Men and Women Misperceive What Each Other Wants in an Ideal Body
If you ask men and women what they think the perfect body is, you’re going to get two very different answers. More than 20 years ago, a small study of 120 Caucasian, African-American, and Hispanic college students were asked to draw their (a) current and ideal body shapes, (b) the shapes they thought were most attractive to the opposite sex, and (c) the opposite-sex figures most attractive to themselves. Women expressed greater body dissatisfaction regardless of ethnicity. All test subjects misjudged which body the opposite sex would find most attractive. The women thought that men want thinner forms than they actually reported. Caucasian women had the most distorted views of what they thought was attractive while the African-American women had the most accurate perceptions (Demarest & Allen, 2000). The men drew bulkier female shapes. In other words, men and women misperceive what each other wants in an ideally attractive body. But that was just one of the first studies.
Another study also undertaken at that time tested the hypothesis that men in Western societies desire a much leaner and more muscular body than their actual bodies or the bodies they perceive themselves as having. The height, weight, and body fat of 54 college-aged men in Austria, 65 in France, and 81 in the US were measured. Using the somatomorphic matrix, a computerized test devised by the authors, the men then chose the body image that they felt represented;
(1) their own body,
(2) the body they ideally would like to have,
(3) the body of an average man of their age, and
(4) the male body they believed was preferred by women.
The men’s actual fat and muscularity was compared with that of the four images chosen. Only slight demographic and physical differences were found. There were small differences between the men’s measured fat and the fat of the images chosen. However, measures of muscularity produced large and highly significant differences. Men in all three countries chose an ideal body that was a mean of about 28 pounds more muscular than their own and believed that women preferred a male body about 30 pounds more muscular (Pope et al., 2000).
A few years later, in a study of the male body form, the ideal body measurements given by men were: body-mass index (BMI) 24.5, waist-to-hip ration (WHR) 0.86, and waist-to-chest ration (WHR) 0.77. The ideal male body as conceived by both male and female subjects was lean with high muscular definition. This would require a body fat percentage of 9 to 12 percent which is incredibly realistic considering the average fat percentage in 20-29-yearo-olds is 26 percent. Men want a larger chest size with slimmer waist and hips for that classic V-shaped torso. The male body ideal is larger and more muscular than the female’s male body ideal (Hewig et al., 2008).
In a study of Americans and New Zealanders, male and female subjects rated the attractiveness of pictures of the opposite sex with variations of body shape (n=488) (Dixxson et al., 2009). Men and women in their early 20s viewed illustrations of men and rated male trunk hair and non-erect penis sizes. They also rated graphics of the posterior full-body with varying waist-to-hip ratios and skin colors of females. The New Zealand and U.S. women rated the male images about the same in attractiveness with a slight variation in penis length. They rated the images of penises that had been moderately lengthened by 22 to 33 percent as more attractive. They rated the extremes of above and below normal as less attractive. Men preferred optimal female waist-to-hip ratios (WHR) with New Zealanders liking 0.6 to 0.7 while Americans rated 0.6 as the most attractive. This study confirmed that women prefer a mesomorphic body type first and then an average body second with some exceptions. This result has been found in studies of other cultures as well.
A similar experiment using a smaller sample size (n=80 college students) had subjects create the ideal bodies of both sexes using 3D imaging technology body (Crossley, Cornelissen, & Tovée, 2012). Both the male and female test subjects created bodies different from their own actual bodies. Females decreased their body sizes while the males increased theirs. Shape was a stronger factor than BMI. Females wanted a lower BMI with reduced circumference of the torso, hips, waist, and chest with the exception of the breasts. Most females included larger breasts in their female body ideal. The measurements given by women for the ideal female body were: BMI 18.8, WHR 0.70, and WCR 0.69. Men had similar ratings for their conception of the ideal female body.
Finally, in 2014, the UK lingerie company, Bluebella, surveyed men and women on the “perfect” man and woman using celebrity features and came up with these bodies above. In general, in this UK-based survey, it seems like the ideal female body for women was thinner than the ideal female body for men. The difference could be summed up in Jennifer Aniston versus Kim Kardashian, perhaps? Interestingly, the ideal male body is pretty similar for both men and women are somewhat similar, but men think more muscle is better.
Closing Thoughts
Several unhappy conclusions about male and female body ideals may be gained from these studies and its all pretty much bad news. First, the ideals promulgated by the culture are impossible to achieve without significant body modification. Next, women want to be smaller—with the exception of breast size—and men want to be larger with more muscle. Third, men and women misperceive what the other sex wants in an ideal body of the opposite sex. Penis size is always an issue openly hidden in the shadows, mainly for men, but that’s a topic for another day. In short, men and women misperceive one another and are generally dissatisfied with their bodies and will never be able to obtain the body form they think is ideal.
Paul Shane, Ph.D., LMT
Director, Academic Content
References
Cazzato, V., Mele, S., & Urgesi, C. (2014). Gender differences in the neural underpinning of perceiving and appreciating the beauty of the body. Behavioral Brain Research 264, p. 188-196.
Cloud, J. & Perilloux, C. (2015). “Drawing” conclusions about perceptions of ideal male and female body shapes. Evolutionary Psychological Science 1, p. 163-171.
Crossley, K., Cornelissen, P., & Tovée, M. (2012). What is an attractive body? Using an interactive 3D program to create the ideal body for you and your partner. PLoS One 7(11), doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0050601.
Demarest, J. & Allen, R. (2000). Body image: Gender, ethnic, and age differences. Journal of Social Psychology 140(4), p. 465-472.
Hewig, J., Trippe, R., Hecht, H., Straube, T., & Miltner, W. (2008). Gender differences for specific body regions when looking at men and women. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 32, p. 67-78.
Muńoz-Reyes, J., Iglesias-Julios, M., Pita, M., & Turiegano, E. (2015). Facial features: What women perceive attractive and what men consider attractive. PLoS One, DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0132979.
Pope, H., Gruber, A., Mangweth, B., Bureau, B., de Col, C., Jovent, R., & Hudson, J. (2000). Body image perception among men in three countries. American Journal of Psychiatry 157(8), p. 1297-1301.
Updated on 03-20-25.