Attraction Is Biological

By Dean Cortez, M.A.C.K. Tactics

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Dean,

You probably don't get too many letters from women, but I've got a serious question for ya.

I’m starting to think the odds of hitting a million-dollar slot jackpot are better than my chances of finding a decent boyfriend here in Las Vegas. It’s not that there aren’t any good guys. The problem is that the clubs out here are filled with synthetic women with Barbie doll bodies and huge fake boobs…and the guys go for that look!

How can us normal gals compete with that?

- Jessica, Las Vegas

Forgive us, Jessica: we men are slaves to our biological programming. Women are, too.

When it comes to finding a sex partner, or determining whether the person flirting with us is “attractive,” it’s not the media’s standards of beauty that make us choose the way we do—it’s for reasons that are embedded in our brains and wired into our DNA.

A field of study called evolutionary psychology explains that most of our thoughts, feelings and behaviors are driven by biology, or “human nature.”

Over the eons, our bodies and minds have adapted to solve various problems of survival and reproduction. This is especially true when it comes to how we choose our sex partners.When a guy is out at the club getting his drink on, his stated goal is to meet hot chicks. But on a subconscious level, his mission is more specific: he wants to find a healthy, fertile woman to mate with.

And the most sexually attractive women, from an evolutionary standpoint, are “blonde bombshells.” From Marilyn Monroe to Anna Nicole Smith, from Pamela Anderson to Britney Spears (before she went batshit crazy), to Paris Hilton and Hugh Hefner’s gaggle of girlfriends, there’s something about young, blonde women of certain proportions that we instinctively find very attractive.

The reasons are rooted in evolution. Way back in 15th- and 16th- century Italy, women were dying their hair blond to make themselves more attractive to men. In recent times, a study showed that in Iran, the women are actually more concerned with their body image, and want to lose more weight, than their American counterparts.

Since Iranian women are generally not exposed to Western television and movies, how do you explain this desire to fit our definition of beauty? It’s because over the centuries, women have evolved to know instinctively what makes men want to mate with them. Thousands of years ago, the ancestors of theirs who fit that physical mold were the ones who successfully attracted men and reproduced.

So what is it about long, blonde hair that commands men’s attention? Evolutionary psychologists say it’s because lustrous, shiny hair is an indicator of good health, which men read as “fertile.” Because hair grows slowly, a woman whose hair is shoulder-length, or longer, is a sign of at least several years of healthiness. The blond color, meanwhile, signifies they are still young, since young girls with light blond hair usually become women with brown hair. Therefore, men who prefer to mate with blond women are subconsciously attempting to mate with younger (and on average, healthier and more fertile) women.

And by the way, it’s not a coincidence that blond hair evolved in Scandinavia and northern Europe. The women in those days concealed their bodies under heavy clothing, so blond hair gave them a way to advertise their youth to men.

For the same reason, men prefer a low waist-to-hip ratio. Guys have always loved chicks with booty more than the scrawny “waifs” the fashion industry tried to sell us on (a trend that was undoubtedly conceived by gay men). Women with these proportions tend to be healthier and more fertile, and often conceive children at earlier ages because they have larger amounts of essential reproductive hormones. (If you’re baffled by the popularity of Kim Kardashian, well, there you go.)

The male obsession with large breasts (hence the Las Vegas strip club industry) might seem to defy evolutionary logic, since a woman’s cup size has nothing to do with her ability to lactate. A Harvard anthropologist came up with the explanation: larger, and hence heavier, breasts sag more conspicuously with age than smaller breasts do.

Therefore, large-but-firm breasts provide a way for men to judge a woman’s age by sight. Back in prehistoric times, this might have been the only clue a guy had as to a female’s reproductive value.

Blue eyes are another universal preference shared by men and women. The evolutionary psychologists have some up with a pretty interesting reason for this one. When a person sees something they like, their pupils naturally dilate. (For example, when women see babies, their pupils spontaneously dilate.) It’s an automatic indicator of interest and attraction. The size of the pupil is easiest to determine in blue eyes; therefore, it’s easiest to determine whether a blue-eyed person is interested in you or not. This makes them attractive to us.

In the modern age—and especially in cosmetic surgery-crazed Las Vegas—any woman can transform herself into a blonde, blue-eyed bombshell through breast augmentation, liposuction, wigs, hair dye and colored contact lenses. Face-lifts and Botox shots can also help restore a more youthful appearance.

The bottom line is that men fall for it. We really can’t help it. It might be obvious to us when a woman is packing two big bags of silicone in her chest, but our primitive brains don’t know the difference, since breast surgery did not exist in the ancestral environment. We’re hardwired to find these features attractive.

So the next time your wife or girlfriend catches you checking out the double d’s on your cocktail waitress, simply tell her, “Honey, I was only subconsciously evaluating her reproductive ability. It’s an evolutionary thing.”

On second thought, skip that explanation. Better to just sneak a peek when she isn’t looking.

Dean Cortez is the man behind M.A.C.K. Tactics, the ultimate dating strategy manual for today’s man. Visit the Mack Tactics website to learn guaranteed strategies for approaching, meeting and closing the deal with women in virtually ANY situation.