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Originally Posted by munish  My question is " why are men attracted to beautiful females and not to females having a homely face ?"
As, i feel both these questions are interlinked in some way. |
It depends on how you define beautiful. And how you define "homely"
What is considered beautiful is partly genetic, partly personal and partly situational. Genetically speaking, we are very attracted to symmetry. An example of a young woman who is not "beautiful" by extremely symmetrical is Alizee (french pop star). Former President Clinton was EXTREMELY symmetrical. We are also attracted to clear skin, which indicates health and freedom from skin diseases and parasites.
Personally speaking, many men and women have preferences about what is considered beautiful. For example, I think the stick thin super models are not attractive at all. I also think that Paris Hilton is very unattractive. And, of course, people are influenced by others. That's partly why some women are attracted to men that other women have, because it's social proof that the man is attractive, and it's the same vice versa.
Situationally speaking, in many countries a woman with a little fat is considered beautiful (partly because it indicates better ability to sustain pregnancy), while in the West being thin is generally considered beautiful. A few hundred years ago, women who were plumper were also considered beautiful here in the West.
Largely (I believe), we are influenced by genetic traits. Men are attracted to larger breasts because the fat stores in the breasts indicate ability to sustain pregnancy, as well as good estrogen levels. Men are also attracted to a very small waist-to-hip ratio of around 0.7, which is a key sign of fertility. The Miss America winners of the past many years all had very close to the .7 ratio. More info here:
Waist-hip ratio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It's hard to answer why evolution ended up using attraction as the yardstick, but it is rampant in other species as well. In any species where one sex is bigger than the other, one has to court the other, and each sex looking for the best genes to mix with their own and have children. There's that competition. Women are looking for higher status males, because (in the olden days) higher status usually correlated with greater physical ability, which is a great thing to have in kids cuase it helps them survive the random leopard attacks. That's why taller men are wanted, because height indicates good nutrition and better physical shape. Peacocks and hyenas both have the males being courted, as well as (I think) moorhens, where the females are bigger than the males. Men are looking for females and like I said above, we're highly attracted to signs of fertility and ability to raise and birth children.
Another thing is what your definiton of a "beautiful" versus "homely" face is. It has been theorized that men and women are both drawn to the exotic because of the variety of genes that it represents, but in my experience that hasn't been too true.
The book Mean Genes has a great explanation of all this. I highly recommend it, cause it also talks about other issues, too (greed, risk, the tendancy to eat a lot, and so on).
Some more info here:
Sexual attraction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edit: An amusing study:
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Women's choice of men goes in cycles
I also remembered another amusing study where women were asked to rate the attractiveness of an ugly man wearing a rolex versus a good looking man wearing a burger king uniform. Guess who was more attractive.
