The effect of looks

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Does it really matter whether it was different or same in the past or different in other far cultures?

We live in the present and within a limited geographical zone.

Miss China, 2012:

http://www.asianbite.com/photos/miss-wo ... _27986.jpg

Miss Botswana, 2012:

http://media.santabanta.com/gal/mu2012/ ... swana1.jpg

Miss Chile, 2012:

http://beautycontestupdate.com/wp-conte ... ren-05.jpg

Miss Norway, 2012:

http://livewireworld.info/wp-content/up ... rofile.jpg

Miss Ukraine, 2012:

http://globalbeauties.com/blog/wp-conte ... 03/ukr.jpg

Miss Korea, 2012:

http://livewireworld.info/wp-content/up ... in-Lee.jpg

Miss Germany, 2012:

http://www.derwesten.de/img/incoming/or ... 647309.jpg

Miss USA, 2012:

http://politic365.com/wp-content/blogs. ... 86x350.jpg

Miss Bahrain, 2012:

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/myfiles/ ... 5/li02.jpg

Allthough these girls look different because of ethnicity, not a single country or culture prefers masculine, unfertile or unhealthy women to feminine, fertile and healthy women, nor does a single country with more than enough food prefer obese women... no offense.

Kurgan, the women who are competing in beauty contests do not actually look drastically different from each other, because if they did they would not fit the bill for that industry. that's sort of the point of the beauty contest - they are looking for cookie-cutter types of women who can step into a role, not women who are going to break a mold.

it's true that *most* cultures don't preferentially select for women who are obese, but many men do prefer women who are heavier or even overweight when they are stressed out. some men don't have to be starving to have their preferences influenced towards overweight women. some men even do prefer obese women, or don't care either way.

also some men do like some women with masculine features - it sort of depends on which man looking at which woman in which situation.

you keep forgetting that your preferences are not necessarily the same as... everyone else in the whole world. for example, my ex-husband: he didn't like the way that beauty queens looked because they had nothing distinctive about their faces. he said his eyes would slide right off their faces, as there was nothing interesting for his glance to "stick" onto. he had no patience to pay attention to shows like that, because it was putting the wrong features on a pedestal. to him, beauty was about being distinctive and interesting - a big nose, an oversized birthmark, crooked teeth, asymmetry, etc.

Miss Lebanon 2012
http://stateofmind13.files.wordpress.co ... .jpg?w=630

Twins

This...still kinda proves bluerose's and Boo's points. I mean, there are plenty of people who damn near everyone finds attractive, and then there are people that no one would find attractive.

no, my point was that i don't know of anyone that "damn near everyone" finds attractive on a physical level, because tastes vary so widely.

I could never figure out what all the fuss is over Brad Pitt. I think he's slightly above-average looking at most. Many celebrities are made out to be much better looking than they actually are just because lots of people see them in television/movies, etc.

Last edited by Venger on 25 Feb 2013, 7:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Why complicating stuff by going world wide?

Anyway, let's narrow it a bit.

In a school class, there always few boys that most girls would find attractive and vice versa.

Same at the workplace.

Here, on WP for instance, many female users agree that Wolfheart is physically attractive, so many active female users said it out right, coincidence? No, it is not, but because he has those general physical characteristics that make him attractive to a lot of women.

Most male users also agree that hale_bopp is beautiful, coincidence? No, I think not.




You don't know Boo? :tollface:

but i am neither one of those groups (the admirers of Wolfheart or hale_bopp, or the members themselves), so what happens with them doesn't matter. like, it literally has no effect on my life. they can go and do their thing and form a hot club+admirers, and it would not matter in the slightest.

they might have a slightly easier life, but how does it benefit me to care about it? if i do focus on their shenanigans, i think it would actually have a detrimental effect on my chances, because i'd be staring after their flirty pack and getting jealous and bitter instead of noticing all of the other wonderful single people around me who aren't the popular ones and hangers-on.

Are you feeling ok, dear?

This is t about how you'd like it to be for you and others. This was about how there is a pattern to what good looks are made of

no, it isn't about how i'd like it to be, it's about how it actually is for me. you never answered my direct question, by the way:

This conversation isn't about easier lifestyle or aythingnof the matter. Its about there being a general guideline for what is attractive.

It hasn't made a difference because the people that consider me good looking haven't actually seen me. They've seen me from the only angle I find myself acceptable in. I doubt anyone here has seen a side profile picture of me or whatnot. So its not exactly a fair comparison. But as evidenced by the careers of many pretty celeb compared to not so pretty ones (majorly actors) then you would see it was a lot easier for those that had a better fit on the attractive qualities list.

Last edited by MXH on 25 Feb 2013, 10:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

totally fine . i think there is a large tendency on the forum to focus on what the "most attractive" people are doing and compare one's own life to theirs. i've watched people do it in groups, like at parties. there will be an attractive person with a group of other people around them, sorta like moths. and many people in the room will be watching them and wishing they were a part of it, instead of being happy talking to the people in front of them. the actual level of attractiveness or interestingness of the people in front of them is not as relevant as the draw of the popular/attractive people. for me, i don't think it really makes any sense and i leave them to it.

there is a whole world outside of that stuff that isn't governed by the same nonsense. in the discussion of attractiveness and such, there is no room for how the majority of people actually interact on a real-world basis. i mean... most people don't marry Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie. we meet, we are attractive to each other, we fall in love... but we don't have to be perfect or look ideal in order to do so.

The beautiful wisdom in that post aside (which I agree with), why do you think those few are seen as most attractive in the first place?

if i had to be totalllllly honest (people are gonna roll their eyes), i think it's a combination of both genetic luck and... self-confidence. i think what tips the balance is when people believe they are attractive... partly from some positive interactions they've had early on.

i've played some experiments in my own social interactions where i repeat positive things in my head, and i noticed people react differently to me. it's like... if i think i am better looking than usual, so do other people. i can't really keep that up very well because i don't have very high self-esteem naturally (my parents did some fine work destroying it), but i think it makes some small difference.

i've seen it online, in a sort of external version of the same thing. like where someone repeats the positive things they've been told. so they post pictures on imgur or something and say (nobody said this really, just an example), "i am told i am sexy constantly. i get hit on all the time." and lo and behold, that person just jumped up a bunch of hotness points because semi-imaginary people are hitting on them in real life. they exude high self-esteem. they might put themselves down a little bit, but a person with genuinely low self-esteem would probably never talk like that in the first place so people tend to believe they really ARE that hot.

when people think they are hot, it seems like others sometimes believe them to some degree or another. and it can create a bit of a pull.