From your perspective, why are women more beautiful than men?

[Nero]

Now, take note that I'm not saying more attractive. And especially not more sexually attractive (I know we've got a lot of straight gals and gay guys here).  And I'm also not talking about a subjective judgment either. But generally, women are more 'something to look at' than men. And there are pretty boys, but usually 'beautiful men' are very young guys. It's practically unheard of that a middle aged guy be called pretty. Whatever your preferred term, pretty boys or beautiful men are usually extremely young.

So, anyway, I want to hear your theories on this. Do you think this is evolution - that women are usually more beautiful? Culture? And note - if you're going to argue pretty boys - again, this is usually regulated to very young men who well ... don't fully look like men yet.

[muffinpants]

Hmm.. I've always thought it was because women are smooth.. like their faces and bodies are curvy. Another thing is that women focus a lot more on their appearance. They wear make up, do their hair, shave their bodies... I think men can be just as beautiful, if they put focus on achieving it... but it's probably also enculturation.

[Cindy]

Ahh- I just can't help being gorgeous!

[Sarah Louise]

That's a hard question to answer.

I was always jealous of the female body, smooth, soft, curves, etc.

But at the same time I often look at men and love how they look, I guess its just a matter of perspective. 

There are things I like about both genders bodies.  But, the feminine body is definitely the one I want for myself.

[Jenny07]

Ahh- I just can't help being gorgeous!

Always modest sis.

[LordKAT]

I could be way off base, but here goes.

Beauty is a way of gaining a protector/mate. The protector's  desirable traits involved strength and size which is what most beautiful people wanted.

Simplified, but just my thoughts.

[Shantel]

Sure it's evolutionary as well as a hormonally driven difference. Most young boys often look almost as pretty as their counterparts until their testes start to produce testosterone. But practically speaking a woman's feminine looks and attractive features are there for the sake of the continuation of the human race and when young boys become men their visual hardwiring takes precedence often times over common sense and they become much like dogs following after a bitch in heat. Over time the increased opportunity for a good diet and softer life than those a hundred years ago, have allowed women to become taller, healthier, bustier and much more attractive than those that went before them, just as men have become bigger, stronger with much greater muscle bulk and strength than those a hundred years ago.What a lot of people don't realize is that testosterone is almost caustic as far as hormones go, it ravages the looks of ordinary mortals and of the two gender regulating hormones is the only one that is strictly regulated and requires a medical prescription even from overseas suppliers if they even handle it, not so with estrogen. Testosterone gives men craggy facial features, bigger skeletal structure and a muscular build that isn't necessarily as attractive as the smooth curvy bodies and pretty feminine faces and delicate features of women. This is my opinion only, some opinions may differ, I suppose it depends on individual tastes and values in terms of what others believe is attractive to them.

[FTMDiaries]

From my perspective, they aren't.

Male beauty might take a different form than female beauty, but as the old saying goes: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And my eye notices male beauty and tends to disregard female beauty.

[Evelyn K]

I think women are more beautiful in the sense that women are more precious to our population and fragile.

"If you are a man, know that the moment you were born the universe had it in for you. The deck was stacked. The deal was raw. Your expendability was programmed into your wet code before you gained self-awareness. The world-scape of genes can rebuild with the seed of one man should catastrophe strike, but each woman lost is a lethal blow to the re-population project."

http://heartiste.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/the-fundamental-premise/

[FTMDiaries]

On reflection, I think Auntie Shan might be onto something here.

I remember reading Stephen Jay Gould a couple of years ago, and he said that humans are pretty much juvenile apes: we don't mature in the same way as other apes and our face shapes tend to be much more child-like (this is called 'neoteny', if you're curious).

In terms of natural selection, the theory is that the younger a female looks, the healthier she looks for breeding purposes... because studies have shown that straight men prefer women whose faces look more child-like, whereas straight women prefer men whose faces are less child-like. This might be tied into the fact that eggs tend to deteriorate from age 40 onwards, whereas sperm is pretty much viable at any age.

