Which body part do you find the most attractive?

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Pretty self-explanatory, I think. And why? I'm not actually sure what I like. Probably eyes and face in general. Which makes me very boring, I imagine...

Paul Strange, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Noses. Noses are generally the first thing that I notice about people. Also feet/ankles/legs sort of thing. But I have my own standards of taste about both areas, I don't necessarily go for the most conventional.

masonic boom, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

The breasts and bottum. I'm sorry. I have to be honest. I wish I could be more noble, but my conscience made me be honest.

Mike Hanle y, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I have a thing about noses too, I think they can make or break a face. I also like men's shoulders (hair free please) and backs. Mmmm. And lower backs. Though these parts of the body are less interesting to converse with than faces.

Emma, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I was thinking of starting this thread myself actually, after some lengthy pub discussions. If I had to choose I'd say I'm probably a bum man. The women I know tend to have shoulder, neck and torso fetishes.

Ally C, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I have shoulder, neck and torso fetishes.

Madchen, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

armpits...yummmmm

Geoff, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Clean or stinky? Or either?

Madchen, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Noses? But Kate, you and I have *identical* noses!

Paul Strange, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Yes, and we've had this discussion before. You just want me to admit in public that I'm going to leave you for a boy with a large nose and a hairless chest and I'm not going to.

SHIT!!! I'm late for rehearsal...

masonic boom, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Well easy guessing what the kids nose is going to look like then.

I like noses too - especially Parson's Noses. The true answer to this - just to back myself up in my arguemtn I had the other day - is that I don't find the people physically attractive.

Pete, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

clavical

Jeff, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Hang on... who do I know with a large nose and a hairless chest...?

Paul Strange, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Pete, how can you not find people physically attractive when you live with me?? I am deeply offended and will now stop that cheque I gave you for Council Tax and Gas.

Emma, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Alright, I am also partial to the elbow.

Mike Hanle y, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I'm with Geoff on armpits - erotic perhaps because they can be either public or private body part? Sweaty/smelly puts me off a bit, but don't mind the Julia Roberts look at all...

Andrew L, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Notice eyes first, then arms/shoulders. I have a thing about arms, I guess that makes me most girls, according to what was said! I'm redeveloping my height fetish too - I don't know where that came from, I thought I rid myself of my insistance that all guys be at least 5 inches taller than me.

Ally, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

The small of my back, my beard, my feet, my calves and my penis.

anthony, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Q: Is the very common guy-must-be-taller rule the female equivalent of many guys' no-fat-chicks policy ?

Patrick, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Smiles are very important. :-) Not so much a body part as a function of one, but still.

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

It would be interesting if people named someone famous who fulfills their body part-fetish requirements. Sarah Michelle Gellar's feet, roooaaar.

Patrick, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

i was suprised to learn many women are attracted to tall. WHy? And If so, why don't I get dates! I'm tall!WHat's wrong with me!

Mike Hanle y, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Guys being taller is a common requirement because it's just a societal standard, I suppose, plus it's very easy for most guys to be taller than most girls, just going by the law of averages. However, when you are 5'8, requiring guys to be tall enough that your head is shoulder height for them gets to be a bit of a ludicrious, anger creating task.

Re: Celebrity fetish requirements, Richey Manic's eyes, but I would say that and let's not go into it.

Ally, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Depends on the woman. If she's got something to notice, that's what I'll notice. Be it facial structure, skin colour, hairstyle, calves, T&A, even make-up or clothes. It's non-specific, no particular fetish. Most crucial physical-attraction-factor is her face. I also like shaved pussy.

AP, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I hate tall. I love short. I like you short enough so i can piggy back you ,

anthony, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

It's cool to be with a girl short and light enough that you can carry her around.

Patrick, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

The mouth. Not necessarily the lips (although thin lips=mean-spirited curmudgeon in my own brand of face-fascism - I can't imagine a less attractive person than Ken Branagh [but then collagen-inflated upper lips are nasty too]), but more how expressive it is, how it breaks into a smile etc etc. Also: the neck, the eyes.

Re: the height thing. My own tastes tend towards the gamine, but I always end up going out with girls the same height or taller than me (admittedly finding smaller girls is harder for a someone of my stature). That charming woman, my ex-gf, remarked that one good thing about our break up was that she could go back to wearing high heels.

stevie t, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Face, Feet, Legs, Nose, what Mike said. I dislike elbows and chins.

james e l, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

(whispers: that part where a woman's hips just begin to flare out from her waist...)

Tracer Hand, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Feet. They're the best bits. So often spoiled but they look great, especially with a light dusting of sand.

