Eye of the Beholder, Image of the Beholdee

I found this interesting, stop-the-presses quality article a few days ago - One-Night Stands Explained: Men Prefer Hot Bods to Pretty Faces.

It seems researchers have determined experimentally (and wouldn't it be interesting to know who paid for that research?) that men subconsciously look at women in terms of their potential for producing offspring, even when they are just looking for some quick nooky. A tight, supple, curvaceous body (stacked, to use the more precise medical term), in the male evolutionary memory, signals short-term reproductive potential, while a pretty face signals reproductive potential over a longer term.

Research also hypothesizes that women are less interested in a man's body (no, really!) than in his face because - in general - any man past puberty is pretty much always capable of fathering children. This, of course, tracks with other behavioral hypotheses that suggest a woman - who, after all, is the one who gets pregnant - tends to be more choosy about partners because she has to consider the long-term potential of a man to cooperate, financially and emotionally, in the raising of the child.

This explains why some men never understand what a woman sees in a particular competitor they perceive as being less desirable than themselves. After all, why else would a woman choose a fairly average guy like, say, Bilbo, over a buff, chiseled gym rat? Because they're thinking desirability over a longer term, rather than just the immediate gratification of a satisfying roll in the proverbial hay.

Just some food for thought for those of you looking into the mirror and contemplating what you see ... because the eye of another beholder may not be looking at quite the same image.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo