Do women have wider variance in the people they find attractive then men do?

I’ve been attracted to, or at least found attractive just about every size and shape.

This is not a subject that is male or female definitive. Each person has their own response, and it has nothing to do with gender.

@YARNLADY you are making a statement. I am asking a question, and hoping to come to understanding based on feedback. Do you tend to agree with your female friends or not?

No, women do not have wider variance in the people they find attractive than men do.

Probably. They are much smarter after all.

Depends on what you mean by attractive. Some men will ‘boink’ anything.

@dabbler That an assumption? Do your conventionally unattractive friends get laid alot?

Well, I definitely have a preferred type that is fairly narrow and borne by the women I’ve been most physically attracted to in dating, but the range of women I find attractive beyond that type is fairly wide. Compared to my wife and a few close female friends, based on general conversations, I’d say we’re all roughly equal when it comes to summed measure of the range of preferred and broader types even though the range we each have with regards to a particular aspect may differ broadly. At least I can say in this particular, small, sampling while my (male) range may be generally narrower, if it is, it is definitely not much narrower (than female ranges).

Also it seems that these kinds of things are so subjective and changeable over time and context that I’d question whether any meaningful study could be conducted.

@wonderingwhy It seems to me people keep avoiding the question. I am asking personal responses, and people keep telling me what their impressions are.

That is part of my curiosity. Do men, in general, find the same type of women attractive, and women find a wide variety attractive?

Why do people keep answering with what they assume?

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought Getting laid? The question is about ‘find attractive’. “Will” =would if he could. That is only loosely related to success rate.

@dabbler you stated men will boink anything, Which makes me wonder if all women who want to have sex are having sex at the rate they wish to, and men are in a drought. I mean if that is true, that is a valuable data point, women and men will have sex with anything, but you posit it as if men will boink anything and women are the bottleneck.

Careful, you aren’t allowed to ask questions on Fluther that suggest that there may be patterns in human behavior. Didn’t you get that memo?

This is simply speculation on my part, but I suspect that it may be possible… based on this: some studies suggest that women may shift the type of men that interest them based on hormonal fluctuations. During ovulation, women tend to be more attracted to more masculine men, but may be more likely to be attracted to men with less masculine features at other times of the month. I think the theory is called dual-pairing or dual-mating…. I’ll Google and update this when I find it. The idea is that from an evolutionary standpoint, there were benefits to mating with man that exhibits high levels of testosterone, but that men who do not have such masculine traits were more likely to stay and help to raise the offspring, and less likely to be pursued by other women.
That could account for some of the “variety,” but studies also indicate that women are probably at least slightly less concerned with physical appearances than men are. Most men, after puberty, can produce sperm. Not all women are capable of carrying a healthy baby, however, and biologically men are more likely to be drawn to women who look “healthy.” It may be affected by societal standards, but there are biological explanations on both sides, which I think supports the suggestion that you’re asserting.
Yes, we all have our preferences. Yes, women can be just as superficial as men, who can be less superficial than women, and yadda yadda blah blah.

As a woman – I’m attracted to a very wide variety of men. I have an “ideal” physical type, but I can go way off the charts in several directions.

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought “you stated men will boink anything,” I did not.
That indicates a generalization applicable to all men. Ridiculous !
Don’t challenge me for something I didn’t state.

The word “Some” is in this sentence : Some men will ‘boink’ anything.

Additionally there isn’t anything at all about this point in what I wrote:
“as if… women are the bottleneck.”

@DigitalBlue I think people get way to worried about what you are allowed to ask on fluther. I rarely get a ton of crap. Thank you for answering sincerely

Sorry @dabbler.Let’s get back to the question then. Are you male of female? Do you agree with your friends or not about who is attractive?

It could depend on the innie, to outie ratio of a given area.

Wait a minute. You originally asked one question, which I answered for myself alone. Now you’re asking if I agree with my female friends about who is attractive, which is something altogether different. What does that have to do with the original question, and how would it relate. If I have a different opinion than a friend about a particular man’s attractiveness, would it validate or invalidate your theory?
Neither, right? So…
I have my standards about who is or is not attractive. Agreement or disagreement with the opinions of someone else does not enter into it.
And my statements of attractiveness, IMO, has no bearing on whether or not I’m a man or woman.
I’m trying but I can not understand how you feel that gender has any bearing, or that you would find consistent affirmations or negations based on that one factor.

@Trillian seriously, it says:

More importantly, do you find your picks are consistent with your friends by gender?

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought I’m going to have to say that I honestly don’t know. It’s not a subject up at the top of my list of important things to discuss. All I can honestly say is sometimes yes, sometimes no.

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought aok.

I’m male. My opinions on who’s attractive are pretty typical hetero male, I agree with a lot of what my men friends mention about whom and what about them they find attractive. There does seem to be a wide range of types and features we’d all notice but we can differ widely about our place on the range from mere noticing to being utterly distracted by a particular sighting or description.

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought Sorry, I may have misunderstood, misread, or just missed your final question. Is what I find physically attractive consistent with other guys I know? Very generally yes, as @dabbler said we tend to agree on whom and why. But when it comes to preferred type, and therefore the degree to which we agree, not so much; there’s a lot more “sure she’s ok but she’s not that hot”.

