but instead of making my six-year-old heart flutter, I used to shut him in the toybox because he scared me.
Oh, hell. “He” looks like ME!!!! Make the chine more feminine and the lips bigger and that’s ME!
I’m scared now.
I’ll take my composite of Sean Bean, Nathan Fillion, George Clooney, Ioan Gruffudd, and Ichiro Suzuki, thankyouverymuch. Only I doubt they’d be as hot composited as they are as individuals.
Mmmm… Ioan Druffudd *drool* And yes, you’re right, composites would probably make all sorts of very good looking men look really awful and scary. Better to enjoy each one individually.
Oh, and Jami, I totally support the Eric Bana lust. That scene where he’s in his room putting his armor on? Oh. So. Hot. Worth buying the DVD just for that scene. But admittedly I also enjoyed Brad Pitt’s thighs, so the whole movie worked well for me. (Though I like it better on mute so I don’t have to listen to Paris whine, or Achilles blather on about his cousin.)
This dude does absolutely nothing for me. Too young, too round-faced. Wrong eyebrows (like them straight). Wrong eyes.
Nothing wrong with effeminate actually, I normally like that, but this one just looks so not my type.
Blah. 🙂
when my best friend, a lesbian, tries to set me up with a guy, this is what her efforts look like.
gack.
i want a face with personality. strong jaw line, couple of interesting scars, maybe a broken nose and some laugh lines…. yeah. come to mama.
somebody mentioned Spike… not my typical hottie, but definitely sexy – I’d be scared i’d squish him, tho. my favorites have got to be LL Cool J, Vin Diesel and Colin Farrell. i just love a slightly insane gleam in a man’s eye.