beautiful woman
(Johnny Driftwood @ Flickr,
via everystockphoto.com)

Beauty of the body and face. What about the mind? And does having lots of money help?

Say what you will, society in general is still superficial. Generally, when it comes to dating and pairing off, physical attraction still counts for a lot. If I was to venture a guess, I would break it down like this for when a female seeks a mate:

  • Physical attractiveness – 50%
  • Personality/Sense of humour – 20%
  • Financials – 30%

If the women you want to attract would not consider you good looking, then the other two components would have to be increased. So basically, if you are not good looking you better have good financials, a great and caring personality, or ideally – all of those things.

But … a man would still have to pass the initial “bare minimum physical attractiveness” test before the woman would even consider finding out about his other qualities. Put a pool of men together, and chances are the handsome ones are the ones women would approach without any push needed. What then holds the attention of the women would be the non-physical aspects of the man. However, just like men, women may discount those aspects if he’s really, really good looking.

Sometimes you see two men of equal qualities and both pursue two women of similar ilk. One takes longer than the other to achieve the end goal, and the usual crucial difference would be the physical appearances of these men.

So what is the lesson here? Should men who are not what would normally be considered handsome lower their standards? What if they can’t help who they like, which is usually the case? Is this why there are so many lonely men, and women out there?

Of course, the age of the woman matters too. Younger women may favour handsome faces over everything else. Women who are ready to settle down, may have the financial aspect being at 60% for example. I’m obviously not talking about gold diggers here. Those women only care about one thing and one thing only: money.

screen-cap from House of Flying Daggers

Basically even if two ppl can connect via a “blind” medium such as the Internet, the feeling may change when they get to see how each other looks like. And then once you get over that hurdle, you need the financials. What a vicious circle!

If only mating was solely for the purpose of procreation, but we are human beings and not animals. ;)

I will leave you with some quotes from “Shallow Hal“.

Tony Robbins: Hal, don’t you think you’re being a bit shallow here in the way you look at women?
Hal: Well, no! You know, I’d like her to be into culture and shit, too.
Tony Robbins: Ok Hal, hypothetical situation; Which do you prefer, a girlfriend missing one breast or half a brain?
Hal: Hmmm, toughie. What about the remaining breast? Is it big?

Artie: It never occurred to you that picking girls solely on their looks may not be the best way to go about it?
Hal: What, am I supposed to apologize for having high standards?
Jen: High standards? In the five years I’ve known you, every woman, I should say girl, you’ve gone after has been completely out of your league.
Hal: What’s that supposed to mean?
Artie: Oh, she doesn’t mean anything by it. She’s just saying you’re not that good looking.
Hal: Oh! I thought she was implying something really mean.

(part inspiration from Irene’s post “Now redefine beauty“, and watching “Shallow Hal” last night)

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