What Women Want

One of my regular readers asked a question which I thought was pretty reasonable:

What I really wanted to discuss was modern woman's love of men with big muscles. Aside from the physical attraction, i think woman is attracted to a muscled stud for protection. While this might seem logical, further inspection shows it to be ridiculous. Statistically, any woman has a much higher chance of being attacked by her muscled man than by a stranger. Therefore a woman would be better off with a scrawny dude who will have a much harder time beating her up. Does this make sense?

http://louisrosenthal.blogspot.com/

.

While I dont consider myself the resident "Carry Bradshaw" of us all, I can address this issue for Louis. Here is what I think:

.

1. I dont think the issue rests with "what women want". I dont think it is the case that women love men with big muscles. I cant answer for everyone, though. But if I think about the issue generally, and I look back at the times my friends and I have been checking out a guy, its not like we sit there and say "wow... look at his muscles."

.

2. I dont think it has anything to do with women needing protection (you guys already know I am Miss Independant-I-Can-Live-Without-A-Man - see some previous entries about my views on why women should not need men to complete them!). I dont need "protected" by a muscle man.

.

3. I think that one of Louis' readers was right when she said "good health is something that is very important, instinctually - children from an unhealthy father wouldn't likely be very healthy themselves." This is correct to some degree. Particularly for me, because I love fitness, and I know the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. But remember, you can be healthy and not have big muscles. In fact, I question whether men with overly large muscles are really that healthy (ie. too much protein, too many steriods?).

.

4. I think that its the men who put too much pressure on themselves to be muscular. As we have discussed before, the "Alpha Male" is distinguished by strength through competition. Men are continually trying to place themselves higher in the pecking order because they believe it will affect their ability to find a female partner. Men think women like muscles. Men like to think women like muscles. Men like to think that women like them because of their muscles.

.

Lastly, there was a good article about the "Female Criteria" on the following website. It says:

.

"The human female, on the other hand, runs into a real problem: the human mind. Remember that females must apply more criteria to select a male than males apply to a female. It is not the nearest possibility, but the best possibility that she desir es. (Ehrlichman & Eichenstein, 1992) A woman's mind allows her, and indeed forces her to examine possible criteria to a much greater extent than any other animal. She can also project the consequences of choices into the future. What constitutes an alpha male, the best male with which to mate and produce the best possible offspring, depends on far more factors than any other animal on earth. The criteria for her to desire sexually a man can include strength or health or fighting ability, like the lion or the wolf. However, they can also include intelligence, money, power, prestige, position, status, attitudes, political or religious convictions, any number and combination of factors. It's whatever she believes a man should be that will result in 1) the best possible genes for her offspring, and 2) the offspring's best chance for survival and ability to pass on its genes. It is the human mind that allows her to consider the possibilities, the criteria, the future outcome of her actions. She does not go into heat and mate with the closest best bet. She makes plans, examines her choices, makes conscious decisions. Only the human female can make conscious, planned decisions about her sex life.

.
Women's ability to think consciously about their sexual lives does not mean she doesn't have instinctive desires as strong as a man's. What it does mean is she will often subordinate that desire: she may desire a physically attractive man, but she will not actually have sex with him until he has satisfied more than physical criteria." http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~taflinge/socsex.html

.

Thank should answer your question, Louis.

.