Jonnie, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

As JP so romantically put it I too like "shaved pussy", and luckily for me, so does my girlfriend: I can't stand bits of hair stuck between my teeth.

Chewshabadoo, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

The soft dense fur on her face and back, the way her crest flares when she's angry or horny, her nictating third eyelid, her palps, the thirr of her chitinous exoskeleton just as she enters the imago stag..

mark s, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

The Shaved Pussy thing as you so delicatly put it is juvenile and sort of creepy
What was Mark S going on about ?

anthony, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Mark that sounds like a sex adventire!

Mike Hanle y, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

What's creepy about BIKINI HAIR REMOVAL? I am putting it in polite terms because really I think it's the terminology making them look like immature children.

Ally, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

A compley hairless cunt.
That is really icky , it suggests a Lolita thing, doesnt it?

anthony, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

No, loads of women do it (though, weirdly, I actually know more men than women who shave all their pubes - wtf?). It's not a matter of trying to look childish, just I know a lot of people who think it feels better/cleaner/sexier or that it helps out during sex and what the guys said about oral...

Ally, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Now i am a gay man . I give alot of oral . Never had a hiar in between my teeth.
How is it cleaner ? I know nothing of the female parts , but doesnt hair have a function ?

anthony, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Prevents dryness or so I've been told.

Josh, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

news flash from roomie: trimming pubes MAKES DICK LOOK BIGGER. so...

Tracer Hand, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I didn't say it necessarily was cleaner or that that was my personal reason for any type of shaving, but that some people say that it just "feels" that way to them. *shrugs*

Doesn't all body hair have a function?

Ally, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Not those single monsta ones which grow to four foot from your elbow when you're not looking.

mark s, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

If you're thinking of it from a biological standpoint, well, probably some. BUT I hasten to point out: just because we've got something on us doesn't necessarily mean it's got a purpose (say, evolutionarily speaking). Some characteristics may have been advantageous at some point in time, but not necessarily always an advantage up to the present day (or similarly, not a disadvantage). Woo hoo biology.

Josh, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I was going to mention liking girls with nice skin. But in the context of the current discussion, I'll keep schtum.

Graham, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Thought y'all might like to know I'm now sporting a moustache, for the first time in my short life. I can discern no evolutionary advantage. Yet.

Tracer Hand, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

definately, definately, definately shoulders and back. and that front hip area on guys. and i like height. typical. im straight, as far as i know, but i think the only women id be attracted to would be extremely petite ones. i dont know why.

amy, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Hairless genitalia = big turn off. Looks all pre-pubescent which is obviously not good and also gets rid of nice slightly sweaty smell of bits which = Rowr for me.

Richard Tunnicliffe, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Face is most important bit of all! I don't care about anything else. Though whilst on jury duty in May I developed a very short-term foot fetish. How odd.

DG, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

anthony - u've never had hair in yr teeth from oral? how? I forgot - buttholes are pretty cute, in a burroughsian winking kinda way.

Geoff, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I suck cock. Really there is not alot of hair.

anthony, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

"The soft dense fur on her face and back, the way her crest flares when she's angry or horny, her nictating third eyelid, her palps, the thirr of her chitinous exoskeleton just as she enters the imago stag.. "

mark s: That whole deal was very, very funny.

I, personally, am leg freak over here.

JM, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Um, Anthony. I've sucked cock too, plenty of times. I've seen some hair in my time. Half the time I end up trying to discreetly pull hair out of my mouth. If you have a special technique for this not to occur with non-shaved guys, let me know.

Ally, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Should we start the oral sex thread and have done with it?

Ned Raggett, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Use your tounge not the lips. Treat it like an ice cream cone. Do not deep throat.

anthony, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Suddenly I know too much about all of you...!

Shaved genitalia... too pre-pubescent looking I'm afraid. And think of the stubble as it grows back!

Paul Strange, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Mmmm, sandpaper.

Richard Tunnicliffe, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Ahem. Shaved pussy has ZILCH to do w/ "creepy" Lolita stuff. It's all about aesthetic preference. I prefer it to all other female pubic stylings: Landing Strip, Hitler Moustache, Bermuda Triangle, Simple Isosceles, etc. Additional benefits: (a) exposes labia better and labia is good; (b) whole it-ain't-dental-floss argument; and (c) it's turn on in & of itself. And Ally, hello, there's nothing "childish" about calling shaved pussy shaved pussy. That's what it's called!

AP, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

But Adults grow pubic hair. Its a neat secondary sex charachteristic. elimanationg it suggests soemthing , at least subconciously.

anthony, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Landing strip? Hitler moustache? I suddenly feel there's a whole world of pubic hair that I know nothing about! Crivens.

