Thor

[zekko]

This is admittedly a silly post, it will probably bring Zarky out to ask "What does this have to do with seducing women?", but here it is:

A few weeks ago I saw Thor on DVD (a pretty good movie adaptation of the Marvel comic book superhero/Norse god).

I was looking at the comments on IMDB, and I happened on a very long thread where girls were arguing who was hotter, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) or Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Since this dealt with attraction, it caught my interest.

To my surprise, the girls were preferring Loki/Tom by about a 2:1 margin. This surprised me since Thor was portrayed to be quite a stereotypical hunk in the movie, he's a tall guy, and there was at least one obligatory scene with his shirt off to show how cut up he was.

The reasons the girls gave mostly ran along the following:
1) Thor was "too perfect" (reminds you of Pook's "Perfect is boring" creed).
2) They didn't like the musclehead type.
3) They wanted to "fix" Loki (his character was butthurt over family issues)
4) He was the villain (a lot of times the villain is more charismatic in these types of movies, although I didn't think that was particularly true in this case - not like a Joker/Batman type of thing).

My own theories:
1) Maybe Tom Hiddleston the actor is simply better looking
2) Maybe they preferred Loki's British accent to Thor's Australian accent
3) I've seen studies where women ideally like men with dark curly hair, which Tom Hiddleston has
4) Hiddleston is probably pretty tall himself, I don't remember Thor towering over him.

 

[macagent]

he's the bad-boy, of course girls like him better...

 

[gaspipe]

I would also agree that the bad boy/villain mystique has something to do with it. Cleary the Thor character is the better looking one but perhaps too perfect and intimidating while the other guy seems more interesting in general.

Kind of works the same in the real world.

 

[zekko]

I think the bad boy idea is a little too simple, or we would be seeing girls drooling over the villain in every movie. I hear a lot about women drooling over James Bond, but not his villains.

 

[gaspipe]

I think the bad boy idea is a little too simple, or we would be seeing girls drooling over the villain in every movie. I hear a lot about women drooling over James Bond, but not his villains.

Well come to think of it James Bond is somewhat of a bad boy in his own right and the villains always seem to be but ugly.

 

[Sparky]

Loki obviously had a bigger wallet.

 

[StevieD]

Loki was more hung

 

[pdx1138]

Loki would make a good project!

 

[SteR]

Pff.. I'd bet nearly anything that if the two guys were in a room/bar, nearly ALL of them would be chasing down Thor. Surely everyone on these boards knows that girls often say a lot of things, but their actions speak otherwise...

 

[zekko]

Well come to think of it James Bond is somewhat of a bad boy in his own right and the villains always seem to be but ugly.

So the "bad boy mystique" only works if the guy is attractive? This is why I think the whole "allure of the bad boy" thing is overstated. How hard is it to game a girl if you're a good looking guy?

Pff.. I'd bet nearly anything that if the two guys were in a room/bar, nearly ALL of them would be chasing down Thor.

If we're relating this to real life, Thor (aside from having an elite physique) also had preselection - both Natalie Portman and Jamie Alexander (Jane and Sif) were crushing on him in the movie.

I really think this is just a case of Loki being played by a tall, dark, handsome, British actor.


SPOILER SPACE!!!

Maybe the girls felt some emotions for Loki. Here's a guy who grew up with Thor, Thor always got the better of him, Thor always won, Thor got to be in line to be king instead of Loki. Poor Loki is just the adopted son, the cards were stacked against him. It's kind of a "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia" thing (apologies for those too young to get the reference).

Loki is the god of mischief, he isn't truly evil in the movie (although he's headed in that direction).

For instance, in one scene it appears that Loki has made a deal with the frost giant king to have him kill Odin so Loki can become king of Asgard. But in a twist, when the frost giant shows up, Loki kills him so that he looks like the big hero in front of his family. That was his plan all along. I can almost imagine the girls thinking "awww, he just wants acceptance".

 

[Victory Unlimited]

Or...

This could all be just a knee jerk reaction by a bunch of geeky, average-looking, Internet Chicks who somehow feel more "empowered" by REJECTING the "perfect guy" (THOR) as a PREEMPTIVE STRIKE-----------because they KNOW deep down, in real life, any guy that would be the real world equivalent of "Thor" would NEVER choose them.

 

[Lexington]

I think Thor's character actually appeals more to guys than girls. He's super masculine, ripped and he kicks ass. If you look at most male sex symbols these days, you find that they are pretty boys more than they are your stereotypical Alpha. Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, Zac Effron etc. aren't exactly muscular hunk types.

The well-built, super masculine types are mostly restricted to action movies and those movies tend to target the male audience. But if you look at most romantic comedies you see that they tend to cast the softer types.

