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I'm always surprised that while men apparently rate women's attractiveness on a bell curve, women seem to rate men on a Pareto distribution. Considering how mu

I'm always surprised that while men apparently rate women's attractiveness on a bell curve, women seem to rate men on a Pareto distribution. Considering how much I hear about beauty standards and how they harm women, I almost never hear anything about male beauty standards. If society is to be improved by having more realistic female beauty standards, then there's apparently a lot more headroom for society to be improved by having more realistic male beauty standards.

minikites 6y ago
Unrealistic beauty standards are absolutely a problem for both men and women, the difference is that in society, men can be valued for other things (occupation, knowledge, athletics) and that is much less true for women.
- CoolGuySteve 6y ago
  That's fair but it's not a zero sum game. Making men happier on average doesn't necessarily make women unhappier.
- zzzzzzzza 6y ago
  men can be valued for other things (occupation, knowledge, athletics) and that is much less true for women very strongly disagree, maybe this is true in some subset of the dating world, or non western countries, but that's it.
- dartdartdart 6y ago
  Though if men can be valued for other ways, that doesn't explain why most men are seen are far below average for the average woman. I think an amendment for your previous statement is that though they can be valued from different areas, the starting value for men is starts way below that of a woman. For example in Asian cultures there is the idea of 666 standard for males, 6 feet tall, 6 figure salary, 6 pack, which make up less than 0.01% of the eligible population. It may be due to the gender ratio being off, but the standard leaves a lot of women unhappy in their later years
ip26 6y ago
It's not like it's terribly hard to rationalize. Women, being the ones bearing the children, are probably better-served by being more picky.
watwut 6y ago
There are two male beauty standards so to speak: male ideal for males and male ideal for women. Male ideal for males is overly bulked up dude with six pack. Male ideal for women is what you get in female journals or in boy bands. But the other think is that the body shapes for males that showed up in entertainment were more various for males then for females. There was less perfection and more variety, but that is changing. Now it seems guys are moving toward similar restrictive requirements, so we may get there with guys too.
- vlasev 6y ago
  From what I've seen and heard from my friends, women tend to select for lean-ness. Smaller guy with six pack is usually more attractive to them than a big guy with six pack. And it shows in their dating preferences too.
mywittyname 6y ago
It helps that women seem to weight attractiveness pretty low when it comes to partners. The stereotype of the funny fat guy with the hot partner exists for a reason.
- gowld 6y ago
  Generally, women prefer physical attractiveness for sexual partners (genetic value), and high financial/social statue attractiveness for relationship partners (they are less likely to abandon her with nothing).
vlasev 6y ago
This leads to a very interesting conclusion - small gains in male attractiveness leads to a much larger perceived gain in their attractiveness. It basically means men have a LOT to gain from improving their looks!

minikites 6y ago

Unrealistic beauty standards are absolutely a problem for both men and women, the difference is that in society, men can be valued for other things (occupation, knowledge, athletics) and that is much less true for women.

CoolGuySteve 6y ago
That's fair but it's not a zero sum game. Making men happier on average doesn't necessarily make women unhappier.
zzzzzzzza 6y ago
men can be valued for other things (occupation, knowledge, athletics) and that is much less true for women very strongly disagree, maybe this is true in some subset of the dating world, or non western countries, but that's it.
dartdartdart 6y ago
Though if men can be valued for other ways, that doesn't explain why most men are seen are far below average for the average woman. I think an amendment for your previous statement is that though they can be valued from different areas, the starting value for men is starts way below that of a woman. For example in Asian cultures there is the idea of 666 standard for males, 6 feet tall, 6 figure salary, 6 pack, which make up less than 0.01% of the eligible population. It may be due to the gender ratio being off, but the standard leaves a lot of women unhappy in their later years

ip26 6y ago

It's not like it's terribly hard to rationalize. Women, being the ones bearing the children, are probably better-served by being more picky.

watwut 6y ago

There are two male beauty standards so to speak: male ideal for males and male ideal for women. Male ideal for males is overly bulked up dude with six pack. Male ideal for women is what you get in female journals or in boy bands. But the other think is that the body shapes for males that showed up in entertainment were more various for males then for females. There was less perfection and more variety, but that is changing. Now it seems guys are moving toward similar restrictive requirements, so we may get there with guys too.

vlasev 6y ago
From what I've seen and heard from my friends, women tend to select for lean-ness. Smaller guy with six pack is usually more attractive to them than a big guy with six pack. And it shows in their dating preferences too.

mywittyname 6y ago

It helps that women seem to weight attractiveness pretty low when it comes to partners. The stereotype of the funny fat guy with the hot partner exists for a reason.

gowld 6y ago
Generally, women prefer physical attractiveness for sexual partners (genetic value), and high financial/social statue attractiveness for relationship partners (they are less likely to abandon her with nothing).

vlasev 6y ago

This leads to a very interesting conclusion - small gains in male attractiveness leads to a much larger perceived gain in their attractiveness. It basically means men have a LOT to gain from improving their looks!