Paul Strange, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

lots and lots of pubes = bad, but definitely there should be some.

I like that small soft belly that girls have, not lardy but just.... there, hell, you know what I mean, and it's soooo nice to rest your head on. sigh

and I've got to agree with Jonnie's comment on the light dusting of sand on a girls feet and ankles, *that* is damn attractive

cabbage, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Me and my (female) chums thought that as we couldn't be arsed with going to nail bars and getting big long talons stuck on that would interfere with our nose picking, there should be pubic hair salons which would groom your nether regions. I think these do exist but are not so proliferous as nail bars. You could get, say, a red heart for Valentine's day, a shamrock for St Paddys (how scary would green pubes be?), boyf's initials etc etc. I read somewhere that you can get Swarovski (sp?) crystal tattoos (they aren't real tats, just stuck on crystals) on your genitalia too. A whole new world opens itself up..... (ahem)

Emma, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I had a crystal dick for a while untill the allergies set in.

anthony, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

There are. I'm sure I've seen them on late night TV or something. Have definatley seen pubic wigs, which are just plain scary and look like the pubes on the perverted pig present Ned suggested earlier.

I have to agree with cabbage's soft belly fetish. Really skinny girls are not right in my book.

Ed, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Google has told me that a pubic wig is infact called link

that messed up.

Its a merkin

Ed, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

aah I know about Merkins (though I'm not sure why) A couple of centuries ago, the way that ladies of the night cleared up their various ailments was to shave all their pubes off, of course this marked them out as being damaged goods, and so the merkin was born, a handy cover-up to make it look as if they were erm boxfresh, as it were.

cabbage, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Exactly which ailments are cured by shaving off pubes?

Emma, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Pubic termites are killed when you shave off the pubes.

Pete, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

thankyou Pete, yup, pubic termites, plus I think some of the tinctures thay may have used for the pox used to cause moulting too.

I dread to think what was contained in the glue they used though.

cabbage, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

alot of the syphlitics died of mecury(sp) posioning .

anthony, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Loads of salons do that shape cutting thing! They have special little stencils and you can either do it in reverse (have the shape waxed OUT of your pubes) or the regular way (make your pubes into a shape). I've never done it because it just seems way too weird, "Hey, look, you took off your pants and there's a playboy bunny!"

Ally, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I have never shaved my pubes. I never would. The whole idea repulses me, and if anyone ever asked me to, I'd kick them out of bed. The hair is there for a reason- it is to collect the scent and pheremone hormones of the women.

Then again, I don't really have that much hair down there. It doesn't creep out over the tops of my thighs and stomach- the first time I saw a woman with that sort of hair, it... gave me quite a turn.

I've just realised that the most attractive thing on a man is actually his fringe. Fringe and nose. (Paul will now spend the rest of the day fuming over men I know with large noses, big fringes and hairless chests...)

masonic boom, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Oh, and I actually kinda like men who are shorter than me. (At 5'8", it's not hard to find them) I often find them very cute, vis a vis my "awwww..." reactions to known shorties like Thom Yorke and Jay Ferguson.

(Cue Paul going... "Hmmm, big nose, hairless chest, floppy fringe, short... you're on about DAN CLARK again, aren't you?!?!?!?")

masonic boom, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Argh, creeping out over the sides and the stomach! ARRRGH! You ruined my day! I remember at the corporate challenge there was this girl in a belly shirt and shorts, and she had a very prominent happy trail and a guy-hairy back. I was just horrified. I mean great for her if she is happy with herself, but my god I'd put on a long shirt if I was like that, at the very least.

Ally, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

in a funk b4 taking off backpacking around australia, i shaved off all my body hair from the neck down - who woulda thunk htat after a 38 hour bus trip I would end up in some hospital ward with a boil the size of a golf ball on my inner thigh...ouch

Geoff, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

It makes me laugh to think those two events are related, sorry.

Ally, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Was the boil related to the shaving or no? I've heard that bad shaving can result in ingrown hairs, which would make very painful boils, indeed, I would imagine.

masonic boom, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

A female friend of mine doesn't shave her legs and has the softest nicest leg hairs ever.

Ed, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Hmmmm... Someone once shaved my pubic hair completely whilst I was unconscious, and it wasn't a pleasant experience when I came around (don't ask). Had to have my chest shaved fairly recently at the hospital, too, which itched like a monster when it grew back. And I looked about 12.

Hah Kate - I have a fringe! So what if I'm taller... at least I have red hair... Nah, it's a losing battle.

Paul Strange, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

For some reason I can only think of this question in terms of disembodied body parts. So, I'm having trouble answering. But if pushed, I'd be an ass man. That's not true or anything. It's just that I've liked the phrase 'ASS MAN', ever since Kramer had it as a license plate on Seinfeld.

