Do you think "unattractive" people really are attracted to their "unattractive" partner?

I’m also not including attractive + unattractive couples like Beyonce and Jay-z…becuse obviously he has swagger, style, and status. I mean unattractive + unattractive.

Short answer: Yes

Slightly longer answer: ‘Attractive’ and ‘unattractive’ are entirely relative (‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, etc). Things your find unattractive may drive someone else wild. The idea of universal beauty is, simply, a myth.

Like @BhacSsylan said, the premise of your question is inherently flawed.

I find the majority of men and women who are on the covers of popular magazines, for instance, to be generally repulsive…

Yes. I once read that we are physically attracted to people with similar features to us so what is unattractive to one person will be similar to another and attractive in their eyes.

I don’t know if this was ever proven, a brief google search didn’t lead me to much but I can think of a number of times when I have seen a couple and thought they could easily be siblings.

Oops, noticed someone already said the whole beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
So yes.
Tell a little kid who adores his mama or daddy that their parent is ugly. They will look at you like you are evilness itself. To them mana and papa are awesome looking. We all love, who we love.
For me, arrogance and being a snot can sometimes make a person appear ugly as heck, until someone points out that the person is really good looking. Their behavior can actually make me see their flaws accentuated. A soft cleft chin can now seem like a small ass on their face, Dimples can seem more like craters left behind from pimple scars. Full eyebrows can seem like out of control bushes. Shiny straight hair can look flat and make it seem to me they are balding. Our feelings persuade what we see.
The opposite holds true for the people we love. A double chin looks jolly; dimples get associated with a beautiful smile: a long chin looks like a firm chin; thick eyebrows looks manly and decisive; brown mousy eyes look warm; scars or a lumpy nose add character. You get the point.

attraction is not soley physical.

@BhacSsylan But a 400-pounder with his belly hanging out of his shirt, greasy hair and fat fingers is objectively unattractive.

Sometimes you just have to take what you can get. I’m sure some unattractive people have unattractive partners because they simply couldn’t get anyone else.

@thesparrow tell that to the feederists.

Declaring anything objectively attractive or unattractive is an exercise in narcissism.

I think you guys know what I mean by generally unattractive means and I even listed it. So I guess GENERALLY bad hygiene, obesity, not taking care of yourself is attractive? lol

I’m no idiot, I know we have different tastes in looks but come on now. Someone that looks disgusting, smelly, and 400 pounds with fried hair, acne all over, would be hard for you to find someone that think that’s hot.

See my link above. Just because you don’t like it, or just because our current society declares it ugly or unsightly, does not make it so for everyone. While I agree in a general sense with @downtide, in that there exist people who give up and settle, lots of times this is not the case, and thinking that a certain feature is objectively unattractive just shows a lack of imagination and understanding.

And I think most of the settling comes from, once again, the pervasive messages from society that tell those people that they shouldn’t try to find happiness, because they don’t deserve it. Make of that what you will.

Like I SAID…GENERALLY…..
AND I did say I already know people have different tastes.

You said that in an edit, so I missed it when crafting my first response. However, you admit to different tastes yet still seem to assume that some traits just won’t be found attractive. Might it be hard? Sure. But this doesn’t make it impossible (and the internet has made it much easier to find likeminded people now). And what you asked was if people who are already partnered find each other attractive. This is a different question then “is it hard for those people to find a partner”. I have found that, for the most part, people who are in a relationship, especially a long-term one, tend to like the other person. You know, in general.

Oh in general. Now you’re trying to mock me lol. Whatever. In my opinion and from experience, seems like people just get with someone just because another person might be out of their league.

