zekko said:
I remember reading similar surveys - that women prefer men with an average build. Then you come here and everyone says lift weights and get muscular. It's a little confusing.
I saw a similar survey on a BBC special about what women want.
I'm pretty sure the prototype body that was selected was 5'11 - 180 lbs... with broad shoulders...
Not exactly "skinny"... but not HUGE either...
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Anyway some stuff dug up from google searches; take it as you would anything dug up through google searches:
- 82 percent of women would have a sexual relationship with someone with a fantastic body but average face.
- 91 percent of women would sleep with someone with an average body but a fantastic face.
- A man’s stomach was the most attractive non-facial feature for women (chest and biceps being 2nd and 3rd)
- Forty-two percent of women indicated that physical attributes are a “very important” characteristic in a potential partner.
- Overweight men were clearly less desirable to women. Thirty percent of female respondents found men more than 10 pounds overweight unacceptable as dates; 70 percent found more than 20 pounds overweight unacceptable; and at 40 pounds or more overweight, men were unacceptable to 90 percent of respondents.
- Men and women also parted company in the domain of male muscle mass. Men value muscle mass, while women are less interested in oversized biceps and pecs. In ranking male body types, women gave first place to "medium with moderate muscle mass," while "medium with competition muscle mass" came in a lowly fourth. When men estimated women's preferences, however, competition body build narrowly missed second place.
- just 20 percent of women acknowledged finding body builders attractive.
something interesting i read while searching for this stuff:
- Women who rated themselves as more attractive were particularly concerned with larger size. Of women describing themselves as "much more attractive than average," 64 percent cared strongly or moderately about penis width, and 54 percent cared about penis length. Women who rated their own looks as average were about 20 percentage points lower.
I would propose the same thing about women finding built men attractive. If a woman spends a lot of time in the gym, working on herself, in front of a mirror, and eating healthy - i'd say she's probably twice as likely than a woman who doesn't to care about such things.
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oh and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_attractiveness lays out some great info on all this..