Originally posted by Tha Realnezz
So what makes you guys think women have such different requirements in what they view as suitable mates then we do?
But, attractiveness is a socialized concept. Society teaches us what is "attractive" and that is laid upon our own pre-existing genetic/chemical framework to give us a determination of what we personally find to be attractive.
It's why what is attractive now isn't necessarily what was considered "attractive" hundreds of years ago.
If women are raised differently than men, treated differently by society than men, and function in social networks often apart from men, then why is the immediate implication that the result of their socialization is the same as it is for men?
Biologically speaking, men and women have similar, yet different, different reproductive goals -- both want to see their offspring live on to pass their genetic material to another generation (as is the case for all living species, per Dawkins theory). Men accomplish this through sheer numbers; we are built to be ready to impregnate as many fertile women as possible. Naturally, we look for features that indicate good genetic health for our offspring, which guage by a complex process that occurs to us conciously simply as "Do I find this woman attractive?"
Women, on the other hand, are required to balance competing interests: on one hand, they seek (as men do) a mate that has the appearence of good genetic health (again judged by "attractiveness"), but on the other hand they also seek a mate that will provide safety, support and stability for their offspring during the gestation and rearing period. This demands a different skill set than can be readily determined through simple physical observation. Due to the difficulty and length of time in childrearing, a woman must be more selective about her choice of mate to ensure that she is not left with a child to raise on her own (still, after all these years, one of the most socially stigmatizing events a woman can face).
If you accept these competing biological rationales as true, you have to admit that the qualities desireable to a woman differ, at least in some part, from those desireable to a man.