Disembodied asses would suck ass, though. What is it with ILE and asses today?

Nick, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

You are beginng to seduce me Paul.

anthony, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

me to seduce you

anthony, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Scrub what I said about skinny wimmins. I just went out for dinner with my flatmate and our waitress had the most erotically attractive shoulderblades and vertebrae

Ed, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Q: Is the very common guy-must-be-taller rule the female equivalent of many guys' no-fat-chicks policy ?

Man, this is why I have no dates then, eh? No one likes fat chicks anymore. Especially fat chicks with no hips or asses. Can't win.

And speaking of hair, I'm very very pale and have dark hair. ANY hair on me ends up making me look like monkey woman, and I wonder if I'm condemned to a life of shaving.

Melissa W, Saturday, 14 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I hear you. Not only do I have dark hair + pale skin, but I have dark thick *curly* hair, which causes all kinds of problems when it starts growing back. It means I can't be terribly creative in my shaving habits - just shave what needs to be shaved.

Kerry Keane, Saturday, 14 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

My last gf had thick dark curly hair and it was lovely.

Ed, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Melissa, you are smoking crack. That pic of you that you linked to on the "who's your daddy ?" thread is gorgeous, and you look nowhere near fat. My girlfriend is significantly larger than you are, and I think she's beautiful and sexy and I love her to death. Guys who reject all larger-than-average girls from the getgo = pond scum that you should be more than happy to not be involved with.

Patrick, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

"no fat chix" = mooted and bruited by retards with penises, yes, BUT:

Largely policed by mags written, edited, paid for and read by gurlz...

The Marie Claire with hear'say on the front w/no clothes on had a ninteresting piece inside on ultra-fatness as prized chickfactor in Jamaica, where the unfat-by-nature take ILLEGAL CHICKEN HORMONES to plump up and snag a man (tho ICH bring with them industrial-strength halitosis and diarrhoea rowr)

mark s, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

"no fat chix" = mooted and bruited by retards with penises, yes, BUT: Largely policed by mags written, edited, paid for and read by gurlz

Very true, Mark, and it's a kind of being-your-own-worst-enemy that I can't understand at all. Why would anyone buy a magazine (or buy into the magazine's mentality) whose entire purpose is to make you feel inadequate about who you are and what you look like ? I think this would make a good topic for a thread. And it gets to the point where what those mags say women should look like becomes more important than what guys actually look for (i.e. A LOT of guys actually LOVE big asses, starting with me. Sir Mix-a-Lot = not an isolated case by any stretch of the imagination).

Patrick, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

The Daily mail too.

Basically there is a claque of style fascists who make the most expensive clothes for the richest people who have an in ordinate sway over some wierd idea of what's beautiful. I have no fixed ideas really about what I find attractive. I am attracted to complete people not individual body parts. To say looks are unimportant would be a bare faced lie, but they are only a part of the whole wonderful mix.

Ed, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Daily Mail: ?? Don't follow that, Ed. Who the hell takes their style from the Mail?

And superwealthy high-end fashion no longer determines "street" fashion: this hasn't really been so since the 60s; if anything the flow is the other way...

Elle et al is totally at the mercy of those who buy it: it's not a top-down phnom, it's a middle-out phnom.

mark s, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Not that I read it very often, sometimes it gets left lying around somehere, it has huge style beauty and fashion sections which continue the srtistos oppressing plebs style of the rest of the paper. Full of high fashion articles about brest enhancements diet plans etc. The society pages are full of the sort of rich idiots who are the high fashion customers.

Ed, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

This should be a new thread. I can't think of a way of introducing it though.

Ed, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

It is another thread now. I have introduced it by cheeking you, Ed.

mark s, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Melissa, you are smoking crack. That pic of you that you linked to on the "who's your daddy ?" thread is gorgeous, and you look nowhere near fat. My girlfriend is significantly larger than you are, and I think she's beautiful and sexy and I love her to death. Guys who reject all larger-than-average girls from the getgo = pond scum that you should be more than happy to not be involved with.

Add 60 lbs. to that pic and that's me now.
I'm not big in an attractive way. I actually would prefer to be curvy and healthily large, but I'm all amorphous and disgusting.
Or maybe that's all in my head but I certainly don't get attention from any guys.

Melissa W, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I hate it when people blame magazines or publications for this sort of thing. Do you know how poorly these magazines sell when they put a model that doesn't fit a very strict stereotype on the cover? It doesn't matter if the model is heavier/thinner than average models or if she's ethnic, it doesn't sell nearly as well as a magazine with the (EXTRODINARILY UNATTRACTIVE BTW) Gisele, for example, on the cover. Who dictates this? Obviously, the people buying the magazine. I'm not saying it's good or it's right or anything like that, but it's the truth. Models that divert from the model-norm don't sell, and most magazines aren't willing to take a chance on their sales to try to inundate the public with new standards of model perfection.

