Body attractiveness: Difference between revisions

[[File:640px-Michelangelo's David-Galleria dell'Accademia.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Michelangelo's famous statue of David. Several features of his body, such as his broad shoulders, slender waist, low body fat, and his relatively high muscularity, have been found by modern attractiveness research to be attractive to women, though many modern women may express a greater preference for a greater level of musculature in the upper body.]]

Muscular arms and a general level of lower body musculature that is not grossly disproportionate to the upper body ('chicken leg syndrome') also appear to play some role in women's judgments of male bodily attractiveness.  

Regarding the lower body musculature, the gluteal muscles are widely reported by women to be the most attractive lower body muscles among males when they are well developed.<ref>https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474704919852918</ref>

Larger [[breasts]] are also generally preferred by men,<ref>https://journals.lww.com/annalsplasticsurgery/Abstract/2016/03000/Which_is_the_Ideal_Breast_Size___Some_Social_Clues.20.aspx</ref> though firmness is more important in terms of driving attractiveness judgments.<ref>Kościński K. 2019. ''Breast firmness is of greater importance for women's attractiveness than breast size.'' American Journal of Human Biology, 31(5), e23287. [[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajhb.23287 Abstract]]</ref>

The firmness, shape,<ref>https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00266-004-3114-6</ref> and the degree of lumbar curvature<ref>https://labs.la.utexas.edu/buss/files/2013/02/Lumbar-EHB-2015.pdf</ref> possibly play more of role in determining men's attractiveness judgments of female buttocks compared to size, as noted above in regards to breasts.

==Determinants of female bodily attractiveness==

Among women, the main factors that contribute to observer judgements of their bodily attractiveness are factors associated with perceived or actual health, youth, and general fecundity, such as a lower waist-to-hip ratio (WHR, the waist circumference divided by the hip circumference, associated with the classical 'hourglass' body shape), a low BMI (with the general ideal BMI in regards to female attractiveness being very low, well within the 'underweight' range),<ref>https://incels.wiki/w/Scientific_Blackpill#The_most_attractive_BMI_range_for_men_is_.7E24.5-27_and_for_women_.7E17-19_as_it_is_most_youthful</ref> and large breasts and buttocks that are still proportionate with overall body size.<ref>https://journals.lww.com/annalsplasticsurgery/Abstract/2016/03000/Which_is_the_Ideal_Breast_Size___Some_Social_Clues.20.aspx</ref><ref>https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=579557</ref> The firmness of the breasts and buttocks (generally negatively associated with age) is also highly valued by men,<ref>https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00266-004-3114-6</ref> with breast firmness (being strongly associated with nubility) being found to play more of a role in men's evaluations of the attractiveness of female breasts than raw size.<ref>https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajhb.23287</ref>

Though BMI and WHR are linearly correlated with each other (that is, there is a trade-off where an increased WHR is associated with higher levels of body fat in women, and thus a higher BMI, which is generally not seen as ideal in a female partner among men) attractiveness of a woman's body is more determined by a lower BMI than WHR (thinness),<ref>https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspb.2002.2133</ref> and most of the contribution of WHR towards evaluations of female bodily attractiveness is explicable by a smooth distribution of body fat in a gynoid shape on the female body (fat being concentrated around the hips and thighs) being associated with higher attractiveness ratings of female bodies by men, strongly implying that both the distribution and amount of this fat (particularly subcutaneous fat, which is generally thicker in women than men), in so far as this fat contributes to an overall smooth and curvaceous appearance in the woman, is more critical in determining female bodily attractiveness than simple ratios like the WHR.<ref>https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022519308005031</ref>

==Male bodily attractiveness==

According to two studies examining women's preferences regarding male body types published by the Royal Society in 2017, it appears that perceived strength is the strongest single indicator of male bodily attractiveness. This single trait has a very high positive correlation (r = 0.8) with women's attractiveness ratings of said male bodies.  

In this study, the relationship between the women's ratings of attractiveness of the men and their actual measured strength was relatively weak, from r = 0.25-.038 depending on the angle of the photo used.

