How much does physical beauty really matter?

It’s believed that you make a decision on whether you fancy someone within seconds of meeting them, so how does this stand by the statement that many people make that they go for personality rather than looks? Personally I think that’s a crock of shit.

Of course personality is an important part but not initially. There has to be a physical attraction between two people for a relationship even to get to first base but does that need for chemistry sometimes mean we become shamelessly shallow?

Have any of you ever heard of the website www.beautifulpeople.com ? If you haven’t I shall try to explain its purpose. It was started some years ago now as a dating site for people that class themselves as “beautiful”, we’re not talking inside and out beautiful, here we mean only model, perfect, toned, manicured and hairsprayed beautiful.

If you go to their sign up page their USPs are as follows...

Do looks matter to you, when it comes to selecting a partner?
Do you want to guarantee your dates will always be beautiful?
No more filtering through unattractive people on mainstream sites.

What jumps out first to me is the people that you’re going to meet on this site are on the whole going to be as dull as dish water but look fit as f***. So if you’re just looking for a one nighter, all good. If you want intelligent, stimulating conversation that has a two way street and isn’t permanently consumed by ego stroking this site may not be for you.

And this isn’t the worst part...

To keep “ugly” people away from this site there is a brutal voting system to allow people to join. You upload a picture and existing members basically tell you whether you’re gorgeous or an utter dog. If you don’t get an above average rating, you’ve got no chance!

When you do get in, it’s not any nicer either. I signed up a while ago now just to see what kind of people would actually go on this site and intended to have a bit of a joke at their expense. To be honest, the site renders me a little speechless. I’ve heard some terrible chat up lines before and given some knock backs but never have I had the reply “Your loss, plenty of other dumbass bimbos on here that’ll have me”

Yeah, that pretty much says it all, thanks.

What’s made me think is the fact that this site has become a successful and profitable business for several years. It has members from all over the world who honestly and openly admit that they will only date people who they believe are on the same “beautiful” scale as them. How many more people are out there that think like this?

I think all of us are a little shallow in some respects, I’ll admit I am anyway. I’ve turned down guys because they wear god awful shoes or have an abnormally large head or short body but I’d like to think I’m not picking apart every potential partner until there’s nothing left but wondering if their eyes are symmetrical and if they’ll make me look good.

Most people have a “type” but I’ve never really been able to determine mine when it comes to looks. Personality wise I prefer to go for strong characters, those who are capable of banter, have a slightly darker side and are able to let their hair down and laugh at themselves. It’s also important to me that they are well educated, worldly wise and interested in what I am otherwise I tend to get bored incredibly quickly.

The last few men I’ve been attracted to have only had one thing in common; brown hair. The rest has been completely different. One was extremely toned and athletic, relatively good dresser, average but good looking face, average height. Second was tall, slim, covered in tattoos, pretty trendy dresser to the point of vanity. The third was a Pete Doherty look alike who even swaggered the same, dressed as if he was a tortured musician and looked like he was undressing you with every blink.

So I suppose you could say I am attracted to men with individuality about them and those who don’t have blonde hair. If you had to define your “type” what do you think it would be? Would you limit it so far that you will only go for a certain standard of person? Or do you believe that lust holds no bounds and can surprise you at every turn?

One question that’s always bothered me is this, and I warn you it may sounds terrible. Are we genetically tuned to fancy people only within our reach? For example, people that are classed slightly less attractive than the average seem to happily merge together when someone of an above average attractiveness may not fancy them. Do we have an inbuilt limit on those we are drawn to so we don’t set our sights too high? Or do we self deprecate and go for those who we believe are within our reach so we don’t get shot down in flames?

Do you ever settle when it comes to looks? Do you ever worry that you only fancy people who are out of your league?