Fit for Sex!

Height, of course, is not the only aspect of men’s bodies that sexually excites women.

Studies of mate preferences reveal that women desire strong, muscular, athletic men for long-term mating as well as for sexual liaisons. Most women show a distinct preference for a particular body morphology—namely, a V-shaped torso that reveals a high shoulder-to-hip ratio (broad shoulders relative to hips). They are attracted to a lean stomach combined with a muscular (but not muscle-bound) upper torso. 

In fact, both sexes judge men with a high shoulder-to-hip ratio to be more physically and socially dominant—which may give a clue to its appeal, since women generally are not attracted to men who appear as though they could be easily dominated by other men. Men exhibiting a high shoulder-to-hip ratio begin having sexual intercourse at an early age—sixteen or younger.

They report having more sex partners than their slim-shouldered peers. They have more sexual affairs with outside partners while in a relationship. And they report more instances of being chosen by already-mated women for sexual affairs on the side. Shoulder-to-hip ratio also arouses the green-eyed monster: Potential rivals with a high shoulder-to-hip ratio trigger jealousy in men.

Men with strong, athletic, V-shaped bodies tend to succeed in competitions with other men compared to their frailer peers. Across cultures, physical contests such as wrestling, racing, and throwing allow women to gauge men’s physical abilities, including speed, endurance, and strength.

Scientific research, though, has discovered that men overestimate the degree of muscularity that women actually find attractive, assuming that they need to pump up more, or puff up more, to be attractive. One study compared the muscularity of men’s bodies in Cosmopolitan (whose readership is 89 percent women) with Men’s Health (whose readership is 85 percent men). Researchers rated the muscularity of men’s bodies depicted in each magazine. The level of muscularity depicted in Cosmopolitan (4.26) was nearly identical to the level of muscularity women rate as ideal in a sexual partner (4.49). Men, in contrast, mistakenly believe that women desire a more muscular sex partner (5.04), which corresponds more closely with the muscularity of men shown in Men’s Health (5.77).

Images of muscle-bound men have almost certainly fostered men’s misperception of what women find most sexually attractive men’s misperception of what women find most sexually attractive—just as photo spreads of impossibly thin women have led women to overestimate the degree of thinness that men find most attractive. After viewing repeated images of V-shaped bodies, men become more dissatisfied with their own bodies, just as women become more unhappy with their bodies after seeing images of size zero models. Fully 90 percent of American men report that they want to be more muscular. The figure among the less media-saturated Ghana is 49 percent. Ukrainian men lie in between, with 69 percent reporting a desire to be more muscular. As one researcher summed it up, the average man “feels like Clark Kent but longs to be like Superman.”