Why would human males be attracted by the beauty of human females?

[skepticalbip]

skepticalbip

Women /are/ envious of other women they see as beautiful.

There, FIFY

...Good catch...

They dress and use cosmetics and accessories not merely to attract men, but also to spite other women.

I've found that some, if not many women, dress and use cosmetics to impress other women. I've had several female friends who wear sweats or jeans and a tee with no or little makeup when hanging out with the guys but when visiting another woman will dress up and put on the makeup.

 

[Bronzeage]

The most basic element of attractiveness is availability. What we consider to be an ideal beauty is fine when considering a woman with whom we have no chance of ever interacting with.

What is available immediately begins to become more attractive. Next after availability is that little voice in a man's head that says, "Hey, I think she likes me." That is very attractive woman.

 

[bigfield]

I don't think you've answered any of my two questions. Ugly people can be symmetrical. And I doubt very much that symmetry and body-shape alone would be enough to signal "good-health" and "fertility".

So, why an average look would reflect good-health and fertility?

Why is there so much hype about stereotypical beauty if most men are attracted in fact to the average girl?
EB

Because most men are average as well, so they have to settle for the average girl if they want to get laid, and vice versa.

That is not the meaning of "average" that they're talking about. Refer to the study Attractive Faces Are Only Average by Langlois & Roggman, or just read Rousseau's posts because he's explained it pretty damned clearly.

 

[Speakpigeon]

Why is there so much hype about stereotypical beauty if most men are attracted in fact to the average girl?
EB

Because 'average' isn't the correct term to describe stereotypical beauty. The most beautiful women aren't 'average' in reference to the population, they are rare women without any defects.

Consider it a spectrum from severely deformed, to completely symmetrical. Cleary symmetry is a better sign of physical fitness than deformity, no?

Despite the word "because" you used, you don't seem to be replying at all to what I said in my post.
EB

 

[Speakpigeon]

Next after availability is that little voice in a man's head that says, "Hey, I think she likes me." That is very attractive woman.

Yeah, I remember that, too.
EB

 

[steve_bank]

I like big feet.

 

[ronburgundy]

???

I read about a psychology experiment. The researchers got a lot of photos of women, and invited a lot of men to rate how pretty the women were. They threw out the pictures of women rated beautiful or ugly,

Aren't "women rated beautiful" precisely what's called "stereotypes". So men threw out the pictures of women with stereotypical beauty even though according to rousseau those pictures signal "fertility". And yet you agree with what rousseau says?!

and kept the dozens who were rated average-looking. Then they used a computer morphing algorithm to average those photos, constructing a picture of a woman all of whose features were the exact mathematical average of the features of all those average looking women, and then they had the men rate the resulting hypothetical woman. She was gorgeous.

Yeah, that is good to me. Attractiveness based on averaging. Seems right.

---------------------------

Reproduction first means reproducing oneself. So, men going average is the population reproducing itself, aiming so to speak for the fat middle of the distribution. Reproduction is also, secondarily, as sexual reproduction, the means to test variability and maintain a varied genetic range. And then you'll always have more adventurous people to test outside of the fat middle, for whatever apparent reasons.

Still, it remains one question. If men respond to looks on the basis of an averaged look, why would that reflect good-health and fertility?

And still another question: Why is there so much hype about stereotypical beauty if most men are attracted in fact to the average girl?
EB

"Average" is being used 2 completely different ways here. One is the rating of individual women as falling on the midpoint of the scale.
But one thing that makes those women viewed as "average" is that on some dimensions, they have extreme values that lower their overall beauty (e.g., a big nose or ears, or a high ratio of forehead mass to rest of the face). If you take every one of their different features and average them out, then you get rid of all extreme, odd, features. Having average size/color/shape features on every features results in above average overall beauty, but having some non-average features makes you only average in overall beauty.