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Ladies, which of the two men photographed above is more attractive to you? If you picked the one on the right, then like most women, you like yellow.
It turns out that the secret to attracting women doesn’t lie in how masculine a man looks, rather, it depends on how yellow or red he is:
Women in a recent experiment preferred men with yellower and redder skin tones, both of which can signal good health, a crucial factor in choosing a mate, scientists say.
For instance, people of any race who eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables tend to have yellower hues, and people who are physically fit have more oxygenated—and thus, redder—blood and skin.
By contrast, pallid skin with lesions is generally considered unattractive, perhaps because such traits betray a weak immune system, said study co-author Ian Penton-Voak, an experimental psychologist at the University of Bristol in the U.K.
Unexpectedly, the women in the study showed no preference for men with traditionally masculine features, such as a prominent jaw and high muscle mass, the researchers say.
"What we found is—to our surprise—when you measure masculinity, it doesn’t bear any relation to attractiveness at all," Penton-Voak said.
What causes the scarcity of women in the field of computer science? While some pointed out that girls aren’t attracted to math and science in high school, a new study by Sapna Cheryan of University of Washington revealed another factor: they’re repulsed by geeks!
"When people think of computer science, the image that immediately pops into many of their minds is of the computer geek surrounded by such things as computer games, science-fiction memorabilia and junk food," said lead researcher Sapna Cheryan, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Washington. "That stereotype doesn’t appeal to many women who don’t like the portrait of masculinity that it evokes." [...]
In the first experiment, about 40 male and female students entered a small classroom that either contained objects stereotypically associated with computer science, such as Star Trek posters, video game boxes and Coke cans, or non-stereotypical items such as nature posters, art, a dictionary and coffee mugs. (The students were told to ignore these objects because the room was being shared with another class.)
Then, the students filled out questionnaires about their attitudes toward computer science.
In the geeky environment, women were significantly less interested than men in computer science, while there was no gender difference for the non-stereotypical classroom. Female students in the stereotypical environment said they felt less similar to computer-science majors than did those in the classroom that wasn’t geeked out.
Brett & Kate McKay of our pal The Art of Manliness blog have just put together a mega post of 100 movies every man should see (100! Makes our Top 10 posts look downright puny).
For better and for worse, these 100 movies have had a huge impact on our ideas of masculinity, be it the archetypal manliness or the perception of what constitutes "a man’s man" change over time:
To view how male characters of cinema have been portrayed over the decades, is to see clearly the ways in which our perception of masculinity has changed and continues to change. Thus it seemed only proper that The Art of Manliness take a stab at creating a list of essential movies every man should see.
We didn’t want to make a list of movies that consisted solely of violence and gratuitous T and A that make up most guy movie lists. Nor did we want to create a list of just independent avant-garde movies that while culturally or cinematically significant, aren’t very entertaining. We wanted to create a well rounded list of films that have something to say about manliness. Some of the movies speak poignantly about what it means to be a man. Others give examples of true manliness in action. Some are lessons in how not to be a man. And others are simply entertaining movies that are just plain manly. But the common thread that runs through all of them is that they’re great movies that have stood the test of time.
I’m glad to see picks like The Iron Giant, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and The Seven Samurai made the list. What’s your favorites?
Link – Thanks Mu!