I get what you mean but some how I find it hard for a couple like this (take your pic)
https://www.google.com/search?um=1&hl=en&q=ugliest+couples&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1280&bih=714&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=RDsUUPjgDMm4rQHthIGIAw#um=1&hl=en&tbm=isch&q=ugliest+wedding+couple&revid=484907067&sa=X&ei=ajsUUOmDKcalrQHQ-oGgDg&ved=0CFUQgxY&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=e95ec2b6b0224dc9&biw=1280&bih=714

to not know that their significant other isn’t exactly attractive and can’t get any better. I’m just saying that I doubt that if they were looking like a Brad Pitt or Natalie Portmant would they have dated someone that looked like that is my main point…

@What do you mean by “out of one’s league”?

“Big people who take care of how they look like Monique or Queen Latifah” is a truly patronizing remark.

AND I’m not saying that they can’t be attracted to their personality and who they are BUT I mean looks only. Sure there are people who you can grow to find good-looking once you get to know them but this is on a different scale.

With the Queen Latifah Remark and Monique. They are not thin, they aren’t average, they’re overweight but they still look good, take care of appearance, not socially awkward. It’s more so about the way you present yourself.

What I mean by “out of league” is when you find someone attractive but you don’t think you’d ever have a shot with them because you doub’t they’d be even attracted to someone’s looks like you.

Guys don’t get mad. It’s a honest and curious question. Not trying to insult people here.

Take my sister’s ex boyfriend for example. He married a woman who is fat. Yet he is always liking and commenting thin girls with big boobs, tan, and fit on Facebook. That is his ideal beauty. Not his wife. I know he loves her but he obviously seems not attracted to her that much physically. Last I remember he did say something personal about their sex life but I won’t comment on that.

But he’s just one example of a guy I know that does that. He’s not ugly but honestly not very many people would find him attractive. Actually some people like him for his personality and are attracted becuase of that but not exactly how he looks.

@chelle21689; You are using shallow and superficial standards of what’s attractive and what is not…possibly by paying too much attention to media hype.

In two years you will never look as young as you do today.

Is it always a given that some weighing 400 lbs. will also have greasy hair and fat fingers?

There are people who see the beauty on the inside rather than the outside and are attracted by that, NOT by physical beauty. What people consider physically beautiful varies from person to person. I’ve known people to consider beautiful what I see as very unattractive. So yes, anyone can be physically attracted to anyone else.

Oh my gosh. I’m using shallow and superficial standards because you have to admit that socially it is what is perceived as beautiful. Just like tan is perceived as sexy here in America…but in Asia white is perceived as beautiful.

But forget this whole question. I don’t think you guys undersetand what I’m trying to say at all. I’m NOT saying you can’t be attracted to someone for their personality but I’m meaning by first glance. You know there are some guys I witness all the time with their wives but constantly praising a woman’s beauty that looks nothing at all like their wife because it’s their ideal beauty and preference. THere are some that may see them equally as beautiful although different but I still think there are people out there that secretly wish their partner would look better.

Yes, I’m mocking you a little. You are mocking a huge number of people that you don’t like the look of. Which one of us is being worse right now? If i click your link, I see a lot of random pictures. Some of them I do find attractive (Seriously. That’s what comes up under a search for ‘ugliest couples’?). Some I don’t. Why should they care what I think of them? Who am I to declare my tastes universal? Again, an exercise in narcissism.

And we get your question and are answering you. You just don’t like that we’re not going along with your mocking of things you don’t understand.

@BhacSsylan That’s a fetish, though. Not the norm.

@thesparrow your point being what, exactly? ‘The Norm’ describes almost no one exactly, and the question was not about ‘the norm’.

BhacSsylan, sorry to offend you but this is just a question that I asked out of curiosity. If you don’t like it then I don’t know what to tell you other than to have you continue pouting about this lol. You don’t understand what I mean at all. You’re not getting my point. How many times do I have to repeat myself? I think if I had phrased my question differently than you wouldn’t have been so upset with this. I’m mostly trying to point out the guys that I have explained above. The ones that constantly drool over hot models and celebrities that look NOTHING like their wives!

I wonder why I had struck such a nerve. Hmm. Everyone else here is telling their opinion without making it such a heated opinion as if you’re about to explode.

