Lately I hear this being thrown around a lot and like other new terms it seems to have lost all meaning from overuse because just 2 days ago I heard some girls referring to a pretty redhead chick as "not conventionally attractive". She wasn't tatted up, she wasn't a walking MRI claymore she didn't have even one piercing, and her clothes were also normal, maybe a bit hipster-ish but she was very conventionally attractive in that you have to be a very gay guy (
not that there's anything wrong with that, heh) to find her unattractive.
And many such cases, when I ask women what's conventionally attractive they point to a girl who is only half a pound from being a supermodel/famine victim and has more paint layers in her face than a car, hardly conventional, not even close to the average of what men find attractive.
I even asked the all mighty computer programmed by that gay guy who touched his sister, this is what it said:
For women, conventional attractiveness often includes features such as:Symmetry and Proportion: Faces and bodies that align with traditional notions of balance and harmony.Clear Skin: Smooth, blemish-free skin is often associated with health and vitality.Pleasant Smile: A bright, well-aligned smile is seen as a marker of friendliness and approachability.Body Shape: A figure that conforms to societal norms, such as a slender waist and curvy hips, is often idealized.
So is that it? because that redhead would fit on all those categories, unless you're bri'ish and think all redheads should be drowned I guess...
I know you meant this question for women but Ill take a crack at it if its okay
"Conventionally attractive" is a term used to indicate how good a partner is supposed to be on a subconscious level. It involves many implicit and explicit traits, natural and artificial. Those traits help determine how genetically compatible two people are which in laymans terms manifests as attractiveness. It even involves something nonsensical as smell, there is a overlap between genetic similarity and body odour, if you find somebody's natural body odour (natural scent) to be bad chances are the both of you are more genetically similar and vice versa. There was a study in Britain conducted for the same back in the 2000s.
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The human body is very intelligent that way.
When it comes to the traits women find attractive about men, most of it has a scientific basis just like most of the traits men find attractive about women. We are animals at the end of the day and natural selection is a very important thing. Attraction and mating in every species is a constant process of trait selection, said trait selection is something humans term as "attraction".
1. Symmetry and proportion is a result of the Golden Ratio or Phi (6.614), its a ratio according to which most of human body proportions exist in nature, say proportion of arm to joints, finger joints and fingers, head and neck etc. The closer to the ratio the body proportions are, there generally is more symmetry. Its deemed to be attractive cause its closer to natural perfection and the body tries to select partners such that their symmetrical proportions can be passed down to children, making the children more attractive and therefore more capable of lineage propagation.
2. Clear skin is just an extension of hygiene. Hygiene in general is more preferred cause it signifies that said partner is less capable of being diseased and less capable of transmitting diseases to offspring.
3. Pleasant smile is probably one of the only non biological traits. Its probably attractive cause it means said person is happy and outgoing, probably has something to do with psychology which I dont know much about.
4. Body shape and physical features is also dictated by the Golden Ratio to a large degree. But it also comes down to some non golden ratio things. Women like strong men cause they subconsciously perceive the strength as a trait which would be passed down to children, increasing the childrens survival capability. Men like thin women cause it probably has something to do with ease of childbearing, a good trait to be passed down to children. Also the chest to waist width is also a golden ratio, supposed to be anyways.
Apologies for being hyper autistic about this, almost all of subconscious attraction comes down to trait selection and lineage enhancement. Conscious attraction is more personality based and probably varies from person to person.
Sidenote: Women hate baldness for pretty much the same reason, it posits the possibility of having children who bald early, decreasing their survival chances against things like sunlight and weather which human hair is supposed to protect against. Also probably why black people bald less on average than white people do cause their hair actually protects them from harsh weather.
