Masculine Somatotype and Hirsuteness Determinants of Sexual Attractiveness to Women

[Lucas Corso]

Five questionnaire studies asked women to rate the attractiveness of outline drawings of male figures that varied in somatotype, body proportions, symmetry, and in distribution of trunk hair. In Study 1,
back-posed figures of mesomorphic (muscular) somatotypes were rated as most attractive, followed by average, ectomorphic (slim), and endomorphic (heavily built) figures by both British and Sri Lankan women. In Study 2, computer morphing of somatotypes to produce an intergraded series resulted in a graded response in terms of perceived attractiveness which mirrored the findings of Study 1.
In Study 3, back-posed figures were manipulated in order to change waist-to-hip ratios (WHR) and waist-to-shoulder ratios (WSR). A WHR of 0.8–0.9 and a WSR of 0.6 were rated as most attractive and these effects were more pronounced when modeling mesomorphic figures. In Study 4, symmetric figures of a mesomorphic somatotype were rated as less attractive than a normal (asymmetric) version of the same man. Study 5 showed that presence of trunk hair had a marked, positive effect upon
women’s ratings of attractiveness for both mesomorphic and endomorphic male figures.Women also judged figures with trunk hair as being older and they consistently rated endomorphic figures as being older than mesomorphs. These results are consistent with effects of sexual selection upon visual signals that advertise health, physical prowess, age, and underlying endocrine condition in the human male.

This is just the abstract, the whole article is 11 pages with several figures. If someone wants the whole article i could send it by email...

[Susi]

What is "trunk hair"?

[Marcus Marulus]

Reasearches like this one and their results must be viewed with caution.

[Lucas Corso]

Originally Posted by Susi

What is "trunk hair"?

I think they mean hairy chest

[Carnyx]

Originally Posted by Prometheus

Reasearches like this one and their results must be viewed with caution.

Hairless, eh?

@Lucas: Fury chest?

Susi, being the only soon-to-be a woman here, what's your opinion?

[Marcus Marulus]

Originally Posted by Carnyx

Hairless, eh?

Not at all.

I just wanted to say that such researches are not always reliable. There were some that claimed that women like hairless chest.

[Susi]

Eh.. .-. my opinion on chest hair? ._.

I don't really have one. My boyfriend doesn't really have a lot, but I suspect it is going to suddenly creep in overnight.

Maybe just keep it clean? ._.

Beards are way better. Everyone knows it.

[Menydh]

We used to call people with much hairy chest, pecho-lobos (wolf-chests). Good news for them.. but news apparently for Prometheus!

[Marcus Marulus]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

We used to call people with much hairy chest, pecho-lobos (wolf-chests). Good news for them.. but news apparently for Prometheus!

Why not pecho-monos?


Some used to call it "love carpet"

[Carnyx]

Western women love for waxed male chests is a total new trend promoted by fag oriented fashion hand in hand with metrosexuality. Some of them must be repressed lesbians, but most are teenagers.

(I don't have a wolf-chest, btw)

[Susi]

Waxed male chests?

That's just weird, Carynx. I can't believe a man would actually do this..

[Carnyx]

Originally Posted by Susi

Waxed male chests?

That's just weird, Carynx. I can't believe a man would actually do this..

And yet I think many do that. This is even worse:

Every day is carnival time at Hall-Kenney's salon. Even husbands and boyfriends are clamouring for another Vanity speciality: buttock and genital waxing.

Men, still?

[Marcus Marulus]

Originally Posted by Carnyx

And yet I think many do that. This is even worse:



Men, still?

They're neither men nor women, but some undefined "creatures".

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Susi

Waxed male chests?

That's just weird, Carynx. I can't believe a man would actually do this..

You'd be surprised.

But there is an historical precedent to modern metrosexuality in men: XVII-XVIIIth centuries aristocracy. Think of how men dressed. They wore shoes with heels (actually, I believe that heels were used in that time before women ever wore them), wigs, face powders, fake beauty spots, a handkerchief often in their hands, effeminate manners and gestures, ...



And there surely are other precedents before, in Western or in other cultures.

Originally Posted by Carnyx

Every day is carnival time at Hall-Kenney's salon. Even husbands and boyfriends are clamouring for another Vanity speciality: buttock and genital waxing.

Genital waxing must be so painful!

What I like is a classic moustache. I should grow one. More or less in the style of the moustache in this picture, though not as large. Only problem is with grooming.

[Lucas Corso]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

We used to call people with much hairy chest, pecho-lobos (wolf-chests). Good news for them.. but news apparently for Prometheus!

I'm pecho-lobos!!! And i've beard!!!

[Lucas Corso]

Originally Posted by Prometheus

Reasearches like this one and their results must be viewed with caution.

I agree, but i've thought it was interesting because it compares a panel of european women with non-european women...