Repair of the “Black” Family?

[Enthetan]

Back when HBO was new and thereabouts I happened to watch a fashion show where the runway models were Auschwitz skeletons where their knees were thicker than their thighs and the gap behind their clavicle would hold water.

They were ghouls with makeup. Hideous.

There wasn't a man in the audience. The entire show was women. The designers, all of it. Women.

However unrealistic the male ideal this was worse.

The ideal fashion model is somebody who can display clothes without distracting attention from the clothes. I don't know any men who think the average fashion model is attractive as a woman.

 

[Voodoo]

...the men of the world have let Hugh Hefner's "ideal woman" fantacy as to what the ideal woman looks like influence our tastes and expectations. It used to be that men were attracted to strong robust women who could bear them children, tote them around all day and still put a nice meal on the table and provide pleasant company. Then came the Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler etc. versions that are few and far between in real life. Then I'd always say "what looks best is seldom what feels best" and I've found that to be very true as well.

As an American man who was born the same year that Playboy magazine was founded, let me just say that the women displayed in that mag were not at variance to my personal ideals of what a potential mate should and should not be.

Sure, those models represented a physical ideal, but so were my ideas about future careers, homes, finances, children, etc. They were all benchmarks to aim for - not guaranteed achievements. In the end, I wound up doing alright in every department (including the girl) because I just wanted the best that I could possibly attain for myself.

 

[Voodoo]

...I happened to watch a fashion show where the runway models were Auschwitz skeletons where their knees were thicker than their thighs and the gap behind their clavicle would hold water.

They were ghouls with makeup. Hideous.

There wasn't a man in the audience. The entire show was women. The designers, all of it. Women.

However unrealistic the male ideal this was worse.

I totally agree. Time was, an average man could watch a fashion show and like what he saw. No more. You've gotta be some kind of pervert to find those stick insects attractive.

 

[DagwoodGum]

As an American man who was born the same year that Playboy magazine was founded, let me just say that the women displayed in that mag were not at variance to my personal ideals of what a potential mate should and should not be.

Sure, those models represented a physical ideal, but so were my ideas about future careers, homes, finances, children, etc. They were all benchmarks to aim for - not guaranteed achievements. In the end, I wound up doing alright in every department (including the girl) because I just wanted the best that I could possibly attain for myself.

I went into full agreement with Hefner's version of the perfect "Stepford" woman as I had no other basis to go by coming into my teens in the early 70's. Though I didn't run around nearly as much as my friends did being that I was more the serial monogamist type who was looking for his soulmate, I did sleep with some that had to starve themselves to look the way they did and it didn't feel that great to be sexual with some of them. No cushion for the pushin, it was too much like wrestling a skeleton.

 

[Voodoo]

I went into full agreement with Hefner's version of the perfect "Stepford" woman as I had no other basis to go by coming into my teens in the early 70's. Though I didn't run around nearly as much as my friends did being that I was more the serial monogamist type who was looking for his soulmate, I did sleep with some that had to starve themselves to look the way they did and it didn't feel that great to be sexual with some of them. No cushion for the pushin, it was too much like wrestling a skeleton.

Well, Hef never influenced my taste in women. I just happened to like the models in his mags, as did most other healthy males. Most of us already know what we like.

 

[Enthetan]

Sure, those models represented a physical ideal, but so were my ideas about future careers, homes, finances, children, etc. They were all benchmarks to aim for - not guaranteed achievements. In the end, I wound up doing alright in every department (including the girl) because I just wanted the best that I could possibly attain for myself.

One difference between men and women which I've noticed: men might have unrealistic "ideal scenes", but they would rather go out with an average women than stay home. A lot of women would rather stay home, than go out with a man who does not "meet their standards".

I remember a woman who worked as receptionist at a company I worked for. Thoroughly gorgeous. She said she would not settle for anyone who was not a tall, handsome, millionaire. Ten years later, I met her again. 40-something, never married, and working as a waitress.

Meanwhile, I married a woman who, while she would not appear in Playboy, she makes an effort at keeping me happy.

 

[Enthetan]

Well, Hef never influenced my taste in women. I just happened to like the models in his mags, as did most other healthy males. Most of us already know what we like.

Guys are genetically wired to be most attracted to healthy, physically-fit women in their prime child-bearing years.

For fertility, there is an optimum range for body-fat percentage. Being too skinny or too obese can adversely impact fertility.

 

[Karakorum]

Guys are genetically wired to be most attracted to healthy, physically-fit women in their prime child-bearing years.

Yep, that's the common-sense truth right there.

The are presonal and cultural peferences for eye color, hair, skin tone. But if there's something that is common across all cultures and 95% of heterosexual men, its the stuff you mentioned.