If men are visual creatures, why do women only find 20% of men attractive?

[Anonymous]

Many studies show that all women consider only 20% of men to be attractive. I get that everyone wants to date people who are attractive but I've also been told that men care more about physical looks than women do. Is that not true? Do women care more about physical attractiveness than men do?

Or is more of an age thing? Where younger women place more importance on physical attractiveness than older women?

[Effably]

These things are not mutually exclusive and so I struggle to see the point you are making.

Being less visual could indeed account for liking a lower percentage of people.

Reality here is just makeup though. You give guys makeovers with some fake hair and accentuate the right traits paired with good fashion and that 20% will jump right up to 50% with ease.

The real mistake here is that you view attractiveness compared to others instead of in isolation. If we quantify it and say that most people are at 500 Attractive points. Men and women. And that at 600 points you are deemed attractive enough to date. Then we say that fashion adds 50. Good hair care adds 50. Cosmetics add 100. That now puts your average girl at 700 (clearly attractive) and your average guy who does none of these at 500 (highly average, not quite attractive). And that is the secret of why women are more attractive. They go further for it. If we did tests where we all had 0 aid in looking good the numbers would shift.

[Asker]

So you're saying if women didn't wear makeup (Or if men started wearing makeup), the % of men and women finding each other attractive would be similar?

[Effably]

More or less my point, yes. Although I'd say more specifically if men had the same traditions of caring for our appearance and pursued it with equal effort, it would be more or less equal. After all you do not need to be the most attractive, just actually attractive.

[CrazyGirl2]

First, if you do cite studies, it’s always a good idea to include a link to those studies. That being said, the studies you are referring to when you say “if men are visual creatures”, simply state that men are MORE sexually stimulated by visual stimuli than women, not that women are NOT. The studies (and there are many) placed men and women in a “functional Magnetic Resonance Imagers” (fMRI), and showed them all sexual images. In men their frontal lobe lit-up, especially the Amygdala! (an area of the brain which regulates and processes emotions and responses to fear), like the “fight or flight” response, and it’s the core of the neural system for detecting threat stimuli. The amygdala is also responsible for processing and regulating emotions so if this area lights up an fMRI it means that seeing beautiful naked women evokes a very powerful and positive emotional response in men that simply does not happen in women, when women see images of sexy naked men.
What this DOES NOT mean is that women are in any way BETTER or SMARTER than men, and it certainly does not mean that women are in any way “more evolved” than men! All this means is that we are different to men, and we are attracted to different things than men. Any man who has ever had a live-in girlfriend, or a wife, KNOWS that men and women appreciate different things. It is also very important to remember that this is “in general.” There are always exceptions, and outliers!
Sources:

Sex Differences in Response to Visual Sexual Stimuli, A Review:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2739403/

Gender difference in brain activation to audio-visual sexual stimulation
https://www.nature.com/articles/ijir201247

Study Finds Male And Female Brains Respond Differently To Visual Stimuli https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/03/040316072953.htm

In Sex, Brain Studies Show, 'la Différence' Still Holds
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/16/health/in-sex-brain-studies-show-la-difference-still-holds.html

[XHopelessRomanticX]

Men and women respond differently to various kinds of stimuli. But you should know there are other factors that play into how attractive a person may be; how they smell, sometimes how they sound, emotional connection, intellect, they're behavior both in public and in private, etc.

[inhua]

well women ain't blind and they ain't mind readers so you can throw the "bad personality" myth in the garbage.

this is just another myth perpetuated by society to make one gender look better than the other as in "less shallow". after all, if you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth.

women do spend hours on makeup because they care about their own looks. why wouldn't they care about men's looks?

yes men and women are both shallow. there's nothing wrong with being shallow, there's no need to lie about it because that's just how reality is.

[Asker]

What's the "bad personality" myth?

[Qdbrown]

Yes, men are visual creatures. Women are attracted to physical beauty as well, but they also work off emotional feelings and they are great at figuring out who looks like they have it.

The problem dating apps is that most guys have funny profiles. Guys think it's cute to be silly and fun. Most guys also suffer with selfies. A woman is going to be reading everything in your profile pictures. Where the guy is at, what his lifestyle is like and then based on his written profile, make assumptions about the guy's education and status. Women love the challenge.

Most women are going to swipe fast on anything that doesn't catch their eye. Of course age ranges also effect swiping. Younger girls will be more outgoing. Older women have agendas.

[EvoEyeris]

Women tend to care more about the man’s status, more than looks. Like they think if he’s not the most attractive, can he provide for me financially? What job does he have? Whats his personality like? If you go on the ItsComplicatedChannel on youtube, you can see that most women want a man that makes over $100,000 and think thats what average men are making, which a crazy low percentage of men make. But most men if they made $40,000 or $100,000 a year and see and meet a attractive girl that works at McDonald's, they would more likely date them than if a woman found a attractive guy that works at McDonalds. This subject goes even deeper but i’ll leave it at that.

[Asker]

So unattractive but rich man is considered more attractive than an attractive but broke man?

[EvoEyeris]

A woman will date an absolute loser if he is attractive enough i’ve seen it happen. But in most cases it’s superficial things like money and status thats more important than anything else. Modern look for what a man can give to them and not what can I provide for a man.

[misogynistic_pig]

Yes, women rate 80% of men as "below average", while men rate women on a bell curve.

It is said that men are more visual because the only trait of sexual selection in women is physical attractiveness, while men can achieve reproductive success through three different factors, physical attractiveness, money, and dominant personality, that is, an ugly man. he can have high sexual success if he is dominant or rich, a clear example is gang members, who are ugly and still have many women.

[Anonymous]

This post makes zero sense. Try again.

[Asker]

As a woman do you place importance on the physical appearance of a man?

If yes, you answer my question

If no, then why do you only find 20% of men physically attractive and not a majority of men? Physical qualities should be irrelevant right?

[Anonymous]

Its closer to 5% not 20%. I think its because women innately know they can have sex with anyone they want.

[FunkyMonkee]

Because women are NOT visual creatures.

[Asker]

Then they should consider all men, ugly or not, as attractive. Right?

[FunkyMonkee]

No, it has nothing to do with ugliness or prettiness. Guys love to see women naked, girls don't exactly like seeing guys naked. That's why there's no female versions of Playboy or Hustler. If there was, chances are, it'd mostly be words, not pictures! That's why women love all those romance novels but guys love porno. We like action, they like emotions.