I should’ve asked a question like this “Do you think guys wish their wives look more like the girls they drool over” or something that sounded better. Because it’s more towards me wondering about how the husbands feel about their wives and their looks when they constantly like photos of VS models, porn models, import models, etc. when their wives look NOTHING like that. If they had wished their wife were to look more like them. If they even find their wife VERY attractive or just somewhat.

It is an offensive question, because you are putting your own ideals onto people that probably do not share them. Right here: “The ones that constantly drool over hot models and celebrities that look NOTHING like their wives!” Why do you think you know what’s going on inside their heads? Do you know all those people in the Google search you put up there?

You are making sweeping generalizations. You are stereotyping. You are assigning thoughts and motivations to people that you don’t and can’t know. It’s insulting. So, yes, it struck a nerve. And no, that’s not any better. Just a different type of insulting, because you’re still acting as if you know what they’re thinking despite not knowing anything about them, other then what you think about the attractiveness of their wives.

That is why I’m asking other people’s thoughts. Take a chill pill and relax. You’re taking this WAY too seriously lol. I said I was wondering what they thought. JEEZ!!!!

And we answered! Attractive and unattractive is not universal! The fact that you don’t find them attractive means very little. And yet you go on acting as if we have misunderstood the question. We have not.

Here I go repeating myself for the 100th time because you can’t understand what I really meant

“I should’ve asked a question like this “Do you think guys wish their wives look more like the girls they drool over” or something that sounded better. Because it’s more towards me wondering about how the husbands feel about their wives and their looks when they constantly like photos of VS models, porn models, import models, etc. when their wives look NOTHING like that. If they had wished their wife were to look more like them. If they even find their wife VERY attractive or just somewhat.”

I said WONDERING WONDERING WONDERING! I WONDERED…..

And here’s the answer for the 100th time:

1) You do not know what they ‘drool over’.

2) You do not know that they’re ‘constantly looking at picture of VS models’.

3) You do not know them.

When people get beyond the superficial they find the beauty. Only the most shallow of people refuse to look closer. As woo woo as it sounds, I believe that everyone has something beautiful in them if someone takes the time to find it.
In our society, we use physical attraction as a filter. (and it IS pretty shallow.) Those that miss the opportunity to be truly seen often find each other and it’s then that they rise above or beyond this first level.
I would hazard to guess that some of the most beautiful people this world has to offer would never get a second glance in the first or second or even third string on our superficial filtering system.

@chelle21689: I am not trying to make you feel stupid. You posted a question that most of the responders thought was flawed in a profound way. There was really unanimity.

Perhaps that might make you reconsider how you think about superficial appearances.

You were very cruel when you showed us wedding pictures of couples who looked (and probably were) very happy. Perhaps you should try not to perpetuate the myth.

Some people just might stop now and say, “Good point, everyone.”

Hell, I was just typing whatever I found on google and what came up. But really, if my bf liked nothing but big boobs and blonde girls and constantly checked them out I would wonder if he wished I looked like that since it seems it would be what he desires physically. Yeah yeah there’s more to relationship than looks but that doesn’t stop someone from feeling less desired.

^^^MIght this be a good time to examine your own insecurities? I’m so outta here now.

This isn’t ABOUT me. I was just using an example! Wow…my bf doesn’t go around doing this. Childish. Get mad at me for asking a question. It may be ignorant I guess but to me it’s like yelling at a kid for asking a question that sounds disrespectful when they didn’t know better. In this case, I didn’t know any better that this would cause a couple of people such anger.

You two could take a lesson from the others that have replied to my question on how to express opinion without a stick up your butt.

I think so. Is their partner always their physical ideal? Probably not, but that goes for many couples that are widely perceived as “beautiful,” as well.