Ally, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

The problem with this argument though is that it assumes that magazines have no other goal or ideal than selling a lot. This may be true from a strict free-market pov but it's a bit limiting. It's the old NME why-we-dont-have-blacks-on-the-cover position, and superficially it's sympathetic. The NME's argument was always 'we put the predictable stuff on the cover so we can sell it and get a bigger audience for the unpredictable stuff'. But big fashion magazines make no pretence of this at all as far as I can see. That doesn't make them a social ill, but it's hardly admirable.

(NB Style and fashion mags nichely for big women are even worse because they combine paranoid positivity, a preachiness about 'society' and a total slavering embrace of the attitudes that go hand in hand with the body-as-consumer-good position they pretend to deplore. The contradiction isn't as tedious as the endless positivity though.)

Tom, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Um, I'd say most fashion mags don't have another goal besides selling loads and making money. I'd rather NOT have the pretense than have something ridiculous like NME, which knows damn well that a two paragraph blurb about something "out there" isn't going to get bigger attention for obscure or weird music. That's just lying, and which would we rather have, lying or honesty?

I don't really agree with the argument ethically, but it is the argument and quite frankly you can't fault them from a business POV. If people would buy magazines with, say, Emme on the cover more oftne, then they'd use larger models more often. It just doesn't happen though.

Which is of course a bigger argument to get into: why doesn't it happen? If all these people are so hung up on the idea that magazines should use larger models/smaller models/ethnic models/models with 6 toes/whatever, why don't they sell?

Ally, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Agreed that the greater 'why' is interesting too and overlooked.

I'm not talking about covers really cos the on-the-cover argument is evading the issue (no matter which side uses it). Put Kate Moss or The Strokes on the cover, sure, who cares, then people buy it and inside they find Kate/Strokes as desired but ALSO an ethnic or 'curvy' model or Fennesz or Missy Elliott. All I want from any magazine is variety - put anyone you want on the bloody cover, I don't care. Or does featuring un-modellish models *anywhere* inside also lead to that fatal sales drop?

Incidentally the NME while being very disingenuous wasnt totally dishonest - I *did* find out about tons of less mainstream stuff when I started reading the mag because I'd read the whole thing and so the two-para review of someone further out would seep into the brain just like the eight-page Wonder Stuff special (gah).

Tom, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

The cover of a magazine says an awful lot about the person buying it - ie - when you hand it over to the cashier she will look at said magazine and identify it with you. Hence the fashion conscious want to be seen with fashion conscious magazines. However it is not as simple as the name of the magazine, the model on the cover also says a lot. Hence super svelte model on cover says "I identify, wish to be like, am this woman". Someone who does not fit fashion magazine norm would therefore put a negative connotation in exactly the same way. The words onthe cover I daresay are equally as important (buying Cosmo says "I have lots of sex").

NME is perfect example of this as most NME fans in say the early nineties were into indie. Therefore if you had a rap artist on the cover a) indie boy might not like him, but b) indie boy could not be him or identify with because he was black. I would be interested by the way to see if Elle's circulation went down whenever they had one of the few black supermodels on the cover.

Pete, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

People who buy magazines of beautiful people shoudlnt be shown reality ayways. They should be held down for a pube shaving

Mike Hanle y, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Elle's sales DID drop, unfortunately. I don't have any exact link for an article or anything, but I remember a big hubbub over it and people using it as proof that the general populace are racist.

Obviously whose picture is inside the magazine isn't going to affect sales nearly as much as the appearance of the cover, which is why you do see more diversity inside the pages. Granted the body types are all still exactly alike (they use that pesky "The designers only provide us with samples in XYZ sizes" excuse), but the racial makeup and quirks are more apparent inside the pages than outside. The only magazine I haven't noticed that with is, actually, Cosmo, whose readers are all apparently white nymphomaniacs according to their editors.

Ally, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

GREAT SEX! Thats the lead in to many women's magazines . IN bright orange letters

Mike Hanle y, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Hence the fashion conscious want to be seen with fashion conscious magazines. However it is not as simple as the name of the magazine, the model on the cover also says a lot. Hence super svelte model on cover says "I identify, wish to be like, am this woman". Someone who does not fit fashion magazine norm would therefore put a negative connotation in exactly the same way.

While I'm sure that this is true, and only human, would I be opening a big can of worms if I also said that it's retarded, and a source of evil ?

