Chick lit about what women want

[Friendly Otter]

British scientists have come up with six ways of attracting a partner, says The Guardian:

Experience fear together. A 1970s experiment showed men who met women on a rickety bridge found the encounter sexier than those who met on a stable bridge. Going to a funfair has a similar effect, with members of the opposite sex looking more attractive to people who had just got off a rollercoaster;

Body language. When people meet a stranger, it is estimated that 55% of their impression is based on appearance and body language. Mirroring posture may help, but not folding arms helps to create a bond;

Music. US psychologists at North Adams state college in Massachusetts discovered that women found pictures of men more attractive when they were listening to soft rock;

Chemistry. The chemical phenylethylamine (PEA) - known as the "love molecule" - is found in chocolate. It is also linked to the effects of exercise, as is the brain chemical dopamine, which produces a feeling of euphoria;

Eye contact. Gazing into a potential lover's eyes increases feelings of closeness and attraction. Meeting another person's gaze stimulates the parts of the brain associated with rewards;

Jokes. An experience that makes people laugh creates feelings of closeness between strangers, researchers found. Laughing is thought to release endorphins into the body, promoting a sense of well-being.

This made me think of erotica for women. While men enjoy porn more, women are more interested in erotic/porn novels than men are. (That is because those men who are quick to get aroused by a woman are the first to spread their seed and genes. Women want to learn more about a man first, see that he is a high-quality potential father - which is why they like these written descriptions.)

A good tip is to read some of those smut stories made for women. I have read some pocket-sized books where the heroine is in dire straits or has an exotic job, and she becomes dependant on or has to work with a man. What are the traits of these men?

Mischievous
Mysterious
Masculine
A little dangerous, but in a "safe" way
Rich


The men often drive the women crazy - yet they can't stop themselves from being attracted to them? And it turns out the men still have a heart of gold. And a bank vault full of gold, too.

So it seems pocket-sized chick lit validates everything So Suave says about women's preferences: they want the guy with high quality, who has a devil-may-care attitude - not a bastard, but not the Nice Guy either. They want him to be exciting, someone for them to tame or be tamed by. This makes them feel feminine.

Some examples:

-The young woman on the prairies, who marries a man who is in a feud with his neighbor and his dangerous cowboys

-The young female reporter who travels through a war-torn China with a ****y reporter who drives her nuts when he won't care for the out-of-luck as much as she does. (Yet he still helps them, of course.)

-The woman who takes a job as an assistant to a writer. Disappointed, she finds out his house in the country is much smaller than she thought. But in the end, it turns out he is very famous, and actually rich - he just likes to live in a modest home.

-The young American woman who has to marry the French heir and move in with him in his castle, to pay off her family's debts. He seems dangerous to her, but in the end she warms up to him as he shows the softness underneath the hard surface.

 

[Desdinova]

British scientists have come up with six ways of attracting a partner, says The Guardian:

Ah, the Guardian! Usually has good stuff, and this is no exception.

Body language. When people meet a stranger, it is estimated that 55% of their impression is based on appearance and body language. Mirroring posture may help, but not folding arms helps to create a bond;

This is why I insist on guys getting women off the internet and/or phone, and get her into real life ASAP. You can't show body language or facial expressions over the phone or internet.

A good tip is to read some of those smut stories made for women.

I've always been tempted to read one of those romance novels just to see what's in them to make women pull out their vibrators.

-The young American woman who has to marry the French heir and move in with him in his castle, to pay off her family's debts. He seems dangerous to her, but in the end she warms up to him as he shows the softness underneath the hard surface.

You know how sadly similar this sounds to every goddam animated Disney movie out there?

 

[Nighthawk]

Again I recommend that DJs become familiar with romance novels. If you can't face reading a Mills & Boon, try the recent Marvel Romance trade paperback available at your local comic store.

These are a perfect guide to what really turns women on. In short, it's a dominant, charming, cruel, powerful, infuriating, arrogant-yet-strangely-vulnerable bad-boy doctor prince who doesn't seem to notice her and is in imminent danger of being snapped up by some other b*tch.

http://marylaine.com/myword/romance.html

Unfortunately, men don't return the favor. My professor for adolescent literature, G. Robert Carlsen, for forty years administered surveys to teenagers all over the world about their reading interests, and what held true across time and cultures was: girls will read about boys, but boys won't read about girls.

This is a mistake, because roadmaps to the minds of women are available in the form of the books we read. And the books we consume by the boxload are: romances. If you guys really want to understand us, read some of the romances we have made best-sellers.

The hero is strong, highly individualistic, isolated, and maybe even slightly dangerous. The woman tames him and civilizes him. And after all, this is a significant part of our role in the world--to bring men into society and channel their energies into the common good of the community.

 

[GirlCrazy]

These are a perfect guide to what really turns women on. In short, it's a dominant, charming, cruel, powerful, infuriating, arrogant-yet-strangely-vulnerable bad-boy doctor prince who doesn't seem to notice her and is in imminent danger of being snapped up by some other b*tch.

It only takes reading a few of them to get the gist, which you summed up nicely.

I have a 10x10 storage room in my basement filled with boxes stacked to the ceiling full of those books. The wife has read literally thousands of 'em, and I agree they do give a certain insight into what attracts women, or at least the kind of women that read those books. I call it "chick porn".