As mentioned above, somewhere, attraction is more than just physical. The more that you grow to care for a person, the more likely you are to find them physically attractive, no matter how they look to the rest of society.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I can recognize good looking people and find them attractive, but that doesn’t make me attracted to them. Common traits in men that I’ve dated and/or have found attractive include being heavier set, having a hairy chest and/or back, wears glasses, and have thinning hair or a shaved head. Typically, those are exactly the traits that are used to describe a cliche unattractive man. I do think that taste is a huge factor in this, and although a lot of the responses have been combative, that is ultimately what it boils down to.
Is it possible that some people are with someone that they don’t necessarily find physically attractive? Sure. I don’t think that the attraction factor is exclusive to “ugly” people, though.

Thank you digital blue. Truly appreciate your insight to help me understand better. :) I think I agree with that. But I believe there’s also people out there that would be shallow enough to date a better looking person if given the chance honestly. Anything is possible.

Also, I don’t know if it is significant, but I am typically considered to be pretty. Of course, that is a matter of opinion and some people would beg to differ, but by the same standards you’re using to describe perceived appearances, I’m generally considered to be an attractive girl.

“It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances.”
—Oscar Wilde

I’m honestly quite disappointed with most of the answers here. They accuse @chelle21689 of being shallow and ignorant, but in fact reveal that the respondents’ knowledge in this area is shallow and ignorant. There are psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists who dedicate their entire careers to studying beauty and attraction, and they have found surprising degrees of conformity with regard to judgments made on these matters. Some of the conformity is found only within cultures, while some of it is found across cultures. There are even things considered to be universals. There are differences as well, of course, but not so many as to make this question ridiculous on its face.

It is true that a “generally agreed to standard of beauty” is not the same thing as an “objective standard of beauty.” It is also true that personal attraction may not line up perfectly or very well at all with the general standards and goes beyond the physical. That said, repeating platitudes such as “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” as if that relieved one of all intellectual responsibility to consider the matter any further is foolish and shameful—particularly as some of the people doing so will go on and on in other threads about the (apparently unified) standards of beauty imposed upon and internalized by people and how that affects their personal development.

Unfortunately, you can’t have it both ways. Perhaps it is true that @chelle21689‘s wording was not perfect, but it is the duty of honest participants in a conversation to find the most charitable reading of someone before criticizing. I suspect that everyone knows what she’s getting at, or could have figured it out with very little effort. Instead, the collective decided it would be a remarkable opportunity for a display of self-righteousness—and one that inadvertently exposed their own ignorance, shallowness, and (quite appropriately) ugliness.

Ugly attracts ugly, like two wildebeest happily humping in the hay.

@chelle21689 I think plenty of people would jump at the opportunity to date someone “better” looking, but I don’t necessarily think it matters what their current partner looks like. I think that some people are just attracted to “new,” as well. It all depends on the relationship, and just how much of it really does hinge on appearances. Obviously not everyone would jump at the chance to be with someone more attractive if they genuinely care for their partner.

There have been a lot of studies about beauty. A lot is known. One thing is that scientists have discovered that there are universal standards to beauty. One of those standards is symmetry. Also wide set eyes and large eyes. Full lips. There is an apparent ideal ratio between leg length and torso length. There’s more.

When you ask people to rate others on the standard scale of ten, there is an awful lot of agreement on the scoring.

I believe they have also found that people tend to mate with those who are closer to their own level of beauty. This is not to say that there aren’t exceptions, but on average, people mate with those closer to them on the beauty score.

So what happens to people who are on the low end of the beauty scale? They have to know where they are, but they also have to know who is available to them. To go outside your range is to challenge the relationship. Fewer people have what it takes to maintain a relationship with someone who is far from them on the beauty scale. It can be done, but there are more challenges.

TO get to this question—let’s suppose you are low on the beauty scale and you marry someone else low on the beauty scale. Will you find your spouse beautiful? My guess is that you will. Sometimes you see two people with Downs Syndrome who are together, and they look at each other with lots of love and adoration. Most of the rest of us might not be attracted to someone with Downs, but they seem to look at each other as if they had married a beautiful person.

