Is physical attractiveness in a partner more important to men or to women?
It is more important to men, of course.
Men are programmed to seek a physically and genetically healthy vessel for offspring, and physical appearance is the primary way of determining that. Women are programmed to seek a mate with social status, confidence and a number of other intangible qualities, thus they place less emphasis on physical attractiveness.
Men watch porn, a visual medium. Women read romance novels, with no visual component.
Oh, good lord! Blanket-generalization alert!! Social status and "confidence" don't mean a thing to some women. Too much confidence can be obnoxious and a sign that a guy doesn't know how great he ISN'T. Faked confidence isn't a whole lot more appealing. Plain and simple. There is biological hard-wiring, but some people are less at its mercy than others are. As a woman, I don' t read porn OR romance novels for whatever reasons anyone ever reads either of those types of things.
In answer to the OP's question, yes. It is known that men are "visual" and that appearance plays a big role for me. At the same time, though, how important a guy's appearance/attractiveness is to women shouldn't be underestimated. A guy doesn't have to be handsome, but he has to be attractive/appealing to the woman in question. (I guess for women who aren't selective about "certain things" appearance may not matter much, but women who are selective are selective for reasons I'm not going into here - but appearance does matter.)
There are exceptions to every rule. That doesn't change the rule, though. Romance novels are the most popular genre of books by far--there's a reason for that.
Haha, you just agreed with me when you said "a guy doesn't have to be handsome." Exactly. A man's appearance entails a variety of things like his fashion, facial hair, hairstyle, healthy skin, breath, teeth, etc--all of which are controllable, and speak to exactly the intangible qualities I was referring to.
A relatively physically unattractive man can increase his sexual attractiveness if he wears good-looking clothes, takes care of himself, has fresh breath, smells good, etc. Meanwhile, another man who may have the proportions of a model may not be as appealing if he dresses and smells like a bum. The way a man presents himself speaks to his confidence, social knowledge, awareness of his body, and such, which are what women generally look for.
I believe the OP was asking about inherent physical qualities.
As a woman, I can tell you I detest romance novels and think they're a complete waste of time! But also as a woman, I can tell you that there are so many different things that constitute attractiveness. What I consider physically attractive, my friends would laugh at and vice versa. I think the same goes for men. The concept of attractiveness happens in the brain BEHIND, not just in the eyes themselves.
I think physical attractiveness for men grows less important as they mature when they are looking for a LIFE partner..and not a one night stand.
I believe that when we grow a lot older, our taste in people changes too.
Honestly romance novels gives you the wrong ideas what true love really is and whats it like.
LOL, romance novels are just fantasy, and escape from our sometimes dull and boring everyday lives. I much perfer a good video or computer game where I can blow-up something, over a romance novel where the hero is a good kind of bad boy that every woman wants and every man wants to be.
Well, I can't speak for anyone but myself and physical attractiveness is very important to me. Now having said that, "physical attractiveness" is very subjective. I don't like "pretty" boys. I like real men, so I'd take a man who looks like Russell Crowe hands down any day of the week over one that looks like Brad Pitt.
I am with you Disturbia! I can't stand pretty boys. Like Rob Pattinson? Ugh he looks dirty like he desperately needs a shower or Leo DiCaprio who looks like he needs a sandwich, I feel I could beat him up lol. Give me a beefy, hunky Russel Crowe or George Clooney anyday to those pretty boys!
I think studies have indicated that women on the pill often prefer more feminine-looking men because of the chemical/ hormone changes in their bodies. Some suggest that's why the "prettier" male celebrities have increased in popularity in recent decades, whereas back in the 1950s and earlier (before the pill) you had more masculine-looking men.
Men are known to be more visual but I have found that we women are much more judgmental. I think as long as a girl is moderately attractive or has some attractive qualities and takes care of herself then she will have a decent number of men to choose from and probably never lack in the dating department. But men have it much tougher because it is true that we women can be very picky and judgmental. It's just the truth and girls you know I am right! I for one am tall and refuse to date any man who is under 5"11 in height. It might make me superficial but it's the truth. I think men are much more forgiving in that sense than we women are.
I for one would love to marry or date somebody presentable and beautiful. However i aversion for excessively pretty women mainly because they always cause a stir and there is the tendency for every other man to want her. I think men are conscious of the type of woman they marry especially people of great status and fame.
Definitely men - I manage a matchmaking agency and when I speak to men about what they are looking for in a partner, the first comments always involve physical appearance. In comparison, women usually talk about what the man does for a living. It's part of our Dating DNA - consider the caveman. He would provide and the woman would provide children.
by Vieenrose 12 years ago
Just how much does physical attractiveness play a role in first impressions/dating someone?To the guys especially..would you all rule out someone just because of their appearance? Or do inner qualities play a bigger role?
by Tarek Mamdouh 10 years ago
Is that true that people are treated differently based on they look?
by Jplanet 13 years ago
Do you consider physical attractiveness to be the true motive when considering a partner?
by SN Brown MEd 10 years ago
Should physical attractiveness be a major factor when selecting a mate?
by Grace Marguerite Williams 11 years ago
What causes beautiful women to be judged solely on their physical attractiveness and not to betaken seriously in the entertainment business?In the entertainment business, beauty is both a blessing and a curse. Beauty DOES open doors and pays great dividends. However, beauty is also a curse...
by Sylvia Sky 10 years ago
Why do men say they want confident women and then leave them for needy women?It's happened so many times I can't count: He leaves his brave and loving steady for a bipolar alcoholic, drug addict, emotionally weak or emotionally damaged woman. So why are women told that men think confidence is a...
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |