Monday, September 18, 2006
Favorite parts
I came across a photo by one of my favorite DeviantArt photographers, "Zedul" (aka Jeff Bowlin) that got me thinking about what I find most appealing in the female form. There are the obvious answers, as my eyes are always drawn to a woman's ocular receptors upon the first head-on encounter. If I'm trailing, the glutes are the opposite and equally obvious center of attention. In fact, if I come across a pretty pair of eyes and a shapely derriere combined with an approachable/interesting aura, chances are good that I will start trying to find a way to say hello. Those are the easy and immediate answers, but there is usually much more to physical attraction than the easy and obvious.
Reams of paper, acres of canvas, miles of celluloid and oceans of ink have been spent trying to capture the inherent beauty of the female form through the eons. The ideal female's soft curves and delicate proportions have confounded and possessed great artists since our earliest civilizations established the artistic tradition as an integral part of the human condition. As a heterosexual male, it is impossible to separate the sexuality of females in art from the quality of the piece in question. We are visual creatures and it is beyond our capabilities to deny the primal response all of us have when something attractive enters our visual window.
We take notice, even if we would rather not. Our mind makes a note, even if we discard it immediately. Not doing so would probably make us something other than human. The most fascinating thing to me is how different our respective ideas of attractiveness tend to be. You have your stereotypes, but there are an incredible number of exceptions to the general rules that adjust or downright defy the generalized expectation. And that is the beauty of our species' diversity...we are all over the place, from waif thin to morbidly obese and everything in between. Big boobs, tiny boobs, big butts, no butts, they all find a place, so it is not all about the cartoonish stereotypes that adolescent and overgrown adolescent males seem to embrace.
There is only so much power physical attraction can have over a functional, intelligent human being, and it certainly isn't the only thing that matters, but it is almost always the first impression we create of each other. It can't be helped, there is some level of superficial in all of us. We cannot be slaves to our eyes, because we run the risk of losing our souls, but our visual nature lends great weight to how we process and store what we see. I have a weakness for eyes and asses and I am not ashamed to admit it. Does that make me a superficial asshole? I don't think so, but then that sort of thing always depends on who you ask.
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I don't think you're superficial at all. There have been countless studies done on our human need to seek out attractive mates. Or at least what we each find as attractive. Maybe I've just been wrapped up with dance for too long, but I see every female as beautiful. Especially those without the stereotypical "beauty" distinctions.
Beauty really and truly is in the eye of the beholder and that's awesome, as far as I'm concerned. This makes it a lot easier for me to accept that interesting woman A might not find me attractive, because chances are pretty good attractive woman B will. Physical and emotional beauty are very subjective, individual things. I really can't imagine a better way for things to be.