My feeling is that it depends on how you feel about yourself and your partner. If you feel you are lacking, then you will feel your partner is lacking, because they are involved with you. So you will always be looking for someone more beautiful, because you wish you were more beautiful.

If you know you score low on beauty, but you don’t care and are happy with yourself anyway, then I think you will find your low score partner to be perfectly beautiful. You will be ecstatic that they chose to be with you.

I have found that my sense of my partner’s beauty has more to do with how I feel about her than with how she looks. When I am in love with her, she is the most beautiful woman on the planet. When things are not going well, I am critical of her looks. I wish I were with someone who was more beautiful. It’s really all about me, and not about my partner.

I suspect that’s the way it is with most people. If you feel good about yourself, you will feel good about your partner. If not, then your partner suffers from your lack of self esteem.

There does exist a factor called the Golden Ratio and I think that is true. And GENERALLY speaking it seems people find others of not only similar neuroses but similar attractiveness also. I don’t know if that is shallow or just the way it is.

I think anyone can look into the mirror and if you are honest with yourself you know if you are again GENERALLY considered attractive. If you are, you are lucky because it is proven you will have advantages in life that come with a lot more difficulty to unattractive.

I don’t find this question objectionable or shallow, it is interesting and makes you think of life from a different perspective. GQ and don’t let the critics intimidate you. Some people feel a need to judge negatively any view other than their own.

@chelle21689 It is clear that without realizing it when you framed your question, you really stepped in it! That is why you have been struggling so hard to defend your question.

If you step back from the arguments, you might realize that you were operating under an assumption that most of us reject, not just in principle, but in practice.

There is no reason to believe that people who perceive themselves as “unattractive” are primarily attracted to “unattractive” partners. There is no meaningful definition of that term that is even close to universal. I advise that you admit your underlying assumption is erroneous and back away humbly from this question.

I’ve always wondered about this myself. Like some above have said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Also, sex appeal is different from physical attractiveness, and can be very subjective as well. I’m still sure that in some cases at least one partner wishes that they had a more attractive partner deep down, but realize that they can’t, so they make do with what they can get.

If I look at a couple who I find flat out ugly do I think they find some physical attractiveness between themselves? Sure, because when they look at each other they likely see something very different than I do. I imagine they recognize they’re not [insert quintessential attractive couple here] but I don’t think that really matters. Plus, love has a way of warping the mirror or, perhaps more pointedly, changing our way of looking at of what’s reflected.

Do I think guys wish their wives look like the girls they drool over? I’m sure plenty do, I know I do, but A) that doesn’t lessen what I find physically attractive about my wife as she is and B) not at the expense of who she is. And that second point is key, because who she is works its way into the physical beauty I perceive when I look at her. I guess I could give a more personal insight but that might start to get away from the answer you’re looking for (and would probably be long-winded) though it might’ve better defined the comparison, the entwined nature, and the differences I see in types and preferences. Oh well, hope this helped anyway.

Standards of beauty over several centuries

Plastic surgery can make most of us both more symmetrical and more photogenic. Does that count?

Another illustrated timeline of standards of beauty

As my grandmother was fond of saying, “There’s a lid for every pot”. So in a word, yes.

Facial beauty has been pretty static throughout history. People who the ancient Greeks thought were beautiful are still considered beautiful today. I don’t think that this question was wrong or crazy or cruel. It hurts to admit it, because most of us aren’t stunningly beautiful, but there is an unchanging standard of beauty.

It would be lovely if people could read into the sentiment that questions are asked and not go into attack mode so quickly.

But, while there is one objective facial beauty standard, attractiveness is a different beast entirely. Attractive people aren’t just pretty faces. They lure us in with their actions, the way they move, the way the speak. Attraction is much more complex than beauty. How many of us look back on our relationships and think the most beautiful person we dated was the best person we dated? I personally regret dating the most definitely beautiful man I’ve had. And the one I think about the most, just average.

