I have earlier discussed – in both Swedish and English – topics such as beauty ideals and what women are attracted to (and in my new book I do briefly discuss what men are attracted to, such as the female hip/waist ratio, which I have also written blog posts about earlier).
As Cindy Measton and David Buss have showed in their work Why Women Have Sex (2009), women tend to be attracted by tall and/or athletic males. Moreover, personality traits such as moderate to high narcissism and psychopathy tend to be beneficial for at least short-term dating and mating.
If one only focuses on the physical aspects, however, a new and interesting survey gives us relevant information regarding the most attractive body parts from the perspectives of both the sexes.
Dr. Felix – a British online doctor and pharmacy – has carried through a survey on the most attractive body parts and concluded that American men care the most about the face (46%) and least about the eyes (2%), and with only small variations regardless of level of income. Women, on the other hand, care the most about chest (24%) and hair (22%), and least about legs (1%), face (2%), and eyes (3%).
Some of the findings appear a bit conspicuous, such as that people of both sexes care very little about the eyes. However, the face is not unlikely regarded as a larger body part of which the eyes may be viewed as one aspect. Still the eyes are subordinated to the overall face appearance, it seems.
As for males, they care most about the face (and more about ass than boobs) as a single body part. But most people do in fact judge other individuals in a holistic way, that is – both the face, frame, hair, height, weight and the body in its entirety. I think that obesity is the largest beauty obstacle for both sexes, especially since someone with a prettier face can become much better looking after losing weight. Make-up can help, but only up to a certain point.
As for males specifically, fixing the hair and lifting weights to the point where the chest, arms are somewhat big and the body fat percentage hit the point where one can see a little bit of the abs, is optimal.