I don't understand what people find so attractive about women. What is it and why?

[Programmed_For_Damage]

But I seriously just feel dumbfounded. Feel free to make your own about men. But me, I don't get what's so attractive about women. What do women have that men don't? A vagina? What's so great about those? It's just another hole, a particular hole, that, if anything, is constantly under threat of being pregnant. A situation that is often disadvantageous to everyone involved. Boobs? What's so great about boobs? They're flabby sacks of fat that flap around. If you like boobs, are you attracted to man-boobs? Because I can't tell much of a difference except for that one is on a male and one is on a female.

Stop it; you're logic is ruining it for me as a heterosexual man!

In answer to your question, I'm more attracted to the Rubenesque, contoured and rounded shape of a woman as opposed to the harder-lined, angular look of men. I find I feel the same with car bodies.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

..Honestly?

I see "hot" woman (by my personal standards of attraction, ie - Curvaceous (hips, thighs, breasts, butt)), brain tells me "You like this image, find out more!".. me goes and does exactly that, and tries to succeed in wooing her.

It's not a thing you can rationally explain. It just.. happens.

Also OP, you are not bisexual if you are grossed out by a vagina. Figure out your own terms, before you start questioning ours and how we justify them.

 

[smithy_2045]

I don't know why I'm attracted to women, I just am.

 

[Giftfromme]

This is a classic thread that should be archived and saved for a time capsule or something similar. That way, when people or aliens open it in the future they can read this thread and learn something about us now. This thread will be as important as Ceaser, Michelangelo etc.

 

[Indeterminacy]

I don't care if you're not even physically attracted to us, and find women beautiful nonetheless, but I just want to know why the heck people seem to find women so beautiful.

Totally speculative hypothesis: Motherhood plays a major role in the cultural glorification of women. It is probably more the norm than not that young children get breastfed for their early years. This very intimate contact we have with our mums lingers into our formative years and adulthood, to the point where it influences the way we view sex and reproduction.

This seems much more plausible to me than "genetics says so", anyway, being more of a Nurture over Nature person.

 

[The Aimless One]

Surely there's some kind of thought process.

Again, I'm always hearing this sort of response but it doesn't really answer the question at all. I mean, it's the root reason why people are attracted to different things, different wiring. But it doesn't explain what exactly goes through the mind about different stuff. Saying that "it's just programming" just doesn't tell you near enough. It more avoids answering the question that actually answers it.

I think that's the problem right there......There isn't necessarily any thought proces involved.
I'm atracted to women and not to men....I have tried to figure out why but to no avail so I stopped trying.
I can see how a man could be considered beautifull and therefor atractive to others but it doesn't work for me.
No real reason as far as I'm concerned.

Furthermore, some stuff about attraction seems downright shallow anyway. Not dating people because they're fat? Come on.

Physical attraction is strongly linked to the appearance of physical fitness.
Fat on chest (boobs) hints at fertillity (or at least it did at one point in time)
Fat on belly hints at the possibility of a bad diet, a lack of excercise or perhaps some hereditary condition. (not saying it's allways true though)

Where I to choose a partner to have children with...my choice would seem clear.

Though I personally find my partners personality a lot more important than her physical appearance I think the above factors in pretty heavily.

 

[Indeterminacy]

You might think you're asking a clever question, but you're not. It's a stupid question. You are apparently (judging from the thread so far) asking for a logical justification for a fundamentally illogical and subjective preference.

Okay, stop right there.

First: Induction again. I did warn you about this in the logic thread. Generalisation from "no logical or objective justification has been presented" to "the phenomenon is illogical and subjective" is exactly the sort of thing that Hume pointed out you can't do with any inferential authority.

Second: Reason doesn't just end because people don't have access to their own subconscious processes. Even accepting that you have no explanation to give for your own preferences, you might exhibit causal regularities that would provide evidential support for (though not definitive proof of) a theory that tied your preferences to some other aspect of your personality or your cultural environment.

Maybe she would be mistaken to ask individual people to give justification for their own preferences, putting you up on trial and asking you to defend your position. But that's not what she wants; she wants a theory for the cultural glorification of the female form, independently of the reflective beliefs of people who accept that culture. And this is a forum that generally proports to support scientific perspectives on the world, so it seems entirely reasonable to wonder if any psychological analysis might be found here.

So I don't think it's a stupid question at all, and people here are far too quick to assume the black-box evolutionary explanation is the only possible one to be given.

 

[TheTim]

There's no explanation for why boobs are so good or why women are beautiful, its just genetics dude.

 

[Emergent System]

OP, you can't claim to be bisexual then in the same post state that you find vaginas revolting and that you wouldn't go near one, and that breasts are just 'sacks of fat'. Do you know what bisexual means?

As a straight male, I find probably the least attractive part of a woman's body to be the vag. But sometimes a man's just gotta do what a man's gotta do.

There's no explanation for why boobs are so good or why women are beautiful, its just genetics dude.

"Genetics" is an explanation.

 

[Hoplon]

Been thinking about this threads question for a bit now and the problem is that the OP is asking an explanation for something that is done on a level way below concious thought.

