Isn’t that the Techno Viking?
Once again I have to say I’m loving hearing about women being attracted to skinny guys.
Gay guy here who is average body type and 6’ tall. I am happily dating a very short scrawny Asian guy who I am very attracted to. I love tall muscular guys, but short and thin is great too. Bonus points for smooth upper body. Not attracted to fat guys at all, regardless of height or personality.
I prefer men’s bodies to look fit, masculine (which means body fat on the lower side), but healthy and normal. I don’t like so bony as to be fragile, I don’t like super-low body fat with veins popping, I don’t like giant or rippling muscles, and I particularly don’t like high body fat.
Men that are fit and lean and exercise in ways that involve both strength-building and endurance, but who do not intentionally ‘bulk up’, have bodies that look great to me across a fairly broad spectrum of heights and weights. Boxers, swimmers, soccer and tennis players, surfers, mountain climbers, etc.
A lot of it comes down to the fact that I am a very thin woman. Most men people call ‘skinny’ have at least 30 lbs and several inches on me already. Men’s Health covers are waaaayyyy too much. Arms as big as my legs are scary.
Due to the topic of this thread; I hope you guys will allow me to brag just a bit.
In my twenties I had a beautiful head of hair, great skin complexion, a butt to die for and excellent BMI.
Now in my forties I’m a good forty pounds overweight, lost most of my hair and have little muscle tone.
Ya know what? The women haven’t run away screaming from me yet. My ability to get dates is just as good as it ever was.
So, yeah. Women are fucking awesome like that.
How YOU doin’?
To me, what this thread shows is that the tastes of the women here at the Straight Dope don’t necessarily represent the tastes of women in general. In my experience, women love a six-pack and love a tight, shredded physique.
Yeah, I think it might be a nerd thing.
Hey, to each their own. 
This is “anecdotally” true, in my lifetime the guys who are more physically fit and attractive tend to be more likely to have attractive women on their arms.
Of course, attraction is subjective and even polling is of limited use here. I’ve known a lot of women who say all that is important is a sweet personality and that the guy be caring and fun to be with, yet these same women wouldn’t give a guy built like Kevin James the time of day. I also know women who think Kevin James is the definition of “super fucking hot.”
What it does all mean is this, as a man if you’re willing to shop around you will find an attractive women who is willing to go out with you (attractive both in your eyes and in the eyes of society at large), you may also find that you’re attracted to a wider range of women than you once believed.
The math basically works out as this: most American men past a certain age will have a paunch and have questionable grooming habits. If you can at least improve on the grooming habits and have good self-confidence you’ll have no problem going out with a large number of women. The only reason I think more really “ugly” guys get less action is because they let the fact they are out of shape or whatever make them insecure, and insecurity causes you to lack the confidence you need to be generally successful in the dating world.
I’d agree with this as well.
I showed the thread to MizPullin and asked her opinion.
She said the rippling muscles of a guy scrubbing the kid’s bathroom is the sexiest sight on the planet.
::Toddles off to find cleaning supplies::
I’m not particularly attracted to men’s bodies; I mean, I’m a boringly hetero female, but it’s their face and attitude that gets me. A body with no head…honestly, my eyes skim right over, looking for something interesting to focus on. So I don’t have a particular body type, but I do know that I actually DONT care for men who are particularly buff. Overly muscled is…well, kinda gross to me, sorry. If your veins are popping out, it’s just…ew. Otherwise, the things I like/tend to focus on are there regardless of the body type. Something about just a little bit of hair on a wrist and forearm…yowzah!
Isn’t overly-done anything not appealing? Would you find anyone saying they think overly-muscled is attractive?
I think this thred does represent the taste of women in general. While many of us might like a fit guy, we’re fine with one who is fit enough. Myself, I like nice, solid shoulders and arms, as well as pecs (lol, pecs), and don’t really mind a soft middle as long as it’s not extreme. My husband fits this and doesn’t work out much, although he’s active just doing normal activities and such. I’m 37 and have had sex with only ONE guy who was a “perfect specimen,” IMO, and while it was nice it wasn’t any better than the less-than-perfect dudes I’m used to. And without disclosing my “number” we’ll just say it’s pretty far into the double-digits.
Of course, I can only go by my immediate social circle (maybe 100-120 people), and the few hundred women I’ve worked with in strip clubs, all of whom pretty much date either money (which is often older and not at all in shape), or normal to average looking guys. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb as say damn near every woman I know dates a little below her own looks level, if not a lot lower. Women like a lot of things, funny, intelligent, and yeah, looks matter, but not the same way they matter to men.
And I’ve known some very sexy, amazing women, but yeah, they just aren’t wrapped up in the whole body/looks thing. Heh, I wish I could show you some examples, perhaps I’ll ask a few of them if I can share…
I think, in the absence of everything else physical, a man who wasn’t really out of shape, had semi-decent pecs, wasn’t hairy on the back, had nice full lips, and wasn’t circumcised (some brownness is nice but not required) - I could overlook most other physical ‘flaws’.
In fact, other than my random particular things I find attractive, I think I prefer my man to be otherwise conventionally “ugly”. As long as he has the attributes I like, I’d rather he be unattractive in all the other ways to other people so that I’m more likely to snag him. 
This exact thought resides in my subconsious. I could never date a guy hotter than me, mostly because I like to keep the upper hand, but that’s a whole different thread.
Don’t go getting any ideas, now.
OK, do. 
Just like to dispel a myth that I’ve seen here stating, If a man is really cut or ripped it’s a turn off to some women because that means for them they spend too much time on themselves and at the gym.
For some men it’s easy when half the battle is what your eating coupled with a high metabolism. So spending on average 20 hrs a month at the gym doesn’t seem that excessive to me at all.
I can only speak for myself it isn’t about vanity but about feeling good about myself.