Sexual Attraction of Women
A youthful appearance is a notable factor governing the attractiveness of a woman.
Among cultural features that seem to reflect the preference for neotenic female partners in Western societies are depilatory practices dating back to antiquity, and the popularity of blonde hair.
A strong aspect to sexual attraction is proportion. It is typical for a plastic surgeon to correct an error of proportion, such as making a nose that is too big smaller via rhinoplasty, or making breasts larger via breast implants.
One idea of physical beauty regarding the breasts of women is that the best shape approaches the shape of a three dimensional parabola (which is called a Paraboloid of revolution) as opposed to a hyperbola, or a sphere. Conversely, the shape of the buttocks of an attractive person (male or female) tends to resemble the shape of a cardioid, which is the inverse transform of a parabola.
The appearance of health also plays a part in physical attraction. Often, women with long hair are thought to appear more beautiful, as the ability to grow long healthy looking hair is an indication of continuous health of the individual growing it. Another indication of health of an individual is the ability to grow long, strong fingernails. Therefore, artificial nails and manicures have become widely popular in late 20th century with women.
Weight seems at first sight to be a physical factor in attractiveness of both genders (typically women), but there is some debate that this is actually a function of social desirability. In some cultures, both historically and in the present day, a fat woman is or was seen as sexually attractive. However, this cannot be solely because fat deposits provide the energy needed for developing a healthy fetus, as in other cultures, women so thin as to stand a high risk of miscarriage are considered attractive. Rather, weight is a visible indicator of social status and wealth; in some societies, only the rich can afford to be fat, while in others, only the rich can afford liposuction and personal trainers. Therefore weight is at least partially an indicator of social status, which is itself sexually desirable to many.
Some physical attributes are obviously coveted by more people than others. A stripper's success depends on sexual attractiveness.
Sexual Attraction of Men
No major absolute rules can be made for a subjective topic such as this, but generally:
Males demonstrate attractiveness by, sometimes, demonstrating their levels of the hormone testosterone by growing larger and well-defined muscles through exercise.
At various times in history and throughout various cultures and sub-cultures the growth, maintenance and display of facial or body hair produced as a by-product of testosterone activity within male bodies has been considered a primary characteristic of sexual attractiveness, and of a display of masculinity in general. Cultural development seems to oscillate through multi-generational cycles from one pole to another: extreme hair growth, especially of facial hair accompanied by elaborate grooming rituals is often followed within a couple of generations by a widespread antipathy to body hair and the widespread adoption of depilatory practices.
The causal mechanism for this oscillation has not been established but differences in the simultaneous characterisation of body hair attractiveness within a culture between different social classes may indicate that the dynamic force driving the diffusion of differing male body hair social practices is in fact mate selection by females.
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