On the other hand, I personally find people in perfect condition to be intimidating, and those who are more than 50(ish) pounds overweight to be unattractive. I couldn’t be with either extreme. I like interesting faces. I’d rather have someone with an objectively unattractive face that has something really exotic about it than someone attractive but plain. And I understand the question, because I can’t imagine how anyone finds things that I find distinctly unattractive attractive.

@gailcalled Unfortunately, those histories both seem to conflate beauty with fashion. While there is overlap between the two, there is also considerable divergence. Moreover, some of the pictures are clearly ill-chosen. Lindsay Lohan was certainly considered attractive for a period of time, for example, but that period ended when she started looking like the picture your second link presents.

I have always took what I could get..I had to take unatractive women that I thought no one else would have, however I was wrong. They were always other unatractive men besides me that by chance were just a little better looking then me and stole them away. I am to old to worry about it anymore. I guess God gives some better looks than others for a purpose. I just fail to see his point in that.

@SavoirFaire : I know. I was rushed and trying to make a point. (Twp activities that do not mix, I also know.)

In many non-Western cultures, having women who were very plump and also callipygous meant you had a well-nourished future womb for incubation, for example. Some guys love bones through noses and ears and stretched necks.

Long necks
LIp discs

Meryl Streep and Barbra Streisand don’t meet the symmetrical Western standards either, if you’re sticking to Hollywood hype for the top of the bell curve.

It was the pictures of the very happy wedding couples and the unfortunate labels of “ugliest couples” that stoked my furnace (you know all this).

Everyone believes their partner is attractive.

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but there are at least traits that typically make humans physically attractive to each other. Healthy hair and skin are pretty hard to dispute. It may not be intuitive for today’s pop culture, but some extra body fat on a woman tends to signify fertility and therefore is seen as attractive to most people. There are plenty of other examples, going right down to the hip:shoulder ratios for both genders. So, to answer the OP’s question as far as physical attractiveness is concerned, probably not.

Obviously, you can still be attracted to a partner for platonic reasons. A fat, ugly person with poor skin can still be a better parent than an attractive person with a normal body weight. Human beings’ physical attractiveness does decrease with age, but lifelong partners often still care for each other as they age.

In fact, that dichotomy explains some cheating: mate with a partner who offers better genetic material, based on physical cues, while staying with a partner who might be more caring.

I spent three hours selling tickets today at the local Historical Society’s Blueberry Festival. I was struck by the many middle-aged and elderly couples who showed up, arm-in-arm or hand-in-hand. Several were willing to push their partners in a wheel chair over bumpy, rutted and muddy pathways.

None of them caused traffic to stop, but neither did they scare the horses. And why on earth should they?

@gailcalled I find both Meryl Streep and Barbra Streisand stunningly beautiful and I find this woman (according to science’s theory of symmetry, potentially the most attractive woman in the world) pretty but plain. She wouldn’t turn my head.

She is certainly photogenic but a little vapid looking.

My mother was an astonishing beauty and married my father, an ordinary looking man. They loved each other for 42 years, until he died.

Here is my mother, a nice Jewish girl, pretending to be an Italian beauty, in 1933. Photo

Here are my parents. 11 years later.

@gailcalled Take away the glasses and the hair and your father looks similar to my boyfriend, your beautiful mother had great taste ;)

I was once hurt to find out that someone I considered a friend (still do to a certain extent) said to another friend “I don ‘t know what Leanne sees in her boyfriend, he’s ugly”. I admit that I wasn’t initially attracted (physically) to my boyfriend but after I became attracted to his wonderful personality it didn’t take long for me to become attracted to the way he looks. My “friend” is attracted to the more typical image of male beauty (the young Brad Pitt types) so it’s no wonder she doesn’t find my man with very little hair and big nose attractive but I most certainly do! I have a thing for big noses to be honest!

Blonde hair and blue eyes was considered beautiful in Ancient times, and it is still considered beautiful today.

@thesparrow; Ancient times (which was when?) where? In the Asian countries blond hair and blue eyes showed up only when the Westerners invaded.

In the Arabic speaking countries of the middle east, that coloring was also not the norm.

Blond hair and blue eyes are beautiful when attached to a beauty. They can also be off-putting.

Just because American culture has shoved the idea of standard American beauty down our throats (generally these types of women, and I’m using a generalization to make a point, look like This or This More Exotic Look) to the point of making most women feel a little or a very ashamed of their bodies and their looks (if they don’t fit this “ideal”), does not make it true that there is any universal standards of beauty. And even if there were, beauty in and of itself does not equal attraction or love.

And beauty and attractiveness really are different for each individual as well as being different for different cultures, and people of different historic time periods. And some people can and do fall in love with and feel attracted to people that don’t fit the standard American stereo-type even with the odd examples that you gave that you believe dictate what is considered bad or unreasonable (lack of hygiene, excessive weight, obsession with video games, lack of a job).

In some cultures modern and not so modern, deoderant is not used at all, dental care is not always readily available or as in demand as it is in the US, and some cultures embrace women that are not rail thin. And even in the most modern of cultures, video gamers tend to love other video gamers or cosplay folks or goths or Star Trek Geeks, whatever might be considered “nerdy”. With the economy being what it is right now, even lack of a job is not exactly the worst trait that a man or woman could possess, people love and are attracted to unemployed people, believe it or not.

Have a look at some of these folks that don’t fit the standard American stereotype for attractiveness and note that all of them are considered beautiful and loveable by someone else for all sorts of reasons, that may be known or unknown to us. I purposely chose photos of brides and grooms and couples, so it seems like these folks are attractive and loved by at least their SO’s. I’m not making any judgement calls at all, I’ve just selected photos of people that don’t fall into the category of so called “Standard American Beauty.”

Lady #1

Lady #2

Lady #3

Lady #4

Gentleman #1

Gentleman #2

Gentleman #3

Gentleman #4

Couple #1

Couple #2

Couple #3

Couple #4

Couple #5

Couple #6

Couple #7

Couple #7

Thanks for those pictures, @Kardamom. I’d say they make a clear case that the answer to this question is yes!

@Kardamom: I particularly love the couples.

How could you conceivably call any of the people in your photos ” dingy kid-like adult that lives in their (sic) parents’ basement doing nothing but playing video games all day, poor hygiene, no job, type guy hahaha” ?

wundayatta, great answer! :)

TL;DR so I don’t know if someone mentioned this or not.

There has been many studies that show people are attracted to others based on how they feel about themselves.

For instances, if someone is viewed by a large population as being a “9/10,” but personally feel they are a “6/10,” they will actually be more attracted to someone that they view as a “6/10.”

Interesting silence! Got the article?

Actually I don’t know any of the articles off the top of my head… I’ll find out if my gf knows some specific articles as she studies self-image.

I did stubble across a video that is somewhat related:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB1oMfs8nWY&feature=relmfu

^^ Stubble?

Oops, *stumble

Here’s an interesting aside, I have a friend from high school (long time) she was absolutely gorgeous and still is. She married a man who also was model good looking. They had 2 sons who were, forgive me, plain old ugly, nice kids, but not in the least bit physically attractive. They both married ordinary, plain looking women and each have 2 kids who are back to the grandparents kind of gorgeous. So in this case, they attracted their own kind and the good looking genes skipped a generation.

When western women complain about the discomfort associated with the beauty augmenting item that are heeled shoes i will refer them to the first image from the list above.

I am not gay and do not find men attractive per se, however I know what a good looking man is. I tend to judge myself by them .I know that girls/women have never made any effort out of their way to be close to me or get to know me. I sometimes feel envious of such men and not in a hatefull way. I simply shrug it off as… oh well ,we all can’t be ugly.

I’ve noticed that, generally, people tend to wind up with people who resemble themselves in some way.

@Kardamom I like gentleman 3. Very distinguished.

^^ He is cute, huh ; )