I subscribe to a scientific journal called Behavioral Ecology. The latest issue had a very interesting paper discussing the results of an experiment testing the preferences of women for male body hair.
Women were shown pictures of naked torsos of men with and without body hair and asked which image they were sexually attracted to. Evidently, women prefer hairless men more strongly during the time of their menstrual cycle when they were most fertile.
But what I loved most about the study was the bit in the methods which talked about the male participants who provided the photographs. Each male participant "received a bottle of Koskenkorva vodka...to compensate for the loss of their trunk hair and time".
Hmmm...I wonder what most gay men prefer.
9 comments:
if I was a gay man who shaved for the research I would have preferred Bolly over Stoli, and a case of it not just a bottle.
BUT how does the theory work for a woman attracted to a man who is completely dressed - when only his hairstyle would come into her subconscious evaluation.
Sean Connery is fairly furry but in his James Bond tux it isn't apparent.
The seriously hirsute Russell Brand has just appeared all clean shaven and spruced up for his role as a rich guy in a movie, and he now looks like a smarmy nerd (which is the point) but my total crush on his badboy image, seems to have survived the Samsonising.
Go figure (must be cos I'm so OLD).
Shaved trunk men are not the same as naturally hairfree trunk men. I already see a problem with the survey. On the face of it, wouldn't a hair free trunk be an evolutionary advance on a very hairy guy, and so that would be why women choose them when they are at their most fertile?
Oh dear, how many hairy men I have I just offended. I truly don't mind hairy guys, but they are not my first preference and the days when I could choose have long passed.
Oh yes. Koskenkorva. What is that? Shows how out of touch I am.
Ann: Good point. There are two opposing possibilities I think. The first is that it is quite an ancient preference that predate the appearance of shirts. We are after all, the least hairy of all the great apes. The second possibility is that women are bowing to current 'trends' of attractiveness.
Andrew: I agree that there are some methodological problems. I reckon to be a balanced scientific experiment, they need men who are naturally hairless as well and then add hair. The problem with the current sample is that all the guys used were hairy to begin with and maybe hairiness is correlated with some other traits that women find attractive/unattractive.
I have no idea what Koskenkorva is. I assume it must be the brand of vodka.
that Ann O'Dyne never pays proper attention - " of naked torsos of men"
just torsos you twit.
I'd date matt Lucas in a heartbeat, but don't know that i could pick his torso from a lineup of hairless ones.
Full Moons and hormone cycles drive all women crazy and it's amazing this has never been used as defence for murder (and the rest).
I prefer less hair rather than no hair; but then I'm not a woman.
I like both hairless and hairy, so long as it's natural. I'm not a fan of the shaved look.
This study only proves that women really are crazy. I've never once considered dating a man based on his chest, hairy or not. For me it's all about the size of their bank balance closely followed by the size of their cock.
Can we conduct study on those items and how they relate to attraction? I'm happy to volunteer my time to the research.
Thanks for all the feedback on what has turned into an unofficial poll. I've actually been discussing a research collaboration to probe female preference for male body shape and we were thinking of including a genital size component. I'll keep everybody posted.
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