My evidence for this? All the music, poetry, prose, art etc just about this very idea.

There is peta bytes of work on why anyone is attracted to anyone else. Maybe the future strong AI (AI that can makes it's self smarter) will be able to answer that one, It seems like it's way to subtle for us at the moment.

 

[Emergent System]

So I don't think it's a stupid question at all, and people here are far too quick to assume the black-box evolutionary explanation is the only possible one to be given.

I guess if you limit it only to "genetic" evolution that's true, but I think it's wrong to say that cultural/"memetic" evolution doesn't fall under the umbrella term "evolution".

I think the question the OP actually wants to ask is something more in the area of if we should find women more attractive than men; if this is beneficial in today's society, as it clearly was in the past. When 1 man could impregnate 100 women, but not the other way around, women were inherently more valuable to a tribe constantly under the risk of eradication from any number of dangers; famine, drout, other natural disasters, disease, tribal warfare, wild animals, etc. Men were, of course, also valuable, but anything a man can do one or two women can also do, albeit not always as well, but men can never give birth. But I digress.

Personally, I am of the opinion that while we're genetically predisposed to find certain forms attractive, the reason we find women more attractive than men is likely to be in very large parts due to our culture - which is no less "evolution" than a purely genetic explanation would be. Going through the many influences that lead to this imbalance of the perception of beauty would take a small book, which I don't have the time, or frankly expertise, to engage in.

I guess we could also argue over stuff like the definition of beauty, and if women fall under that definition, or if 'we' simply feel sexually aroused when we look at them, then rationalize that feeling of arousal into the thought that "they must be beautiful because otherwise why would I feel good when I look at them", but that's getting far into the quagmire that is semantics, and I hate that place.

In retrospect, not sure what the point of this post was. Oh well.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Short answer: We're programmed to find members of the opposite sex attractive (well, unless you're wired differently, but hey, I don't judge).

Like I said in the OP, I anticipated such a response, but such a simple answer isn't really what I'm asking.

Surely there's some kind of thought process.

Not really, no. To put it plainly; you're thinking too much about this. Love and attraction isn't some logical question that's rationally answered, which is what you're basically expecting.

Does that mean that there isn't an explanation? Of course there is, and the simple answer that's already been given to you basically covers it; it's bio-programming, with some social programming on the side. No need to over-complicate life.

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

snip

because Jesus tells us to, of course
Also, because women tend to have smaller mandibles, which make me feel threatened.

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

OP is a ******.

I had to, okay?

Op's name is lilith...

 

[Zarmi]

OP is a ******.

I had to, okay?

Op's name is lilith...

... Damnit that's embarrassing. I never notice names. Nevermind me, I take it back.

 

[Belaam]

Its okay. I feel the same way about popcorn.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

It's questions like this that i feel draws out what sorts of people really dwell on this site...
Everyone rushing to talk about how it's all nature and we're just programmed in a way that makes us who we are, as if we're all just robots.

I'm fine with people having different world views than myself, but i'm a bit blown back just by how many people here have that mechanical view of the world

OT: Personally i'm more attracted to personality rather than body. Certain character traits, sense of humor... that sort of thing. I've been with no even a handful of women through my life, but each one was apparently shunned in their middle/high school years because they weren't "beautiful". And i never got that, i never found anything wrong with them (granted, they did with me, but that's really a different story)

So i always feel like the odd one out whenever there's a slightly meta question on here, because nearly everyone else seems to want scientific explenations for everything. I just can't be bothered to read through 8 pages of forum to find the few other people that agree with me.

 

[Wargamer]

From my teenage years, I suspect that most men in the 16-18 age bracket find ALL women attractive because, frankly, they'd fuck anyone who'll open their legs for them.

 

[luke10123]

This is a thread...?

Seriously?

Someone needed to ask this question?

someone wanted that shiny 'on fire' badge methinks

 

[JDLY]

Large breast (while I think are overrated, I prefer small and perky) are a biological signal that an individual has plenty to provide to any offspring.

Another example of people thinking they're hard wired into finding the fashionable body attractive. Large breasts make no more milk than small breasts, they merely take longer to fill up http://breastfeedingbasics.info/do-big-breasts-make-more-milk and the con of them is that they're more awkward to feed children with without smothering them (this I've heard from mothers I know comparing experiences and, yes, babies have been smothered from feeding before http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/mum-smothers-baby-while-breastfeeding-on-jet/story-e6frfq80-1225805936317 ).
And for the woman herself, big boobs are more likely to lead to back problems. Neither are really better than the other and small boobs have been the ideal in times past. (See the Middle Ages, where the perfect breasts were said to be the size of apples http://www.montanakaimin.com/opinion/nobody-s-right-adore-me-1.2690014#.TtPK2rIr27s and just a century ago when it was fashionable amongst Flapper women to flatten their breasts by wrapping fabric around their chests http://www.anzasa.arts.usyd.edu.au/ahas/flappers_overview.html .)

Interesting, apart from the Middle Ages part, I didn't know any of that. Thank you for clarifying.