Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Are Bishonen More Popular Than Beefy Guys?
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GVman
 Posts: 730 |
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Good Lord, man, why don't you just let it be? I've been hairy as can be since I was 14, and the only things I take any time to groom are my head and beard (no one likes a neckbeard, people, even if it's growing in everywhere else). I ain't touching the rest of the stuff. This idea that men need to be hairless is silly. Shit, I've never even been told by a woman that I need to shave my body; it's always been guys. I'm sure it's the same for women. I doubt many of them have been told up-front that whatever wispy dabs of hair she has on her body are repugnant by man. I'm sure it was another woman. I'd hate to think I had to shave my everywhere or rub nair up my asscrack. I think it's high time us hairy folk rise up and force the feeble hairless ones outdoors during wintertime. They'll surely freeze to death. |
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xyz
Posts: 243 |
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Bishies are more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes. I like them that way but in real life it's different. Looking at them doesn't equate to actually wanting them. Beefy guys are too much and I fancy guys who get their muscles from hard work than the ones who go to the gym working out (though I guess that's better than a couch potato.)
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Juno016
 Posts: 2420 |
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I hate body hair. My chest is hairless, and I don't grow a beard or anything (though I do have to shave stubble sometimes), but my arms and legs get their hair caught in clothing all the time. The fact that it's blonde makes it mostly invisible anyway, but I shave my arms (not armpits, since the hair helps lessen painful friction there) once a month and my legs once a week anyway. I trim everything else. My head hair is generally a bit long, though, for a guy. Sometimes.
And yes, I am quite feminine, and having found out I may have Klinefelter Syndrome, I'm not really fazed my it. After my gene test next week, if I find out I have it, I'll be more worried about the side effects to my health in time rather than how it makes my body look or my hormones jump. My body image of myself reflects heavily on my preferences of men (as in, what looks appealing to a straight guy like me). I'm quite skinny and light and I tend to find skinnier, lighter men more visually appealing. Even when slender, I don't really find muscled bodies that interesting. I love shoujo-manga style, partially because the men are more feminine, both visually and emotionally, than masculine. If I were a manga character, I feel like I'd fit into their group more than anything in a shounen manga. |
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2267 |
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I think you just answered your own question there. 
Nah, but as an asexual young female, I just appreciate pretty people on the basis of being, well, pretty. My real life tastes tend to skew towards hairless and athletically slender (is that a thing? I'm making it a thing). Off the top of my head, I really like how Lee Thompson Young (sans facial hair) and Daniel Henney look. Then again, I also think they have (had?) really sweet smiles, so maybe that's my barrier of entry.
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Treeborn
 Posts: 729 |
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What I'm noticing is that the younger females are saying they like skinny guys, while older girls are saying they prefer a bit more muscle on their men, though nothing overbearing.
I'm not, nor would I ever want to be huge, but I hit the gym regularly and have a bit more muscle than average. I just personally wouldn't feel comfortable having stick arms. I upped my routine and grew out the whole shadow beard thing a bit back, and have noticed girls have approached me more since then (I'm way to shy to approach them :\). I'm 24, so that also coincides with my first statement. I think this is more a question of age than anything else. Younger generation is largely the group that pays attention to media. Most people I know don't know squat about celebrities. |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1796 Location: South America |
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As always in the answerman they evade the question and even try to refute its assumptions, even though in this case like in the case of popularity of adult anime in both countries, they deny that the difference exists even though it does. And the reason is biological
In East Asia the biological difference between men and women and children is smaller than in Europe. The reason is that in Europe, females have greater amount of estrogen and males greater amount of testosterone compared to East Asians, so both men and women in East Asia are in hormonal terms closer to children and to each other. Also, the low amount of testosterone in Asians explains why North American women find Asian men less attractive than European or African men (both have more testosterone) and why Japanese men call pretty women "cute" more often than in the West: because they are closer to children ib biological terms in East Asia. I think that this smaller degree of biological sexual dimorphism explains why it's so common in Japanese media (manga, anime, games) for males to look so close to females to the point of being confused with females if dressed as so. As a result the aesthetic ideals became more "universal" in the sense that males and females' ideals are closer and also closer to children's looks. Third, one should also note that tennager looking manga characters are common even for characters in their 40's (Clannad). Finally, the reason why anime characters look like "children" is also because adult East Asians look closer to children than Europeans. |
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princess passa passa
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^ This! Finally someone in the forum that speaks my language. Gimme hot older masculine bishounen please and thanks *winks* |
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Fenrin
 Posts: 703 Location: SoCal |
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^ Haha that is contradictory, I believe the term you are looking for is ikemen
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AnimeLordLuis
 Posts: 1626 Location: The Borderlands of Pandora |
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Geez what ever happened to "It's not what's on the outside side that counts it's what's on the inside that truly matters" did that saying die in the 90s or what.