Patrick, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Melissa - I have no reason whatsoever to believe anything you're saying :p

Patrick, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I should scan a recent pic of me then...
I'm not even sure recents pics exist as I've been avoiding cameras and contact with the oustide world.

Melissa W, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I think buying Cosmo does not say 'I have a lot of sex', it says 'I need to be told how to have sex'.

Emma, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Yes exactly, it seems a bit unfair to say that buying Cosmo sez you're getting action and buying Razzle doesn't.

Tom, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

inside they find Kate/Strokes as desired

Tom, please don't litter your posts with little bon mots like this, because as I'm scanning the thread, THIS is what immediately jumps out and gives me a heart attack, instead of intelligent discourse about magazine covers...

This is precisely the Catch 22 that was the discussion I was having with the editor of the guitar magazine that I never ended up working for: Kate sez: why don't you put all these grate FEMALE guitarists in your magazine? editor sez: because no one has ever heard of them, we will never sell magazines that way. Kate sez: why do you think no one's ever heard of them? Cause no one will cover them!

And so on and so forth...

There's a simple response to being offended by fashion mags: don't read them.

masonic boom, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I sort of agree in terms of music magazines, ie things need to be covered and promoted in order to sell, so it's a catch 22. However fashion mags aren't like that - how many of the skinny, white models are household names? It's a purely physical thing, unfortunately...

But yes, if it bothers you, don't buy them or buy copies of the ones who put people you find more appealing on the cover. That'll change things much more quickly than buying the regular issues and bitching.

Ally, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

"Canine -style " sex: classic or dud?

Mike Hanle y, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

five months pass...
Feet, female feet. They're just amazing, a powerful weapon of seduction. Their design is perfect. You touch the heels and you move to the soles and to the toes' bases and you feel that you conquested the world. It's so beautiful... I hate when the people keep so much the feet out of reach. They're like the second hands, don't forget that. You must touch them with poetry and sensibility.

NoName Messenger, Thursday, 10 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

oh i don't think i'll ever forget that.

ethan, Thursday, 10 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Back on the "why magazines with larger women on cover don't sell" question, isn't it that most people who actively want different sizes of women on cover are not really interested in buying said magazines anyway? (eg. even if Cosmo's cover-girls were larger, would that persuade, say, a radical feminist to look past the fact that the magazine promotes a strongly feminized view of women and is probably complicit with the patriarchy?)

As Tom pointed out, there's a culture within these magazines of the body as a consumer good, and (excepting the specific example he mentioned) it would make no more sense to match that culture to contradictory covers than it would to put an overweight man on the front of a Men's Health magazine. Which is not to excuse the magazines, but rather to say that the magazine covers are part of a broader culture that would have to be dismantled first.

Tim, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I haff figured "skinny girl" phenom out! [Insert entire text of Susan Faludi's "Stiffed"] So what these insecure gents are really trying to find are women whose actual bodies make their dicks look bigger! Pathetic.

I was just asked last weekend what I went for. I stumbled and cast about, I think settling on "eyes and face" or something like that. I've realized that it can be anything - all I need is a pinch in the right direction. Something that makes me go "hnur?"

Tracer Hand, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

thanks for reviving this, i missed it last time. mark s posts made me cry laughing.

Alan Trewartha, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

speaking of intriguing body disparities, how come in cheap junk mail catalogues in Oz they are allowed to have young females in udnerwear, swim suits etc, but you don't see any young boys in them, you just have these swimmers/undies on their own...what's the deal?

geoff, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Geoff wishes he could see the kid who plays Harry Potter in a swimsuit.

Sean, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I'll go along with Paul Strange on this one! The EYES have it for me as well! Makes me a boring person as well eh?

Gale Deslongchamps, Saturday, 12 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Nose hair

helenfordsdale, Saturday, 12 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

five months pass...
There is nothing like a think girl with pretty feet..

i play with my girlfriend till she's hot and wet.. then i flip her over onto her stomach and i suck on her long pretty toes and i kiss her soles... she loves it!

sometimes, i rub my cock against her soles when we're on the couch and i spew my hot cum all over her toes..

derrick haltiwanger, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

if i had to pick a body part, i'd say noses are good. i like big noses, on girls and boys. height is not an issue for me, i just like people with loads of personality.

queenoftheharpies, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

hey I'm a think girl! but that sounds gross.

maryann, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

At least he has the decency to spew hot cum. Imagine if it was cold.

Ally, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i like internal organs, esp. shaved.

, Friday, 14 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

teef

rainy, Friday, 14 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

five years pass...

the gallblader

Heave Ho, Friday, 28 September 2007 18:40 (seventeen years ago) link

The gall of some people!

