A long discussion in the common room about what parts of the male and female bodies are most attractive led me to start thinking about why any parts of our bodies are attractive at all. It was easy for the guys—they pretty much agreed that boobs and butts were what they found sexy. But no one seemed to know the answer to the question, “What do people find sexy about the male body?”
“Balls,” joked a friend. “The balls are definitely sexy!”
They’re not—they’re definitely not, but why not? What makes them so different from breasts? They’re just pieces of flesh that hang from both of our bodies and have functions related to reproduction. I decided to ask some people to see what they thought were the sexiest parts of men and women.
When I asked men, I was surprised by their answers. I expected breasts to lead, but surprisingly they came in third. Legs, unexpectedly, seemed to be the number one thing men liked on the female body, followed by faces, butts, breasts and hair. One outlier, a sophomore named Evan, stated, “The brain and the heart are the most beautiful parts of the female body.”
I don’t disagree with that. But this article is not about what we should like about the opposite sex, it’s about what we, as a society, currently place importance on.
These results contrasted sharply with most articles in men’s lifestyle magazines, but they lined up with online discussions on websites like reddit.com. The people who control the portrayal of male sexuality in the media seem to disagree with actual men. In a Mar. 11 Cosmopolitan article by Frank Kobola, the writer seemed to believe that men valued nice eyes over anything else. Legs were not even listed in this article, although it did mention “kneepits” and “feet” in the top ten sexiest parts of a woman’s body. Once again, Cosmopolitan is the worst. In a Huffington Post poll, Craig Crosland wrote that men found breasts and butts to be the most attractive parts of the female body. Commenters on Reddit, however, pretty much agreed that the face of a woman was the most important physical feature.
Why is this important? Why is a nice face any more important than nice legs or a cute butt? Well, the face is a non-sexualized part of the body. Facial features don’t indicate fertility the way wide hips and large breasts do, which experts believe to be the reason we find these parts of the body sexy. The eyes and the mouth, which men describe to be the most important facial features, indicate emotion. Pretty eyes indicate kindness, and a smile indicates a positive outlook on life. These feature are important, not because they’re sexually attractive, but because they’re signs that tell men a lot about a woman’s personality before they even start talking to her.
Of course, these questions are inherently biased. If you ask someone, “Which parts of the female body do you find most attractive?” they’re going to respond to the question almost purely in the framework of sexual attraction. An important factor, which seems to be a more prevalent response among women, is that sexual attraction is based on much more than physical appearance.
When I asked women which parts of the male body they found the most attractive, most of them replied that a man’s personality and sense of humor were more important than looks, but if they had to answer they would say chests, arms, hair and butts. No one seemed to find penises or testicles sexy. Chests, arms, hair and butts may be sexy, but they appear to have no immediate connection to human reproduction. But if we look at early cultures, we begin to understand why these characteristics might be desirable in a mate. In hunter-gatherer societies, as well as in most of the animal kingdom, physical strength is an extremely desirable characteristic in a mate. Strong males were needed to protect the young, hence the importance of a well-developed chest and arms. Hair is perhaps a physical expression of hormonal levels. And butts…well, think about it—your glutes are used for thrusting motions.
The disparity between what men and women seem to value in a mate is partially a product of societal influences—men are constantly being told that breasts are awesome, and women are constantly being told to look for a sensitive guy—and partially a factor that is determined by what each gender wants, respectively. I posed these questions to 18-22 year olds, the college demographic. These are not people who are looking for someone to marry, and there’s nothing wrong with pursuing someone at this age based solely on physical attraction. If men and women in their 40’s were asked the same question, they would likely provide drastically different responses. What they seek in a mate would be based on so many more variables that college students wouldn’t ever think of. Factors such as kids, pets, wealth, goals and personality would play a much bigger role in determining desirable qualities.
We, as a society, should instill our young men and women with more realistic expectations of beauty, make an effort to understand what we desire in a significant other, and make the head and the heart seem a little sexier.
Max Tabet is a Trinity junior. His column runs every other Friday.
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