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This is just silly. According to a study that took place at the University of Stirling in Scotland:
A woman prefers a more masculine man when she is fertile and looking for a fling rather than a mate for life...
The finding suggests the value that women place on masculinity changes with context and with women's reproductive cycles and immediate goals.
They took these women, at various stages of their menstrual cycles, and showed them pictures of different male body types. Some of the pictures were of manly men, while the others were more "feminized." The researchers asked the ladies to rate their own attractiveness, as well as the male body type they would prefer for a long- or short-term relationship.
Fertile women chose the masculine version of each image 15 percent more often, on average, than women who were not fertile. [...] The effect was strongest if they were looking for a short-term partner rather than a long-term one, and if they considered themselves attractive.
Choosing a certain image 15% more often doesn't sound very impressive. But if they did get a higher percentage, it would have worried me.
Previous research has shown that women view facial masculinity—square jaws and well-defined brow ridges—as good characteristics for short-term partners, while more feminine traits are perceived as better for long-term mates. [...]
Men with hard bodies and sculpted jaws may therefore have better genes for producing better babies, so it would make sense for fertile women to be attracted to them.
What I don't understand is someone who would look at pictures and say, "Give me that hard body for a short-term fling and the soft-bellied geek for life." Why wouldn't the hard bodied man have just as good of a chance as the "feminized" man? What if Mr. Hard Body is a teddy bear who would treat you like gold, and Mr. Soft Body enjoys hitting on your friends? Their explanation:
[W]omen tend to prefer more feminine body types when they are less fertile, probably because high levels of testosterone makes men less likely to stay around.
Research suggests that men who are less masculine tend to invest more in relationships.
This just seems like a huge generalization. I'm sure there are plenty of testosterone-filled men out there who are content with staying in short-term relationships. But does that mean I'll purposefully bypass a manly man if I'm looking for something long-term, or point at a picture of a feminized male body and say, "That's the body of the man I want to marry?" Hell, no. Pictures don't tell you anything about a person.
If they wanted to make more generalizations, they could say that women who dye their hair blond and get breast implants are better for short-term relationships, too. And that might be true for some women—but certainly not all of them. Maybe they should do a new study: I would be interested to see if manly men and "feminized" men have been surveyed to see what percentage are actually in happy, long-term relationships.