These features could include traits that contribute to the desired male 'v-taper' shape, such as narrow waists and wide clavicles, traits that are unrelated to actual strength or perhaps even detrimental to it in some instances. An Australian study, for example, that utilized scale nude 3D models found that muscularity and a general mesomorphic body shape (v-taper, low body fat, thin waist) accounted for approximately 80% of the variance in the women's ratings of male bodily attractiveness, as compared to height and absolute penis size (flaccid), which both accounted for about 6% and 5% respectively.

However, one issue with this study (noted by the authors) that may have inflated the amount of variance attributable to bodily attractiveness (among the whole sample) was that the study included male 3D models that had extremely wide hips and narrow shoulders. While it is true that many males in industrialized societies are obese (as also noted by the study authors), the male model used in this study that represented the lowest attractiveness male body type had a strong gynoid (female sex-typical) pattern of fat storage and very broad hip bones and narrow clavicles, which is unusual for men (apart from men with chromosomal defects such as Kleinfelter's syndrome), and likely even more unattractive than an obese man with typical hip and shoulder dimensions would be.

Regarding the more minor traits associated with male bodily attractiveness, it has been demonstrated that a narrow waist by itself is also considered an attractive trait in males. Interestingly, a lower waist to hip ratio is attractive in males (like it is in women), even when controlling for waist size. Thus, proportionately large hips in males are an undesirable trait.<ref>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340497679_Preferences_for_Sexually_Dimorphic_Body_Characteristics_Revealed_in_a_Large_Sample_of_Speed_Daters</ref>

==Relative contribution of face and body to attractiveness==

In the [[incelosphere]] and elsewhere, there is an often furious debate that rages regarding how much bodily attractiveness contributes to overall physical attractiveness in men, especially compared to the contribution of facial attractiveness to holistic physical attractiveness ratings.

Another study by Sidari et al. (2021), utilizing a speed dating paradigm, examined the relative contributions of bodily attractiveness and facial attractiveness on the rated physical attractiveness (by their dates) and rejection rates among speed daters of both sexes. They found that bodily attractiveness in men contributed significantly to female ratings of overall attractiveness in men (not just physical attractiveness but truly 'holistic attractiveness,' romantic desirability).<ref>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340497679_Preferences_for_Sexually_Dimorphic_Body_Characteristics_Revealed_in_a_Large_Sample_of_Speed_Daters</ref> They claimed this finding was the first scientific proof of such an effect 'in the field' (not relying on 2D pictures, morphs, or video clips like prior research).

This suggests a disconnect between attractiveness ratings and actual, operationalized mate choices. The discrepancy in this study may have been determined by the sample that it was utilizing mainly college students, the fact that people calibrate their actual mate choices based on their own perceived mate value (with people perhaps being sometimes less likely to choose particularly desirable partners that they believe will reject them), and the fact that brief blind dates with strangers do not mirror the natural social contexts in which most mate choice takes place.

In support of the former point, research has indicated that while men generally rate girls who are in the early stages of puberty's facial attractiveness as being higher than adult women's,<ref>https://incels.wiki/w/Scientific_Blackpill#Men_rate_the_faces_of_adolescent_girls_as_more_attractive_and_feminine_than_adult_women</ref> there is a male tendency towards preferring more pubertally developed girls/adult women when it comes to evaluations of full-body physical attractiveness.<ref>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274257830_Heterosexual_Men's_Ratings_of_Sexual_Attractiveness_of_Adolescent_Girls_A_Cross-Cultural_Analysis</ref>

This suggests that the development of secondary sexual characteristics is used as a strong cue by men in determining fertility, which could explain the discrepancy in the relative contributions of female bodily and facial attractiveness by mating context. An alternate (and not mutually exclusive) explanation could be that men are more drawn to bodily cues of attractiveness, such as pronounced sexual secondary characteristics (enlarged breasts and buttocks) in short-term mating contexts because these traits are honest signals of immediate sexual availability. That is, the women with these traits may indeed be more sexually promiscuous.

