The Perfect Female Body Vs The Perfect Male Body

Long before Leonardo Da Vinci drew the "Vitruvian Man" - a drawing of what he considered to be the perfect proportions of the male body, mathematically set forth, men and women have long argued what the perfect appearance is.

Amongst either sex there is no consensus, but there are definitely trends and these trends can be compared visually after significant polling. For example we know that men prefer an hourglass frame that has a ratio of 3-2-3 (eg. 36-24-36) whereas women prefer women to have a skinnier, less meaty / less curvy frame.

When comparing men however, women again prefer the skinnier man - whereas men want the man to be more muscular (and likewise more curvy).

Back to the hourglass topic, when it comes SHAPE, men prefer women who have an hourglass shape. An A, V or O shape just doesn't cut it.

In contrast male shapes are considered to be more attractive if they are close to a V or wide V shape. Large hips on a man is too synonymous with fat and considered to be unattractive.

On the issue of fat men prefer women are neither skinny nor overweight - but rather has a decent amount of both fat and muscle on them. Too much or too little is considered unattractive. But the one in the middle is "just right".

Now you might think this is just the old school (and out dated) concept of ectomorph, endomorph and mesomorph - the concept that people are genetically one shape and have no power to change their shape. This outdated concept however ignores dramatic improvements in health standards made in the last 100 years and much newer understandings of fitness, nutrition and the roles they play in shaping our bodies. There are people who go through their lives and may have been skinny during high school, bulky up (matured) during university, and later put on some weight during their 40s and 50s. People are not genetically stuck in one shape. Bone structure and genetics does play a role, but people can still change their body fat and muscle levels to the extent that they will take on totally new shapes.

Thus a person who is too skinny could simply eat more, exercise more and become athletic / more curvy - and someone who eats too much, lacks exercise will become overweight.

The good news however is that for women curves and an hourglass shape is very beneficial for attracting a mate. For men the emphasis is on having toned muscles - without going overboard with them to the point they look ridiculous.

If the person is too curvy in the case of women or too muscular in the case of men then they start too look like a circus freak, an oddity that just looks "too much" - as shown by the two images below of a woman who is ridiculously curvy and a man with overdeveloped back muscles that looks just plain ridiculous. (It should be noted that both of these people are posing for the camera, showing a great degree of narcissism for their own bodies.)

Nobody likes a narcissist except themselves (and that love affair is freakishly annoying to everyone else). They might as well get a t-shirt of Vanity Smurf staring at himself so that everyone can be reminded of how boring narcissists are.

See also

The Perfect Female Body
The Perfect Male Body