# Rules of Attraction, Part I - The Physical **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 31, 2009, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409 "2009-03-31T11:38:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/41 "2009-04-01T15:34:28Z")
Male Gay 63 People are surprised to learn that I don’t color my hair. At my age, it is still dark brown on the top, with only a few gray hairs. My sideburns and goatee are gray, however. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/42 "2009-04-01T15:45:10Z")
Male Hetero late 30s For as long as I can remember, I have always gotten compliments on my eyes (even from complete strangers passing me in the street). I’ve never ever understood it (they’re OK, but nothing special, IMHO), but it’s happened continually ever since I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/43 "2009-04-01T15:53:01Z")
Male Straight 41 Women notice my eyelashes. They’re the long, thick eyelashes women aspire to when they’re slopping mascara on theirs. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/44 "2009-04-01T16:58:16Z")
So, **ShibbOleth** , what have you extrapolated from all the data thus far? And are you going to respond to the poll yourself? ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/45 "2009-04-01T17:05:10Z")
I’m going to put up a second part shortly. For me: Male, 46, straight Now women seem to notice my (shaved) head or eyes. In the olden days I got more comments on my rear, mostly from dirty old women (in their thirties). ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/46 "2009-04-01T17:46:40Z")
50, Straight, woman. I get comments from both sexes on how supposedly young I look. I look in the mirror and see the cryptkeeper’s greatgrandmother! But people are always guessing me to be much younger than I am. ---
**Author:** ![sjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/47 "2009-04-02T01:40:39Z")
Male 30 straight I was surprised when a woman told me I had nice eyes, but it was a serious and sincere compliment. Since then I’ve heard it a number of times. Other than that, I haven’t heard a lot of physical compliments and the few I have heard didn’t follow much of a pattern. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/57b2e6/32.png) [@Quasimodal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodal)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/48 "2009-04-02T05:17:48Z")
Male, 26, straight People notice my dimples…woop de doo. Obviously I have super model looks if the only thing they freaking notice are my dimples. At least I am smart. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/49 "2009-04-02T05:59:57Z")
Male, 57, straight (married, if that makes a difference) My full mane of silver hair. The ladies loves Sunrazor’s white hair. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/50 "2009-04-02T13:12:39Z")
Male, 37,[Kinsey 2](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinsey_scale) My hair. ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/51 "2009-04-02T18:27:06Z")
Female early 50s Straight Breasts, even now From african-american men: my butt ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/52 "2009-04-02T18:45:01Z")
> [@Chase\_Ransom](#): > > Male > 33 > Straight > > Most often heard public praise: Hands and voice. My SO routinely goes to town on how amazingly delicious my mouth/lips are and how squishable I am. The squishable part is kind of weird, since I only weigh 140lbs, but my skin is pretty flexible. To each their own. Who am I to complain or tell her she is nuts? At least she doesn’t call you ‘‘Mr. Squish.’’ (He secretly likes it. We have a whole network of terminology now… we are squishes, we squish, and fairly regularly we are wild squishalopes of the northern frontier.) This would all be very embarrassing, if, you know, squishing the person you love wasn’t so awesome. Female, 26, straight I am most often complimented on my eyes and smile by men. Women notice my legs first. Men are most often interested in my rack. ---
**Author:** ![Giltathriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b38774/32.png) [@Giltathriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giltathriel)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/53 "2009-04-02T21:43:10Z")
Female 24 Straight Guys I’m dating are most likely to compliment my butt. The more polite/less familiar are most likely to say I have nice eyes. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/54 "2009-04-02T21:51:27Z")
So…am I missing part 2, or is it not posted yet? ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/55 "2009-04-03T13:14:05Z")
Male 41 Straight Women comment on my eyelashes. Back in my 20’s I got a lot of attention from gay men (a change of careers in my late 20’s means I don’t encounter many these days), and with them it was my shoulders (wide) and ass (narrow). **Hazel** - ankles? Really? That’s interesting, I don’t think I’ve ever noticed anyone’s ankles. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/56 "2009-04-03T13:27:55Z")
Please also contribute to the other thread: [Rules of Attraction, Part II - The Personal](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11001713#post11001713). If you’ve already contributed here, please also respond in the above thread. If you have not yet, then please comment on your physical features here. ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/57 "2009-04-03T17:42:16Z")
Male 29 Kinsey 1 (mostly straight) People tend to notice my eyes pretty much before anything else–I’ve got very blue eyes and pretty nice eyelashes. This gets weird at times (One of my grandmother’s friends told my mother, when I was eight, that I had “bedroom eyes”. Pro tip: please do not notice this about your friends grandkids ever, lest they reach 15 and realize what the hell you meant and still get kinda creeped out about it.) If they’re hearing me before seeing me, my voice gets noticed. I’m a pretty definite bass. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/58 "2009-04-03T17:51:30Z")
female early 30s straight Usually it’s my smile when they first meet me. Once they feel comfortable enough to make more lewd observations, it’s my butt. ---
**Author:** ![sjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/59 "2009-04-03T18:59:44Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > At least she doesn’t call you ‘‘Mr. Squish.’’ > > (He secretly likes it. We have a whole network of terminology now… we are squishes, we squish, and fairly regularly we are wild squishalopes of the northern frontier.) This would all be very embarrassing, if, you know, squishing the person you love wasn’t so awesome. > > Female, 26, straight > > I am most often complimented on my eyes and smile by men. Women notice my legs first. > > Men are most often interested in my rack. I think it’s interesting how a number of women have said that men compliment them on some feature but really are interested in their breasts. I understand how they might come to this conclusion and I’m not saying they are wrong, but I think many of the compliments for non-breast features are sincere. Personally, while I like breasts well enough and nice breasts will tend to increase my level of attraction in a person, they say much less about a person’s personality than their eyes or smile and that matters more to me than breasts. Put another way, if I were objectifying women I guess breasts would be among the top things I would notice, but if we are talking about real attraction eyes and smile are higher up. ---
**Author:** ![groo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecd19e/32.png) [@groo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groo)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409/60 "2009-04-04T02:12:39Z")
Male, Hetero, mid-40s I honestly have never been complimented on my physical appearance (regarding things that still hold true). When I was lifting weights and bicycling like a fiend who bicycles a lot, I was complimented on my physique; not so much anymore. When I had more hair atop my head, its curliness occasionally got me compliments from women. Before my eyesight started going, I received some compliments on my expressive eyes. Now, however, I’m squinting all the time, and people tell me that I look like I’m suspicious of people (so I attempt to counterbalance that with a slight smile). Other than my animatronic testicles (see [odd thread in MPSIMS](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10981060&postcount=159)), I think I might still garner some compliments from my legs and buttocks, which are still mighty and well-formed, though I no longer have the abdomen and shoulders to match. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rules-of-attraction-part-i-the-physical/491409.md?page=4)