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    DionneFarrisVEVO ✓officialTracy Moore
    8/30/15 3:00pm

    Attractiveness is not objective. People rate these women “attractive” because they adhere to a heteronormative ideal of femininity. It’s not the other way around, wherein innate attractiveness somehow causes innate heterosexuality, which is what people will assume when they speed-read these scientific studies. They ignore the social factor and they presume that causation is always biological. The causative factors for “attractiveness” are not biological. The causative factors for human sexual expression are predominantly biological. So attractiveness doesn’t cause heterosexuality, nor are they “on the same gene” or some bullshit.

    Attractiveness is entirely defined by our social perceptions; a society that values heterosexuality over homosexuality will perceive traits that we associate with heterosexuality as more attractive (i.e. weak femininity, strong masculinity, etc, etc). Scientifically speaking, “attractive people are more likely to be X”; let X equal anything we obsess over as a culture.

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      anniegawker2-electricboogalooDionneFarrisVEVO ✓official
      8/30/15 3:10pm

      Have you ever read Survival of the Prettiest?

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      XofDionneFarrisVEVO ✓official
      8/30/15 3:18pm
      GIF
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    KendradicalTracy Moore
    8/30/15 3:18pm

    If Chris Rock meant that “men are only as faithful as their options,” in regards to attractiveness (as this article seems to imply, I think?) then 90% of guys wouldn’t cheat down, as they most often do.

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      I made a pigeonratKendradical
      8/30/15 3:27pm

      I think he meant that if they have the option to cheat, they will

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      KendradicalI made a pigeonrat
      8/30/15 3:42pm

      Yeah, most likely. And he’s probably right as far as a lot of men go, unfortunately.

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    Socks Are My Favorite ClothesTracy Moore
    8/30/15 3:27pm

    Tl;dr - Women who present themselves in a heteronormative feminine way such as maintaining a certain weight or wearing their hair a certain way in order to be attractive to men and therefore “snag a man” are, in fact, trying to “snag a man”.

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      hgyghSocks Are My Favorite Clothes
      8/30/15 3:35pm

      LOL there are women that don’t present themselves in a heteronormative feminine way but are still attractive.

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      Socks Are My Favorite Clotheshgygh
      8/30/15 3:36pm

      I agree. I simply said that women who try to present themselves in a way that men find attractive in order to attract a man are trying to attract a man. That’s pretty much what I got from this entire thing. The rest of it was “maybe this but also maybe the opposite”. This is the only fact I gleaned. Maybe it’s just me.

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    Tony Stark, forever grey.Tracy Moore
    8/30/15 3:02pm

    Anecdotal, but as a bisexual woman who had no trouble attracting male attention, I STOPPED conforming to heterosexual beauty norms so much BECAUSE I realized women were an option for me, and men are the worst.

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      mindovermatteroffactTony Stark, forever grey.
      8/30/15 3:17pm

      same for me too. it made my life so much better because the men who still hit on me were better men and not shallow fuck boys.

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      LolaCat5Tony Stark, forever grey.
      8/30/15 3:29pm

      I am super curious what you felt able to let go of...I know I make some non-traditional grooming/preening choices out of comfort (e.g. can’t be bothered to shave with any regularity, natural hair), but I am interested in what choices you made as a reflection of your personal desirability/comfort levels.

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    eejmTracy Moore
    8/30/15 3:22pm

    The findings of this study seem to be kind of a cousin to the results of a study which determined that conventionally attractive and feminine women are most likely to identify as politically conservative and/or Republican. When one fits the ideals of a particular group, one is less likely to examine and find any faults with said group making identification easier.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-b...

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      Setzer777eejm
      8/30/15 4:01pm

      That seems odd though - while society is very heteronormative, it’s split roughly evenly between Republicans and Democrats. It’s not like Democrats (as a category) are an oppressed minority.

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      eejmSetzer777
      8/30/15 4:03pm

      That’s true, but I guess I’d chalk that up to the biological aspect of sexual orientation. There isn’t one for political affiliation.

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    Cherith CutestoryTracy Moore
    8/30/15 3:53pm

    Also, I feel like this could be a counter-picture to the one up top. All three gorgeous. None of them straight.

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      alwrgkjrlkjrhCherith Cutestory
      8/30/15 4:27pm

      Source that Taylor Schilling and Danielle Brooks aren’t straight? No snark, I just hadn’t heard that and a quick Google didn’t find it.