Michael White, Friday, 28 September 2007 18:43 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/g/gaulishvillage.jpg

Mark C, Friday, 28 September 2007 19:48 (seventeen years ago) link

God, I love the stupid puns in A&O. "Petit Bonhomme", "Baba au Rhum", etc...

Michael White, Friday, 28 September 2007 19:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Left legs

StanM, Saturday, 29 September 2007 05:50 (seventeen years ago) link

BUM BUM

max r, Saturday, 29 September 2007 14:14 (seventeen years ago) link

tough one...

but i think eyebrows are important. i also like nice legs. and broad shoulders.

Rubyredd, Saturday, 29 September 2007 14:23 (seventeen years ago) link

everybody should answer bum, i mean, c'mon stop lying.

max r, Saturday, 29 September 2007 14:33 (seventeen years ago) link

okay i like bums too

Rubyredd, Saturday, 29 September 2007 14:53 (seventeen years ago) link

OH MY GOD. I WAS GOING TO POST A PICTURE OF A STREET BUM AND I GIS-ED "BUM" AND I FOUND SOMETHING HORRIFIC AND I WILL NEVER EVER WANT TO LOOK AT A BUTT AGAIN.

Jesse, Saturday, 29 September 2007 15:09 (seventeen years ago) link

If you're curious, GIS "bum" and look at the 2nd image. It's a bum gone bad. I'm on the verge of tears I think.

Jesse, Saturday, 29 September 2007 15:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Anyway, now that I'm not an ass man anymore, I have to say that my favorite G-rated part is triceps or forearms or face. My other favorite is the male basket--I'm sometimes surprised by just how detailed a view of their anatomy some men reveal through their clothes.

Jesse, Saturday, 29 September 2007 15:12 (seventeen years ago) link

stop badmouthing bums

uk style:

bum=ass
tramp=bum
slag=tramp

max r, Saturday, 29 September 2007 15:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Not just face, btw--LIPS.

Jesse, Saturday, 29 September 2007 15:12 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm sure we all know it already, but

tramp = slut
slag = http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:wxyDTYmUHAfUwM:http://www.nzsteel.co.nz/images/Slag-hires.jpg

Jesse, Saturday, 29 September 2007 15:14 (seventeen years ago) link

This needs to be a poll.

Z S, Saturday, 29 September 2007 15:39 (seventeen years ago) link

I get this for BUM:
http://www.bloggerheads.com/images/bush_bum_poster.jpg

Heave Ho, Saturday, 29 September 2007 16:30 (seventeen years ago) link

the kidneys

PhilK, Saturday, 29 September 2007 16:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Haha.

The goiter!

Jesse, Saturday, 29 September 2007 16:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Clavicle

http://bestuff.com/images/images_of_stuff/210x600/clavicle-22324.jpg

Jeff, Saturday, 29 September 2007 16:43 (seventeen years ago) link

The Collarbone's Connected to Slimness

Jeff, Saturday, 29 September 2007 16:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Ha, I said the same thing six years ago, I didn't even notice. Except I spelled it wrong.

Jeff, Saturday, 29 September 2007 16:47 (seventeen years ago) link

the elegant subtle curves of a goitrous thyroid gland can indeed be quite attractive

http://drdavidf.com/images/goiter.jpg

Heave Ho, Saturday, 29 September 2007 16:49 (seventeen years ago) link

The ankle.

What can I say, I grew up among the Amish.

milo z, Saturday, 29 September 2007 16:53 (seventeen years ago) link

Actually I would like to change my answer. The calves are the winners here.

Jesse, Sunday, 30 September 2007 08:03 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.babalog.com/archives/calf2.jpg

nickn, Sunday, 30 September 2007 08:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Those eyes, that mouth.

Trayce, Sunday, 30 September 2007 12:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Sexy chin, too.

StanM, Sunday, 30 September 2007 12:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Calves don't really have much in the way of calves.

Jesse, Sunday, 30 September 2007 15:10 (seventeen years ago) link

OTM. They should be called Nocalves.

StanM, Sunday, 30 September 2007 15:11 (seventeen years ago) link

I was researching the etymology of that word, and I found a bodybuilding site with this delightful statement

"I was standing there as Mr. Australia and I was more impressed with these guys calves than I was at my title.

It was then and there I decided I want to have some cows hanging out of my shorts (so I just trained them). "

Jesse, Sunday, 30 September 2007 15:13 (seventeen years ago) link

OK, so I finally got around to looking for the etymology of the word calf as in calf muscle. There are a couple variations on the root (though all are Norse) but all agree: origin unknown.

:(

Jesse, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 03:46 (seventeen years ago) link

three years pass...

