What makes someone attractive?

[redfiona99]

Just pondering. What with O'Haire being the new pin up (it's the swanton bomb curse I tell you).

You see back in the when about a month ago when Jeff was the hottie de jour, I'll admit I didn't get it. Good enough looking guy and all, I just didn't get it.

Now O'Haire meanwhile, the mad screaming over him I get. I more than get, I join in a lot of the time.

Same with E&C, I don't get why people go ga-ga over them from a looks point of view. Yet I find Ric Flair to be kinda cute.

Other than my obvious problems :) and the whole eye of the beholder thing, I was wondering if there was an equation that makes someone attractive to large numbers of people.

Comments

[idleleaves.livejournal.com]

I wish I knew. It seems kind of random sometimes.

I, for the record, don't get the O'Haire squealing... I find his attitude sexy as hell, but physically I don't get it.

LOL @ obvious problems. Naah, I tend to find the oddest people attractive sometimes. Odd to everyone else, anyhow. I have had long conversations theorising on cute/hot/sexy and the like.

... Yeah, and basically all this is saying is "I don't know either". =) Someone needs to find the formula, identify it, and make it understandable to the common person so we can predict these things.

[redfiona99.livejournal.com]

>>It seems kind of random sometimes.<< Very random indeed.

There's always someone who doesn't get it :) Normally me.

Apparently Merc has the formula. But yes, these things need to be made predictable because I am sick of having to have the appeal of Colin Farrell explained to me.

[devilswolf.livejournal.com]

There is in fact a set of physical characteristics or qualities that make a person attractive to large numbers of people. These things have been subjected to clinical study; I can't remember everything, but this is what I can recall:

- left/right symmetry; the more symmetric, the more attractive.

- shoulder:waist:hips proportions. For men, shoulders should be wider than the waist (I forget the ideal ratio); The waist should be no less than 90% the width of the hips. For women, the stereotypical 36:24:36 is pretty close to the ideal.

- obviously the usual: clear skin, healthy complexion, healthy/fit body...These things all signify virility and fatherhood potential in a man (or fertility and child-bearing quality in a woman). (And yes, attractiveness IS determined by heterosexual concerns; homosexual men are attracted to men who look like they have good genes to pass on, despite the fact that it doesn't matter, logically.)

This is why I watch sex documentaries--just in case someone asks questions like these. *g*

[redfiona99.livejournal.com]

That's the sort of clinical study I wouldn't mind being involved in :)

>>And yes, attractiveness IS determined by heterosexual concerns; homosexual men are attracted to men who look like they have good genes to pass on, despite the fact that it doesn't matter, logically.<<

That sounds quite interesting. Makes sense in some way. Odd quirk of humanity that.

>>This is why I watch sex documentaries--just in case someone asks questions like these. *g*<<

See, I'm deprived of stuff like that so I have to ask. And there always seems to be someone cool who knows stuff. Thanks.

[devilswolf.livejournal.com]

Maybe not always someone cool, but at least someone perverted.

Oh, one thing I forgot: men with strong eyebrows (not necessarily bushy, but at least prominent) are supposed to be more attractive. It means they're predisposed to be a good provider--prominent eyebrows prevent sweat from running into a man's eyes while he's chasing down food. =)

(This is me being cool...or perverted...)

[redfiona99.livejournal.com]

Knowledge is never perverted, it's uses, maybe ;) Actually the eyebrow thing makes sense because all the blokes I know in RL that are considered to be hot are well endowed in the eyebrow department. Yet the hot girls have their eyebrows plucked to obscurity.