Evidence for this assertion, however, is weak and inconsistent.<ref>https://incels.wiki/w/Physiognomy#Life_history_theory_and_physiognomy</ref>

==Contextual factors that affect perceptions of body attractiveness==

===Life history speed===

There is also evidence that suggests that female preference for bodily attractiveness may vary strongly by rater sociosexuality (promiscuity and sexual permissiveness), with women who exhibit more sexually unrestricted attitudes tending to respond more favorably to masculinize men (face and bodies in this particular study), especially in explicitly short-term mating contexts.<ref>https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16799836/</ref>

===Ovulatory shift===

Differing female preferences in regards to male muscularity are often explained by the controversial ovulatory shift hypothesis. This hypothesis claims that women are driven to seek agreeable providers for long-term relationships and thereafter cuckold them with masculine men when they get the opportunity to do so, as masculine traits are claimed to be markers of '[[good genes hypothesis|good genes]],' due to the immunosuppressive properties of male sex hormones. Thus the women benefit from the 'good genes' of the masculine man and the resources and paternal care of the cuckolded 'beta provider.'<ref>https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2677252/</ref>

One could speculate on the basis of this data that a heightened female preference for more masculine bodies during their cycle could be not necessarily due to women being adapted to cuckold their male partners. These (weak, if they do prove to be robust) shifts in preference may simply be reflective of greater female [[sex drive|horniness]] shifting their mate preferences away from signals of provision, caregiving capability, etc., to traits that to which they are strongly physically attracted, as faster life history strategy women seem to do. There is also evidence that suggests that women are typically choosier in regards to looks when considering short-term mating exclusively, ergo, it naturally follows they would prefer better looking (more muscular men) when primed for short-term relationships.<ref>https://incels.wiki/w/Scientific_Blackpill#In_short-term_dating_and_when_women_have_many_dating_options_they_are_more_choosy_about_looks_than_men</ref>

Women also seem more likely to orgasm with physically attractive and masculine men,<ref>https://incels.wiki/w/Scientific_Blackpill#A_man.27s_masculinity_and_physical_attractiveness_predicts_a_woman.27s_chance_of_orgasm</ref> and seem to be more satisfied and experience less guilt from casual sexual encounters that result in a high level of sexual satisfaction (ending in orgasm),<ref>https://incels.wiki/w/Scientific_Blackpill#Women_are_half_as_likely_as_men_to_be_very_satisfied_by_a_one_night_stand</ref> so these could be yet more reasons for women to seek out more morphologically masculine and attractive men when they are exclusively considering 'hook-ups' as opposed to relationships with more investment.

===Paternal investment===

One other factor that may affect women's preferences for the level of bodily attractiveness in regards to their actual mate choices (as opposed to ideal preferences) is a desire for paternal investment. In support of this idea, Provost et al. (2006) discovered that more sociosexually restricted women were much more likely to rate less physically masculine men as being more attractive long-term partners.

Suppose women are indeed deliberately seeking [[Schluby Hubby|less attractive]] or less masculine men out as good long-term relationship prospects. In that case, it is unclear how effective this strategy would actually be.

Thus, there seems to be a balancing act at play here among the women pursuing such a strategy, as men selected explicitly for their supposed propensity to invest may be subject to greater attention from rival women seeking the same traits (due to pre-selection by women and their possessing desired traits), thus tempting them to stray. Men perceived as more trustworthy, either due to their behavior, demeanor, or [[physiognomy|appearance]], may also be subject to less scrutiny from their female partners in terms of the women's mate-guarding efforts.

==Relation of stature to body attractiveness==

This interesting finding could be due to an above-average leg length in proportion to the trunk being a desired trait in both sexes, but particularly in females.<ref>https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1090513807000906</ref><ref>https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.171790</ref><ref>https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1068/p5506</ref> Longer legs are generally associated with greater height. Anecdotal observations of the bodily proportions of female fashion models and the recruitment standards of several modeling agencies<ref>https://www.ukmodels.co.uk/blog/model-requirements-do-you-have-what-it-takes/</ref> do suggest that female models, largely chosen for their physical attractiveness, tend to be both tall and slender with a brachyskelic or hyperbrachyskelic body structure (the legs being proportionately much longer than the trunk).

There could also be an innate effect of stature on female attractiveness, or there could even be a direct correlation between female facial attractiveness and height. This study didn't present sufficient evidence of any of this, though. The authors only offered evidence of a significant effect of height on speed dating desirability for women that was not significantly different from the effect found for men in the model.

==See also==

*[[Muscle theory]]

*[[Gymcel]]

*[[:Category:Aesthetics|List of aesthetics]]

==References==

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[[Category:Aesthetics]]

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