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PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2034 |
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I worked at Hollister last Christmas season, and almost all of my male coworkers fit that "twink" model, including myself. I've always been very thin (gaining weight, even healthy weight, is difficult for me), have a mostly hairless body (I couldn't grow a beard if I wanted), have thick/curly hair, a very prominent jawline, and look a lot younger than my actual age (I'm 22, but am still mistaken for 16-17). I actually have low self-esteem, and obsess over my appearance, but I'm always more worried about my face than my body.
I'm well aware that my "type" isn't for everyone, but it annoys me whenever I hear a girl saying something like "I only like big and hairy men!" It's no better than a guy saying "I only like skinny blonde chicks!" Yes ladies, some of us ALSO feel pressure to live up to certain beauty standards. There's far more characters in anime that fit my type than any other media. I don't mind that, but I can definitely believe it's because it's just more common in Japan. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4788 |
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To hell with that. Cheap bar soap and $3 bottles of Suave are my jam. 
From the perspective of a straight guy, I think full-on bodybuilders look completely ridiculous (I had action figures as a kid that were better proportioned), but I find the skinny pretty-boys so prevalent in anime equally so. I may be somewhat flabby and avoid exercise like the plague if I can help it, but I do take pride in the fact that I can grow copious amounts of facial hair, and if I did have my ideal body it'd be one with a decent amount of muscle to show. Then again I'm not in a relationship and don't really have any immediate prospects for one, so the only person I really want to impress is me. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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I seek the middle ground in such a dispute: Though I use both moisturiser and hair conditioner I insist on none but the cheapest of brands. Lip-service is service nonetheless! |
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iamtooawesome
Posts: 351 Location: Thailand |
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I think those hollywood female celebrities would prefer their men manly and beefy. Honestly I think those women who prefer "flower boy" types are those kind of people who belongs to "fandoms"(tends to be Asians or westerners who likes K-pop/kdramas or J-boy bands), geeky otaku or not. While those who do not belong to any would prefer ripped men.
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bin1127
Posts: 148 |
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lol i love the last part. It's like a reaffirming that time really is the great equalizer. Except that they probably dated the most beautiful women in their 20's.
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2579 Location: Germany |
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@Guile I just posted the eternal winner. Dick (hehe) has an athletic build, which would be "realistic", and he certainly has a bishounen haircut. Things start to look drastically different when he stood next to Bruce in his own Batman suit in 2010/11. He-Man or Superman esthetics are the norm and a more "sensible" character will start to stand out then. WB just put a film into cinemas where Batfleck was even more ripped than Superman... Dat training montage!
The biggest problem with Nightwing is that a lot of writers use him as a wish fulfillment device. They had him raped twice by women (at least) and the amount of random women he and Bruce burn though just solidifies that US comic writers need to get out more. The same goes applies to comic fans... I just typed in bishonen into google images and at least half the upper row are bad boys. The often recurring Sebastian Michaelis is my favorite, as he is a satanic serial killer. Upgrade to Hellsing instead  .
Question: Is Draco Malfoy the male sex symbol of Harry Potter and the pre-Twilight YA world? He has to be. |
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