Types
A post that's been sitting around for a while that I just now decided to post, despite its incompleteness.
Over intersession, Thomas, Wiley and I ended up sitting down at creating categories of attractiveness in both men and women. In essence, these are a nearly orthogonal basis that can describe a person's attractiveness (but doesn't really touch the ways people are unattractive--I guess they're only a basis of vectors in the half-space from zero to infinity). They include both physical and personality traits, since based on the way we tend to operate, these are difficult to objectively separate. Furthermore, it's possible to play up one or another of these vectors, and so the values are somewhat dependent on situation. These are, with the names meant to be only suggestive of the quality itself, for women:
For men, there are a different set of vectors. There are, of course, some correlations or direct linkages between the set for women and men, but since the two genders are different, so too are the vectors themselves. Therefore, a basis vector in this set may lie between two in the other.
I'd say that "my type" lies somewhere in between the girl next door and the amazon. Oddly enough, however, there seem to be two states. There's the girls I'm most attracted to, who are about 2/3 amazon, 1/3 girl next door, while the girls I seem to end up with are more 2/3 girl next door, 1/3 amazon.
Over intersession, Thomas, Wiley and I ended up sitting down at creating categories of attractiveness in both men and women. In essence, these are a nearly orthogonal basis that can describe a person's attractiveness (but doesn't really touch the ways people are unattractive--I guess they're only a basis of vectors in the half-space from zero to infinity). They include both physical and personality traits, since based on the way we tend to operate, these are difficult to objectively separate. Furthermore, it's possible to play up one or another of these vectors, and so the values are somewhat dependent on situation. These are, with the names meant to be only suggestive of the quality itself, for women:
- The Blonde Bimbo--Typified by people like Marilyn Monroe, Britney Spears, etc. These are the people most likely to be categorized as "hot," relying mainly on physical appearance and not anything else.
- The Girl Next Door--Examples include people like Laura Linney, Kaylee (in firefly).
- Classy -- Audrey Hepburn, Julie Andrews, etc. A style perhaps not so in vogue now, but perhaps best described as
- Amazon-- Xena, Zoe (from firefly, again), etc. The very manly women, who can nevertheless maintain some femininity. Outdoorsy, when applicable, and always strong characters.
- Exotic-- Angelina Jolie (in some roles), Grace Park ("Boomer"/"Athena" from BSG), etc. Beautiful in an entirely non-traditional, yet wholly alluring way.
- Motherly--
- One that I'm forgetting...
For men, there are a different set of vectors. There are, of course, some correlations or direct linkages between the set for women and men, but since the two genders are different, so too are the vectors themselves. Therefore, a basis vector in this set may lie between two in the other.
- Pretty--Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck. People who live by their looks.
- Boyish--Jake Gyllenhaal, Matt Damon, Ron Howard, etc. People who retain youthful good looks, without ever necessarily having a grown-up appearance.
- Rugged--Indiana Jones, Jayne from firefly, etc.
- Chiseled--Hugh Jackman, Brandon Routh (the new Superman), Christian Bale, etc. Very sharply defined facial features.
- The Silver Fox--Sean Connery (in later roles), Harrison Ford lately, etc. Older men who still manage to look damn fine.
- Sketchy-- Jack Nicholson, Bill Paxton, etc. Perhaps the poorest of the names, these are people who are attractive more for their power than for themselves.
- Classic--Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart (at times).
I'd say that "my type" lies somewhere in between the girl next door and the amazon. Oddly enough, however, there seem to be two states. There's the girls I'm most attracted to, who are about 2/3 amazon, 1/3 girl next door, while the girls I seem to end up with are more 2/3 girl next door, 1/3 amazon.