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      Cherith Cutestoryalwrgkjrlkjrh
      8/30/15 4:34pm

      On my phone so I don’t have it handy. Taylor Schilling is/was dating Carrie Brownstein.

      Danielle Brooks was dating Nneka Onuorah.

      Googling those names together will bring you lots of info. Less on Danielle Brooks and Nneka Onuorah because they didn’t start with all of the same lesbian drama that Taylor and Carrie did.

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    Cherith CutestoryTracy Moore
    8/30/15 3:39pm

    How in the world has science found an objective measure of attractiveness?

    Anyway, I do think queer women may not be as strictly heteronormative. Not even in an intentional way. Less likely to put on makeup or do your hair or whatever. But this still seems way too arbitrary.

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      ⭐️buckswhoreCherith Cutestory
      8/30/15 3:55pm

      Something to do with facial symmetry or whatever. Which is strange to me. I don't think I have EVER taken note of someone's symmetry. In fact, fuck symmetry. What kind of boring ass white bread shit is that?

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      Cherith Cutestory⭐️buckswhore
      8/30/15 4:02pm

      I remember a study that based on facial symmetry James Franco was the most attractive man alive. Which... no.

      Anyway, there have been studies where lesbians tend to be slightly more masculine looking (although by no means all of them). Personally I find that hot af. But maybe that is what they mean.

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    HotLips HoulihanTracy Moore
    8/30/15 3:00pm

    “Women who are initially successful in partnering with men, as is more traditionally expected, may never explore their attraction to other women.

    Sigh. Experience is not the same as orientation, dude. They don’t have to explore it to recognize it. It’s “fascinating” how these studies rarely insist that adult heterosexual or adult gay people need to fuck both genders to make up their mind which they are inherently attracted to. Nope. They get to just “be” their orientation.

    Unlike the fluid/bisexual people who are regularly denied authority over their own self identity.

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      paninisforeveryoneHotLips Houlihan
      8/30/15 3:04pm

      I think what he’s trying to say is that it can be challenging to acknowledge that you are attracted to the same sex if you do not have the opportunity to physically engage with them. I only say this because I am one of those people.

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      Tony Stark, forever grey.HotLips Houlihan
      8/30/15 3:04pm

      That’s not really what they’re saying. They’re saying that straight-identified women who have success with men may be more likely to never explore the possibility that they might also be attracted to women. They’re SAYING that a lot of straight people may just not know they aren’t straight because they haven’t tried both.

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    HarvestMoonTracy Moore
    8/30/15 3:24pm

    Opposite true for men, it seems!

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      6thAttemptHarvestMoon
      8/30/15 6:10pm

      Straight man here: Frankly, I see your point. It makes me wonder how much being physically attractive is within our control. Jezebel for a time really pushed the idea that “pretty is a skill,” and that with makeup and effort, any woman can become beautiful if she is willing to be “compliant with the system.” Honestly, that made me much less sympathetic toward female body image concerns.

      Also, I am Asian American and it really bums me out how unpopular we are socially and romantically. However, I seem to see so many physically attractive homosexual Asian men. It makes me wonder if even male attractiveness is a skill or a choice, and that the cis-Asian men can just really turn up our game.

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      HarvestMoon6thAttempt
      8/30/15 6:48pm

      To your first point, having to be ‘compliant to the system’ should make you more sympathetic that women have to work hard to be acceptable to societal requirements rather than being allowed to embrace their natural state.

      Anecdotally, my friends and I were watching Les Miserables clips today because of that actor who fell to his death last night. We all agreed that the Japanese Jean Valjean was the handsomest of the 17 countries represented. (Ireland came in 2nd)

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    Jan74Tracy Moore
    8/30/15 5:33pm

    It is probably the other way around - women who identify as straight know they have to swallow all the bullshit patriarchal pressure about looks in order to find a partner, and are therefore more conventionally attractive.

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      Funyuns for breakfastJan74
      8/30/15 6:11pm

      So true.

      Speaking of patriarchal pressure: I was half joking when I asked my boyfriend to shave his armpits for me (just this one time for kicks) but became wildly offended when he scoffed (yet would not like it if I grew mine out). Unfair! :)

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      Jan74Funyuns for breakfast
      8/30/15 6:29pm

      I know! After years of getting unsolicited fashion advice from my husband, I was like “How about you let me pick your glasses, since I am the one who has to stare at your face anyway?” and he was like “No way!”. I had to seriously argue my case. Terribly unfair.

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