Still pretty into calves.

o_O the humanity (Jesse), Sunday, 26 June 2011 20:54 (thirteen years ago) link

thighs, esp. big thighs.

corey, Sunday, 26 June 2011 21:05 (thirteen years ago) link

brain

mmmm, Sunday, 26 June 2011 21:07 (thirteen years ago) link

all things considered.

mmmm, Sunday, 26 June 2011 21:08 (thirteen years ago) link

yawn

Introducing the Hardline According to (jim in glasgow), Sunday, 26 June 2011 21:08 (thirteen years ago) link

Also the part where the back and buttocks meet.

o_O the humanity (Jesse), Sunday, 26 June 2011 21:09 (thirteen years ago) link

Vaginas

Matt Armstrong, Sunday, 26 June 2011 22:28 (thirteen years ago) link

the hat

ogmor, Sunday, 26 June 2011 22:45 (thirteen years ago) link

Getta loada them gams!

A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Sunday, 26 June 2011 22:47 (thirteen years ago) link

I vote legs. Any kind of legs!

Mount Cleaners, Sunday, 26 June 2011 23:24 (thirteen years ago) link

very attracted to medullas tbh

The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 26 June 2011 23:25 (thirteen years ago) link

Big tits

Muttley vs. Mumbly (CaptainLorax), Monday, 27 June 2011 00:59 (thirteen years ago) link

How does that guided by voices song go? "I'm a thigh man"

so confused (blank), Monday, 27 June 2011 01:02 (thirteen years ago) link

Natural red hair is the only answer I can come up with. It's just ridiculous. I saw a man who looked like a little hacking egg but he had red hair so I felt feelings that would definitely not have otherwise been felt.

I'll show you the power of laughter! (Abbbottt), Monday, 27 June 2011 01:04 (thirteen years ago) link

Oh, and the big tits have to be natural as well

Muttley vs. Mumbly (CaptainLorax), Monday, 27 June 2011 01:06 (thirteen years ago) link

Lorax, have you been away for a while? i hadn't noticed your posts in some time and was all about to ask after you on the milk carton thread

dell (del), Monday, 27 June 2011 01:29 (thirteen years ago) link

hair, hands, ankles, and face in general i guess.

i dream of tall skinny redheads with gleaming big doe eyes.

jumpskins, Monday, 27 June 2011 10:03 (thirteen years ago) link

im fwiggin cwazy for butts!!!!!!!!!

Ayatollah Colm Meaney (Princess TamTam), Monday, 27 June 2011 10:05 (thirteen years ago) link

buttcrazytam.jpg

For me face overrides everything. I mean there are certain body parts that I guess I'm drawn to but I would never be attracted to someone whose face I wasn't into no matter how killer their body. If that makes sense. As far as face parts go I'm going to have to say eyes even though that sounds kind of boring.

\(^o\) (/o^)/ (ENBB), Monday, 27 June 2011 11:39 (thirteen years ago) link

cant lie it's boobs

Chunks on strippers is the game of my frog (darraghmac), Monday, 27 June 2011 12:15 (thirteen years ago) link

I am powerless against a well formed bosom

frogbs went a-courtin' (WmC), Monday, 27 June 2011 15:00 (thirteen years ago) link

hips.

karma's ruthless invisible (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 27 June 2011 15:03 (thirteen years ago) link

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/109/405570921_5720f5bee5.jpg

The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 27 June 2011 15:10 (thirteen years ago) link

Pearls are not technically a body part iirc

Whitey G. Bulgergarten (Phil D.), Monday, 27 June 2011 15:11 (thirteen years ago) link

btw mark S is a fucking star in the early days of this thread

omg

\(^o\) (/o^)/ (ENBB), Monday, 27 June 2011 15:12 (thirteen years ago) link

hips is a p good answer for women imo

like I said earlier though face trumps all in general

\(^o\) (/o^)/ (ENBB), Monday, 27 June 2011 15:13 (thirteen years ago) link

Pearls are not technically a body part iirc

So you say....

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LNycjkgUcy8/TfZHL1uVxfI/AAAAAAAAJXs/qEA_qCLQAjA/s1600/gaia_cat_hair_ball_necklace_flora_davis.jpg

I'll show you the power of laughter! (Abbbottt), Monday, 27 June 2011 15:15 (thirteen years ago) link

!!!

\(^o\) (/o^)/ (ENBB), Monday, 27 June 2011 15:16 (thirteen years ago) link

is that a white chocolate kitty?

The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 27 June 2011 15:16 (thirteen years ago) link

the harbl

corey, Monday, 27 June 2011 15:19 (thirteen years ago) link


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