 

[Burroughs]

you find that they are pretty boys more than they are your stereotypical Alpha. Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, Zac Effron etc. aren't exactly muscular hunk types.

.

This is no mystery. The most powerful agents, producers in Hollywood are gay. David Geffen, Ed Limato (deceased), Bryan Lourd, Michael Patrick King. They bring THEIR sensibilities to the projects they finance.

Men should think about this when they let "media" do the thinking for them....and PLEASE leave those fvcking skinny jeans alone.

 

[Rollo Tomassi]

Bear in mind that a majority of women want a sexual fantasy to be within the realm of attainability. They want a story that they could plausibly cast themselves in as the lead female sex interest character. In fact they want this so badly, and in such overwhelming numbers, that they'll actively author alternate versions of existing stories (fan fiction) to satisfy the fantasy. This is why the Twilight series is so enveloping for women - the character of Bella is so loosely described they have a very easy time casting themselves in her role.

With Thor, everything is done for them. No mystery, no puzzle to figure out, just a good looking guy kicking ass. To women, he's a typical faceless man in a porn movie; only their to provide a hard dïck and washboard abs for women to perform sex acts on. That's men's fantasy, not women's.

Take Chris Hemsworth out of that character, put him in a different movie, make his character somewhat brooding and misunderstood, marginally abusive, but "fixable", and women will get up at 4am to get in line to see him on opening night. Women love his body, but their idealization fantasy is one where, by means of their feminine wiles, he changes his Bad Boy ways for them because they're worth changing for. They're so special that they make him a better person.

 

[zekko]

I think Thor's character actually appeals more to guys than girls. He's super masculine, ripped and he kicks ass. If you look at most male sex symbols these days, you find that they are pretty boys more than they are your stereotypical Alpha. Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, Zac Effron etc. aren't exactly muscular hunk types.

The well-built, super masculine types are mostly restricted to action movies and those movies tend to target the male audience. But if you look at most romantic comedies you see that they tend to cast the softer types.

I think you may be on to something here. As you and Rollo point out, the ass kicking buff guy is more of a male fantasy.

Before I came here, I always heard that guys were more impressed with big muscles than women were. Then you come here and the first ten things you read are "Lift weights, lift weights, lift weights", lol.

Pook's "What every skinny guy should know" post, for example. For every ten pounds of weight he puts on, he pulls a better grade of woman. I think that does work that way for some guys, but it sure doesn't work that way for everybody, and especially not in that linear a fashion.

For the most part, I think as long as you're not too scrawny, and you have a flat stomach, you're ahead of the game when it comes to girls.

Mind you, I've lifted weights since my 20s. And I needed it probably, because I was too skinny to start with. Even though I got girls when I was skinny anyway, so not much changed. But when I bulked up, I had to go to bigger clothing sizes. I wonder now if I might have been better off building a runner's body. Maybe I wouldn't have to watch what I eat so closely now. Being bigger increases your appetite, for one thing. Look at the shortened life expectancy of pro wrestlers. I'm not sure that carrying a lot of muscle is all that healthy a thing.

 

[Jitterbug]

What kind of girls do you think get on IMDB and vote on who's hotter than who, zekko?

 

[zekko]

What kind of girls do you think get on IMDB and vote on who's hotter than who, zekko?

Well, they're on the Thor board so they're probably dorks.

 

[zekko]

Often women will take a contrary view on what is supposed to be a universally attractive person. "I don't think he's hot" or "I prefer [insert random less attractive celebrity you'd never have thought of]".

Guys do this too. Someone here will post a pic of someone they consider a HB9, and you know what will happen next. Guys will start rating her a 4 or 5, whatever.

I have this problem all the time - so many women try to tell themselves, in spite of everything, they just don't think I'm all that...

Lol, I know! What is wrong with these women?

 

[Jitterbug]

Well, they're on the Thor board so they're probably dorks.

Well it's easy enough to do a sort of reverse lookup on IMDB to see which chicks on my Facebook have an account there (the type who would vote on such threads) and yeah... if I were Thor, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. Loki can have them lol

 

[zekko]

Very true. I'm guilty of this (not on these boards). Usually it's because I don't want to look like I'm fawning over someone everyone thinks is hot. In fact I try not to use the word "hot" - I'll just say "yeah, she's cute."

I used to often feel a backlash against women that the media told me to regard as sex symbols. A lot of the time I would not think they were very attractive. This will age me, but a few examples are Loni Anderson, Farrah Fawcett, Suzanne Somers, Cindy Crawford, Pamela Sue Anderson, and Julia Roberts.

Of course now that I'm 51, I'm finding almost anything looks good