So it could be that women, who have a shorter fertility span, have softer, more 'juvenile' features due to natural selection, and that these features are considered beautiful because they're desirable for reproductive purposes.

[BunnyBee]

I think it's etymological, like pretty basically means, or has come to mean idk the origins, a youthful feminine-looking face, and women have those more often than boys, and certainly more than men.  Same with beautiful, but it just means something broader, but definitely refers to feminine features.

I call men pretty all the time, but it's just a thing I do I guess.  But idk, I think like Jared Leto is pretty, tho he is also kind of annoying.

[JoanneB]

For everything I am not

Shorter, thiner, more delicate, fragile. Not beaten worn out, half dead. My wife says child like. Partly a preservation mechanism. Guys just know it is not good to beat the snot out of a baby.

Their aura exudes life, joy. Well most do except some the ones I see on the check out lines in the grocery store

[Evelyn K]

LOL somehow out of everyone here, I'm least surprised that Evelyn is a CH reader.

Yeah I used to run around the PUA circles, then I realized I was just being a manipulative a** h*** to women. Then I became disgusted with what it all really is.

I hope women out there are reading this stuff and updating their bitch shields accordingly.

[HoneyStrums]

Are women more beautiful?

(for the most part) Yes.
But Is it because they are women? no???
take sex and gender out of it what do you have? people.
people with a wide variety of qualities. emotions, behaviours, looks?

so take a person with your personal idea of beautiful qualities, what do you have? a beautiful person.

does a sex or gender stop that from being the case? no but the counter traits do. hate verses love ect.
so why are woman for the most part more beautiful? because for the most part they posses beautiful qualities in comparison.

plus I think its easier to say a woman is beautiful because, "men aren't supposed to be beautiful" (grr gender rolls) and might take offence at being called so because of it.

EDIT--- so now I read some other comments (after I post), and as far as I can tell, although I stand by my perspective I think Evelyn  post out the reasons behind why they tend to have those behaviours emotions and looks.

[Androgynous_Machine]

I think women have it best because it isn't against some unwritten rule that shan't never be broken to be emotional.

Which leads to more completeness as a person.  Men are just as every bit emotional as women, they just aren't allowed to explore it.  I think lots of cisgender men fall into this trap and some studies have been shown that it has a very adverse affects on boys.  Anyone who has spent a significant amount of time as a man has heard "Man up", "Toughen up" "Don't be such a girl!" "Your vagina is showing!" etc.

It's destructive to the individual male and it causes far more damage to men as a whole.  I'm not saying its easy to be a woman by contrast, not one bit, but each gender has different but equal pressures placed on them.  Most of those pressures are based in nothing and cause more damage than good.

-AM

[dalebert]

Neotony

[Jill F]

They are not from the inside, but from the outside, why are men more handsome than women?

I am sort of intrigued by Dalebrt's response, but to me, that is why I love baby animals.

[Seras]

Because the aesthetic qualities that women have are generally considered as "beautiful". They are different from the aesthetic qualities that men have which are referred to as "handsomeness" and the like.
It is just different terms for different qualities.

Male attractiveness =/= female attractiveness.

[Ltl89]

I suppose it depends on how you define "beautiful".  All in all, I would say women are more likely to be considered beautiful than men for the same reasons men are more typically called handsome than women.  Beauty is usually applied to more traditional "feminine" characteristics where handsome is generally applied to masculine characteristics.  I mean there could be a really cute guy with a good body but rarely would you say he's beautiful than handsome.  And I'm sure men that look at women with attraction would think of her as handsome.  Maybe that's a simplistic view, but that's the distinction in my own head.  For me it's mostly about the way the word is used and has been historically applied to things that were deemed "feminine".

[Evelyn K]

But do hybrids between the two exist. That is the question ... !