I’ve noticed that my hubby’s celebrity crushes often look like me…

I’m generally attracted to a personality rather than a look.

I’ve been attracted to a wide variety of men, all different ethnicitis, skin colors, heights, weights, hair color (or lack of hair, even), etc. I don’t really have a type, but there are certain male celebrities who are considered almost universally attractive who are most definitely not my type. My “not attractive to me” category is far smaller than my “attractive to me” category, in other words. I’m often in disagreement with my friends about who is or isn’t attractive.

My friends and I don’t really have the same tastes in men or women, except that exactly all of us regardless of sexual orientation would fuck John Barrowman and Natalie Portman.

If I think back over all the men I have dated, they all look totally different. I think this is because many other things than looks come into play in terms of who I find attractive. If I think about celebrities I find attractive, I seem to like quite a few tall, skinny, fair guys (which pretty much sums up my husband’s looks too). So based on looks alone, perhaps I do have a ‘type’ that particularly appeals. However, I don’t think women are purely attracted to men based on looks. There are many other factors that come into play including our own hormones as @DigitalBlue has suggested plus scent, personality and early conditioning and coding.

My girlfriends seem to have quite different taste to me. I know there have been times when they (or I) have said “oh look at him” and I (or they) have not seen the appeal. I think who we are attracted to is determined by many factors, including as I said earlier, coding and conditioning as we mature sexually. I can’t believe that men are really so much more simplistic than women.

I find I am attracted to guys of a centered disposition coupled with certain body characteristics. They tend to be shoulder wide, hip narrow, dark hair and dark eyes. I find deep brown eyes very attractive and clear blue eyes too piercing. I’ve liked some blonds, but gravitate to brunettes. Too frequently the blond, blue-eyed hunk has an arrogance that I can’t stand. The brown hair, brown-eyed types seem more quietly self-confident. I’m particularly attracted to eyes that twinkle in amusement, gentle crinkles at the mouth, not quite a smile when something is humorous. I don’t like guys that give off a cock-of-the-walk vibe.

So, mostly no I don’t have a wide variance. I don’t seem to ‘see’ the ones I don’t find attractive.

I like dark haired/eyed, athletic build, firm titted honeyz…which is nice.

I think one woman can be attracted to many different types of guys, where as a lot of men I know have one “type” that they keep dating over and over again. It can get to the point that all women they date almost seem to be the same person.

I also think that overall women have less cohesion to what they find attractive ideally. One woman can find the tall dark, kind of skinny type attractive and a few of her friends might too, but there is going to be a woman who really dislikes skinny guys as well. Whereas the men that I know all seem to be going after the same general type of woman. For instance, at my college I’m involved in Greek life and all of the fraternity men go after the same group of about fifty “attractive” sorority women, whereas the female interest is pretty evenly distributed.

However, while there isn’t consensus about the most attractive men, there is consensus as to the least attractive. Almost all of my friends cringe at the same guys. Almost all of my female friends understand when I say I’m just not attracted to Ben or Justin. We agree on what is ugly. But I cannot understand at all why my best friend insists on throwing herself at Nathan, and she is bemused by my interest in Patrick. (Names changed.)

I am an ( older) woman I see most of the answers are comming from the younger,As you age you appreicate brain more than beauty.I consider myself fairly attractive, but always wanted to hear what a person had to say, I have known some very good looking men that were dummer than a door knob, and I have seen men married to a woman wondering what he saw in her. So there is no clear answer here, beauty is in the eye of the beholder….. The heart and brain would attract me…... women accepts more readly than men…... I think…..

Going strictly on looks and before personality comes into play; I am attracted to lean men. I am almost never initially physically attracted to overweight men. I also like longer hair on men, I’m not really into the current shaved head look.
When other factors are considered, my views can change.

My parameters are good hygiene, takes care of herself, sense of humor, and a pulse is always a plus.

I think perhaps what you meant was are sexual triggers different in males and females?
Because attractiveness if a broad term, and I find the question a little confusing. I hope my answer helps!

I also don’t know which basis or what research was done to ascertain that men find a smaller sample of women attractive, but yes there are very conclusive studies that for example, men find the baby face or the angular face very attractive. Triggers are often commonly long hair and a rounded bottom for example. So I think and I certainly cannot speak for all females, a tall man as opposed to a shorter man would be more attractive to me, as well as a man who looks strong. Yes I am a cave girl and like to be protected. However, the person I love currently is none of the things I find attractive above. So there goes my own theory. I rarely if ever find the guys my friends find attractive very attractive at all. Which is a good thing else we would all start fighting over him?

I’m a guy and I find all sorts of people attractive, but in practical terms I’d say I’m about 90% gay. I find myself attracted to a far wider range of guys, superficial appearance-wise, than of women, for whom only a few ‘types’ really do it for me.

I tend to like a specific body type, but everything else varies.

I, as a guy, disagree with this. There are many things that bring out a sex appeal in a woman to me other than looks. Whether I’m in the majority or not I don’t know, but I can only speak for myself here.