Male vs Female beauty? Can male beauty be just as impressive?

And have you seen men that were so attractive that they were better looking than most women? Or is it an apples to oranges situation?

I can't speak to that directly myself, but I don't see why not—it's just that different people have different perceptions of beauty.

Where one person sees a boring guy, another might see someone unbearably lovely; just as where one person sees a deeply beautiful woman, another might see just another boring girl.

[edit] As to "apples to oranges", in most cases it perhaps would be—but there are plenty of feminine-looking men and masculine-looking women, so there may well be cases in which the comparison is "apples to apples".

In short, beauty isn't a simple single-value thing, with each person having a beauty-level that's valid for all viewers.

Rather, beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder, and so a given person's "beauty value" depends on who is "measuring" that "value".

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Feb 9th 2023 at 9:27:14 PM

Devil's advocate - do you think anyone would see Quasimodo as beautiful. Quasimodo is god awful butt ugly. Its his naivete and purity that make him a beautiful person/character.

I think there's physical beauty and inner beauty, and that's where the distinction is. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder is too sappy and cliche for me because I have seen genuinely ugly people.

Male physical beauty? There are works like Jojo's Bizarre A Dventure with a lot of Roman statuesque depictions of male beauty. I think that's pretty rare outside of Eastern fiction and Western myth.

In real life there are men who are "11/10" and you'll find more of them by talking to women on dating apps, visiting jazz and night clubs, or just looking at any random GQ or bodybuilder magazine. Or look at Idris Elba or Channing Tatum.

Its just the metrics of male beauty are different from female beauty. Smooth skin, great hair, and muscle tone is important to both depending on who you ask - taller men are more "impressive" than taller women, muscular guys are more "impressive" than muscular girls, well-dressed women are more "impressive" than a well-dressed guy, and a woman who strikes seductive poses is usually more "impressive" than a guy who does.

At least in a superficial, conventional, heterosexual American examination of beauty. Male beauty can be just as impressive just in a different way and depending on what culture/society you're looking at. Also male "beauty" is probably less rewarded/sought after than male "attitude."

Are we talking about above the neck or below it? Or both?

I can see facial beauty being across the board, as some people can have androgynous faces, but I think beauty of the male and female body really is apples and oranges.

I think that it would be rare, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were someone who found him so.

Now, okay, there might be a few traits that are very broadly found unattractive—but those are, I think, outliers.

For the most part, beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

For a concrete example, look at how perception of weight has changed: once, I believe, being overweight was broadly found beautiful and attractive; these days being slim is broadly found beautiful and attractive.

Conversely, I've seen people who others apparently found very attractive, but who I was just not all that interested in.

Again, I believe that I've seen variation in much of this. There are, I believe, people who like muscular girls, and people who like skinny guys; people who like sharply-dressed women and I daresay people who like flashily-dressed guys; and so on.

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Feb 10th 2023 at 10:05:18 PM

I'd say that you can't really say that a very good looking man is the same kind of good looking as a woman.

There are different things that are valued in typically attractive men as opposed to a typically attractive woman.

Let alone cultural differences playing a role in what's considered attractive.

Me personally I'd consider a Classic Physique or Men's Physique style of body a very attractive kind of male body.