Posted on 04/12/2013 3:42:47 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
MEN have long wondered what exactly it is that women want. Some pore over mens magazines, with their promises of washboard abs, for guidance. The more scientifically minded look for experimental data. The latest evidence comes from a group of researchers led by Brian Mautz, then of Australian National University. They gathered 105 heterosexual Australian women and showed them a series of digitally generated pictures of men in which three bodily characteristics were variedheight, shoulder-to-waist ratio and flaccid penis size. The women were asked to rate the men as sexual partners.
In an article just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr Mautz and his team describe their results. Happily for the insecure, although the women did indeed find a larger penis alluring, it was not the most important factor. That honour went to the combination of broad shoulders and a narrow waist, which accounted for around three-quarters of the variation in attractiveness all by itself. Height was also only a weak predictor of appeal. That is odd, says Dr Mautz, because other studies have linked height with all sorts of benefits, from higher salaries to longer lives. The bigger-is-better effect was also subject to diminishing returns: each extra centimetre, whether of height, shoulder width or penis size, was less significant than the previous one.
Nonetheless, even the tallest, broadest-shouldered and best-endowed digital hunks that the researchers generated fell short of perfection. The optimum values appear to lie outside the tested range, they note, adding that the maxima are more than two standard deviations from the population mean for each trait. That means that, for each trait, fewer than 2.5% of the men whom women encounter in the real world will be as generously proportioned as they might hope. Men with perfect scores in all three traits will be rarer than hens teeth.
The study is not perfect. There was no danger of the women mistaking the digital men for the real thing. Other factorssuch as social status, for instancemay, in the real world, override the physical preferences that the researchers were measuring. And it is hard, when all the subjects come from a single country, to disentangle the effects of nurture from those of nature. It is commonly pointed out, for instance, that mens apparent preference for slim women seems to be a relatively modern (and Western) construction. Erotica from the turn of the 19th century tend to feature much curvier women than their modern equivalent. Womens preferences may be just as influenced by the culture in which they grow up.
On the other hand, it is a rule of thumb in biology that females (of any species) are much pickier than males. There are good evolutionary reasons why that is so. Even in humans, who share the burden of child-rearing more equally than many animals, having children requires far more of an investment of resources from a female than it does from a maleafter all, it is the woman who must endure nine months of pregnancy and then breast-feed the baby. Women therefore face stronger incentives to spend their relatively limited reproductive resources on only the most attractive men, whose children will be most likely to breed in turn. Back to the sit-ups, boys.
Most women don't know either.
Most of the undesirable male physical attributes can be overcome by carrying one of these.
See post 4.
Speaking of diminishing returns .. there comes a point at which staying single is preferable to running the risk of another decimation.
Somethings wrong. All of those controls have markings. That’s not right at all.
Really, some of those knobs should be missing, and others have screws through them so that they’re not actually adjustable.
Dude must be loaded.
That’s a perfect description of what goes on in the woman’s mind.
And here is the true difference between men and women. Women may like what they see with their eyes, but do not love with their eyes. Men, on the other hand, think that if they love what they see, then what they see is lovable. They then marry a hank of hair and a waistline, then head to FR to whine about the bad person the waistline turns out to be and how she takes his money and his children.
Excellent analysis.
Ha ha—you about summed it up!
All I’ve ever looked for is someone who will make me laugh, be my best friend and love animals.
everything else to me would be icing on the cake.
He's always making remarks about the unattractiveness of women his age. Hence, I always notice how unattractive he is, how his old rear end sags down to the back of his knees...
But he won't get a divorce because he can't stand to part with the money he made while his wife raised his kids...
MEN have long wondered what exactly it is that women want.
Most women don't know either.
She must think he gives good wallet.
You are truly correct! I read a thread yesterday about buying Russian brides. Slim hotties in high heeled boots. Then some wondered why people they knew who did this... were left high and dry as soon as she got her green card. LOL!!
Floor #1 A loving woman, girl-next-door type, your age.
Floor #2 One not so loving, not so faithful, but has a perfect 34C bra and a 24" waistline. Butt a little big, legs short with cankles. She's a little younger than you.
Floor #3 A woman of known immorality, been married before and divorced under unpleasant circumstances, but she has a 36D, a tiny waist and a perfectly rounded rear end.
Floor #4 Cheated on every man she ever knew, makes it obvious all she cares about is money and spending you into ruination, but has a face like Catherine Zeta and long, show girl legs and is in her twenties! She's too beautiful to be bad...she's...not guilty
Floor #5 Here are several women, all looking different from one another like different breeds of dog at Westminster. Asian teenagers, Big Blonde Viking types, etc. You can marry them all, they'll all hate you and be unfaithful and steal from you. But men will admire you and envy you your varied arm candy...
Men generally get the women they deserve...just like women get them men they deserve.
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