Glenn Reynolds links to posts by Michele Catalano, Cathy Young, and Ann Althouse asking "what do men want?" in a woman -- mainly on the physical side, it appears. Ms. Catalano writes:
Now, I have a great appreciation for the naked (or even semi-naked) female body. It's no secret - if you're a regular reader - that I will ogle sexy women as much as I do sexy men (I've been called a bisexual man trapped in a woman's body and I don't argue much with that analysis). However, I'm just not that into Teri Polo. After seeing this photo [not nude -- MW] of her when the movie first came out, I couldn't help thinking that watching her eat would be like watching a snake do the same - we'd actually be able to see her food sliding down into her belly. That's how thin she is.If you're not at work or near small children or horny men, take a look at the Playboy photos. Now, be honest with me, guys; do you really, truly find this sexy? Do rib cages and bony knees turn you on?
Not particularly, no. What I want is someone who is healthy and can enjoy physical activities with me, like hiking, running, swimming, and whatnot. I'm no great athlete, but I've got endurance and can do just about anything all day long, and it's nice to have someone who can keep up. "Attractive appearance" tends to correlate very highly with healthiness, waifs notwithstanding. Don't forget that cameras really do add an appearance of weight, so people who look average on television, or in movies or magazines will probably look too thin in real life.
Anyway, I have an eclectic taste in women, so your mileage may vary. I've never been particularly attracted to "supermodels" -- I prefer cutesy girly-girls. But hey, I'm flexible.
(This fits with the first post on the topic because it's also about what men want in women, but physically.)
When I see those poor starved waifs, I just long to offer the poor dears some food. (But maybe that's just the Portuguese in me; I tend to offer everybody food.)
"I've got endurance and can do just about anything all day long, and it's nice to have someone who can keep up."
oi oi ;)
sorry.
Super thin girls are considered attractive because that's what homosexual french male fashion designers like to dress... bizarre.
I am not interested in super-thin girls, but a comment I heard years ago by a scholar who studied beauty standards comes to mind. His hypothesis was that beauty standards tend to be whatever is hard to accomplish. From what I have seen that appears to be true.
In cultures where getting enough to eat is/was not a given (like the Polynesian islands or Europe many years ago) everybody wanted to be fat and considered it attractive. Turn of the century Japanese considered alabaster skin to be extremely attractive, while most of the population worked outside all day and were very tanned. When the workforce in the U.S. started working more in offices and less in fields being tan became beautiful. That has changed due to heavy advertising of the sun's causation of skin cancer, but even so there is still a tanning "sub-culture".
The examples abound. Anyway, we live in a time when being thin is difficult due to the abundance of food and sedentary lifestyles. Thus, being thin is beautiful.
How many cutsey girly-girls like hiking, running, and swimming? I'm sure they exist, but it doesn't seem like a real common type.
JC: Makes sense to me.
Raina: I only need one :)
I like em skinny and make no apologies for it.