aesthetics

I haven't see this topic anywhere else, so I thought I'd start it.

I'm wondering how much aesthetics has to do with our attraction to various bodies and body parts? This is true for both female & male bodies & also for straight folks as well as gay.

For instance, a gay guy may be attracted to another guy because of what his body looks like, how it's put together. The same may be true for a straight guy looking at a particular woman. But I can also see how a gay guy might also find a particular female body as attractive or a straight guy might think that some other guy is well put together. Also I have male friends who will compliment me on my physical condition, but this doesn't seem to extend itself to sexual attraction, at least that I'm aware of.

Since I consider myself somewhat of an exhibitionist, I'm wondering how much of it is a sexual attraction & how much is aesthetics? Or does any of this make sense to people? The same can be said for cocks or breasts or faces or whatever.

What's the over-lap between general attraction & sexual attraction?

Thanx. :D

Pheromones.

I feel fairly confident in saying that no matter how comprehensively they may eventually map the mechanisms and operations of the human brain, nobody will EVER be able to answer this question.

Don't be so negative Rock :)

I'm an engineer and its in my nature to want to solve things. Every problem in the world can be solved using an equation, the only things you need to know are the variables for the equation of a single problem.

You are right that due to the complexities of this sort of problem that it will be very hard to come up with a correct answer, but that's why we solve the equation the best we can with the variables we know. At least we can provide an answer to which may be close to the real answer given some sort of boundary within which the answer lies.

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When I think about people I find attractive in general and people I find sexually attractive....

It is hard to pick a single feature or two and say that person is attractive because of those. Being attractive generally requires a package deal. You don't need to be outstanding overall, you just have to fit together well, and present yourself in a way that shows you aren't a total slacker and care about how you look. Girls that are sexually attractive for me, go beyond the physical realm. They have an aura about them that shows they know who they are and are confident in themselves.

It goes much more beyond this, but these are my initial thoughts.

7x5.5: Well, this does not really answer much...But I have myself as 1% homosexual as I can really appreciate a well defined male body, face cock etc...Although I have no sexual attraction to it what so ever, I still enjoy looking at it.

Beautiful and attractive to me, may not be so to anyone else.

Isn't that why two really fugly people can fall in love? I mean really, look at Prince Charles and Carmilla whatsername. ffffuuuuuuugggggggllllllllyyyyyyyy!

God please, guarantee they are too old to reproduce. Surely charlie can't get his little tiny imperial scepter extended anymore.
Mankind couldn't take it.

Geeze, I'm in a shitty mood.

if I thought there actually WAS anything resembling "love" involved in that example, I'd definitely lose my last meal.

Dr. Rock, you mean you didn't rush out to Windsor to watch the nuptuals? What kind of wanker are you?

no. actually I've thankfully suffered only minimal exposure to the national stupidity, since I turned my radio off in disgust about 2 weeks ago because they wouldn't shut up about the fucking pope dying. I predict it will be some time before I bother turning it on again; I swear the entire fucking world gets more and more idiotic every year.

You can always look to women in such matters who are much more sensitive about everything than men and far less prone to worry about being labeled for feelings or expressions than men are. So just please notice any woman you know will compliment features that she likes on any woman or any man and it can be the same feature. I have had many women tell me that I had the most beautiful color hair they had ever seen (now that does not make my day of course) but they will say that to other women or they will compliment my physique or my posture or smile or whatever just as they would other women. I am not talking about someone trying to start up a romance either, relatives, strangers, people I meet in stores whatever. Besides the hair thing a lot of the compliments I think are the sort of things that men would like to have noticed as a distinctly masculine thing, trim waist, good proportions, the posture thing, agility and so forth.

When was the last time any man ever, friend or stranger ever complimented anything about you other than your choice of car. It almost never does. So either we suppress or atrophied the part of the brain that notices how truly beautiful the male assemblage of body parts is or are just stupid beasts. I can't think of one time that I have ever complimented any feature of a man other than a mustouche or hair cut but I do notice that they have pecs that are perfectly proportioned, good overall proportions, calf muscles that put mine to shame, regal posture, grooming, but would never say anything. It is just taboo in our backward society.

I couldn't help one day in gym but notice how well developed the obliques were on this one guy -- you wouldn't know I had any. So I approached him and commented that he must have a really good routine to have gotten such development of his obliques, what was his secret. Rather than kick me in the teeth, he thanked me and showed me a couple routines on a piece of equipment that I have never used that emphasized that area so we both came out ahead, but it was a chicken shit compliment.

We do notice beautiful bodies, male and female just like we notice beautiful cats, and horses, pigs and flowers but we are so afraid of labels we just cannot let ourselves admit that there are members of our own sex that are beautiful just to look at (LOOK ONLY).

Please don't ever use those two words together in a sentance ever again! And if you can't tell which ones I'm refering to then your not as bright as I thought you were.

Mommy told me to keep quiet if I couldn't say something nice
So for Charles and Camilla I'm following her advice

I don't think Camilla is that ugly. She is extremely handsome for a woman her age. The thing is her sprogs with Andrew Parker-Bowles (is that right jonb? :P ) are pretty good looking, and Charles' are also not exactly an eye sore, so maybe they would have good looking children.
I think everyone is very unfair on poor Camilla, it isn't as if she really did anything wrong, and she is a very pleasant lady.

Please don't ever use those two words together in a sentance ever again! And if you can't tell which ones I'm refering to then your not as bright as I thought you were.
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I guess you'd better prepare yourself to be disappointed, then.

I guess you'd better prepare yourself to be disappointed, then.
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Oh, I think you know which two words that were referred to. I doubt that if you were at the hospital where your best friend was dying, that you would be happy sitting next to some person who kept referring to your fucking friend and how much that hated him. Maybe that wouldn't bother you.

But there are a lot of people on this forum and this world that believe that have lost a best friend in death. In America normally people who go to funeral homes to visit the bereathed say condolances even when the dead person was an asshole and everyone knew it.

I know your opinion of the pope and you have every right to it. And I respect that. I have never criticized you for it and I won't. But I do think you should learn a little about respect for other people's feelings. Some here are devastated. Sure, you may be completely correct that that is foolish on their part. But respectfully let them mourn.

You are young, I don't know what you have lost. I can assure you that death is realizty. Either yours or someone you know and the older you get, the closer in age the dying get to your age. First it was the great grandparents, that was easy, then the grandparents, what a loss. Then parents, grief, then cousins, friends OH no I may be next. That is life.

I can't guarentee you anything except that you will die. I just can't tell you when. Hopefully someone on this planet will be there in your last moments to give you comfort as you prepare to die if you die from old age or a progressive disease.

I do respect you for your honesty. And if asked by someone what you thought about the pope you should tell the truth. You can be tactful though. But to just voluneteer it without it being part of the discussion is a bit disrespectful to those who loved him and are mourning him and will surely be reading your posts.