Women are the more beautiful sex

I don't get that impression. I admittedly do not read gossip magazines and such, but they are ubiquitous and I do get to see the covers of a lot of them, and half the time it's a picture of a starved Angelina Jolie or Lindsey Lohan with some sensationalist caption like "88 pounds!!! Shockingly skinny!"

Maybe in the media, but among actual people, no, lambasting a woman for not being as skinny as a model is not the norm.

Maybe you should, you know, not assume that the media speaks for everyone.

Yeah, because everyone knows that the media's perception of what's ideal never has any effect on the body images of normal people, so it's no big deal and not worth worrying about.

I'm growing more and more confused as to how you can feel the effects of the media's purported ideals so acutely and not realize the weight of your own words in dismissing a body type of women as prepubescent and undeveloped.

One cause boyish looking women to feel bad while the other has been key factors in death.

Anorexia unto death is usually not the kind of eating disorder that women who want to drop a couple of pounds the lazy way develop. I'm sure there are exceptions, but as looking good and looking skeletal diverge so widely, I think it's safe to say that the underlying causes of someone starving themselves beyond any semblance of beauty are different from plain body image issues.

Ah, again, "boyish" looking. What's with that? Aren't they more girlish looking than anything?

edited 24th May '11 6:48:27 PM by kashchei

Something about your post seems off and I can't understand what you mean.

Anorexia unto death is usually not the kind of eating disorder that women who want to drop a couple of pounds the lazy way develop. I'm sure there are exceptions, but as looking good and looking skeletal diverge so widely, I think it's safe to say that the underlying causes of someone starving themselves beyond any semblance of beauty are different from plain body image issues.

So what you are saying is... aneroxia is not caused body image issues? Trying to lose weight does though?

This is really sincere.

Edit: No. its a curve and they are on the closer to male looking side. Not they look like males.

edited 24th May '11 6:52:45 PM by TheDeadMansLife

I won't pretend I understand anorexia, but I do know women who suffer from it, and to them it is not about how beautiful or not being thin is, but about how imperfect having fat on your body is.

^ I find that explanation disingenuous since, even if you do not associate masculinity with a broader upper frame, strong arms, and waists wider than hips, slim women of the type Black Humor posted look nothing like men.

edited 24th May '11 6:56:38 PM by kashchei

So you believe that thinking your fat when your ribs are exposed is not a body image issue?

No, I believe that an anorexic doesn't think of fat the same way that you or I do. Having fat and being fat are two different things; the second one is a reflection of your appearance, but the first is a reflection of your inability to be "perfect."

This is the most highly cited paper on anorexia, according to Google.

Unfortunately I can't get access to the whole thing, but the abstract is clear enough:

EDIT: That's a body image issue!

edited 24th May '11 7:02:31 PM by BlackHumor

In the sense that your perception of perfection is tied directly to your appearance, yes, but my point is that it's a different sort of issue from wanting to look thinner in general.

^ I have access. Would you like me to send it to you? Skimming it, it seems to say that there are different "body image disturbances at work," and that anorexics are not as delusional about their appearance as bulimics are.

edited 24th May '11 7:14:18 PM by kashchei

Really? That's lucky, but no.

And isn't that the main point of losing weight in general? I mean, I suppose some people do it purely for health reasons, but I'd also bet the vast majority do it because they're insecure about their appearance.

Which is also why anorexics do it, so it's really the exact same issue turned Up To Eleven.

Wasn't this thread originally supposed to be about whether not women are more beautiful than men?

We seem to have gotten lost in Semanticsville.

But they're both beautiful...in their own way.

@KCK: I made a case for there being a difference based off design earlier on that got shot down, so Sure, Why Not?. Personal preference wins the day.

I'd agree with the difference in basic structures, but it's totally up to you whether the typical male structure or typical female structure looks more beautiful to you. So...I guess that's it. My math teacher has this poster that says "Everything I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." I guess "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is among those things.

@Handle: I'd agree, but only to a point. I mean, bisexuality among females is way more common than it is in males; a friend of mine was talking about a girl we both know and her comment was "She's bi...well, she's 18, which means by definition she's bi". Which is not too much of a hyperbole, really.

Women being more physically beautiful could play into this.

In B 4 KCK objects

@Drunk OBJECT—No, wait, I agree.

This could be culture-related, however. After all, in ancient Greece most males were bi (well, not precisely, but "bisexuality" is the modern orientation which was most similar to their outlook).

I think that one of the reasons why women are seen as more beautiful is simply because we males do not pay as much care to our looks nowadays as they do. We can do more than this, really!

edited 24th May '11 10:29:40 PM by Carciofus

The rule of Girl on Girl Is Hot means that female bisexuality is more socially accepted than male bisexuality, at least in the present era.

@DS: I hope you realize that if they don't stay bi, they were never really bi to begin with.

So this is more an instance of "18-year-olds want to look more exciting than they really are" and not "women are more beautiful than men".

Not really. It's Exactly What It Says on the Tin - it is arousing for many men. Nothing to do with social acceptability - there people who think that Girl on Girl Is Hot but have generally low opinion on lesbians. Also 'society' is not only 'men'.

You're kind of both right, IMHO. While it's true that Girl on Girl Is Hot is more about, well, hotness than real social acceptance, it's also true that saying Girl on Girl Is Hot is considered an acceptable (and even encouraged) thing to feel, but "slash" and Guy on Guy Is Hot are often considered gross things to like and deserving of scorn.

Hm, I didn't know that there are more female bisexuals than male ones, but I did know that there were a lot of male bisexuals in ancient times. The culture at the time glorified male beauty, as our culture glorifies female beauty, so that may play a role. Then again, we have no way of knowing how many female bisexuals there were in those times because female sexuality in general was repressed. Anyone have any projected statistics on that?

edited 25th May '11 1:05:18 PM by OnTheOtherHandle