Thread: Can males judge other males' attractiveness?

This is something I've been wondering for a long time. The question is in the title, and I'm talking about straight males of course.

My guess is that the answer is no, because male attractiveness is a bit more complex or subtle than female attractiveness (I think, maybe not). I don't hear guys mentioning the attractiveness of other guys, but maybe they can judge, and only don't so that they don't seem 'gay'.

Certainly there are things that a woman would look for that a guy might not think of, and the standards for what are attractive vary from person to person but generally speaking I don't see why another guy couldn't notice something that might make a man more attractive like an athletic body or a handsome face.

I actually hung out with a crowd in high school that made it a norm to push the edge of what was acceptable for their gender. The men were just as comfortable pointing out attractive men as the women were pointing out attractive women though often we would question each other tastes.

I think you're right in that men are just conditioned to feel like it would be wrong or make them gay to notice a man in that kind of way even if it was just on observation. Women are a lot more free to notice if another woman has a nice body, or a pretty face, or nice breasts without it being turned into so much of a sexual thing. Like if we were noticing her outfit or the way she's wearing her hair.

I think it's goes along the same lines and a chick's friends can be called girlfriends, but a guy's friends are called guyfriends/ the guys

It just goes with making it seem more masculine

My girl has asked me what I thought of a guy's looks and, though a little offputting, I really don't have a problem with saying if a guy looks good. I deff wouldn't say he was attractive though as that'd be a little gay, lol

Unless asked, a guy will not say if another guy looks good/ attractive/ w/e. It's just not a guy thing to do. Blackberryfox pretty much said it in the last paragraph

It's just the social stigma we have

I say no... In fact I got into a fist fight cause of that question. I dunno why, there's just something weird about rating guys in my opinion.

Most girls are somewhat lesbian/bi. Guys looks don't really matter all that much.

I have no problem with acknowledging someone as a 'good-looking' guy. Personally, I think any guy that takes even the least bit of pride in his own appearance can recognize a 'good-looking' guy, when he sees one. (It's not much different from the idea that the most insecure people are the ones who usually notice the imperfections of others, the most.) However, the reason that most of them don't is because - as was said - of the stigma that 'guys complimenting guys on their looks = gay,' which is, in my mind, ridiculous.

Case in point: Some time ago, when I had started working out really heavily, some friends and I went to the beach. When I took off my shirt, my best friend said something like "whoa, man. You've really been working out. You look good, dude." I simply took it as an honest acknowledgement that my physique was improving. But another friend of ours scoffed and said "you guys are so gay," and walked off.

I can watch TV and see a male celebrity and acknowledge him as a "good-looking guy" because I'm not an idiot, and I have a concept of what many females (not all) might find attractive. Not because I find the man 'attractive,' but because I pay attention to women, and the reaction they have, when they see certain men. If you take all of that into consideration (and have some grasp of simple logic), it's not hard to recognize a 'good-looking guy' when you see one.

Doesn't mean you want to go have sweaty gay sex with him. Unfortunately, many people are just too shallow to understand this concept.

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

I have no problem with acknowledging someone as a 'good-looking' guy. Personally, I think any guy that takes even the least bit of pride in his own appearance can recognize a 'good-looking' guy, when he sees one. (It's not much different from the idea that the most insecure people are the ones who usually notice the imperfections of others, the most.) However, the reason that most of them don't is because - as was said - of the stigma that 'guys complimenting guys on their looks = gay,' which is, in my mind, ridiculous.

Case in point: Some time ago, when I had started working out really heavily, some friends and I went to the beach. When I took off my shirt, my best friend said something like "whoa, man. You've really been working out. You look good, dude." I simply took it as an honest acknowledgement that my physique was improving. But another friend of ours scoffed and said "you guys are so gay," and walked off.

I can watch TV and see a male celebrity and acknowledge him as a "good-looking guy" because I'm not an idiot, and I have a concept of what many females (not all) might find attractive. Not because I find the man 'attractive,' but because I pay attention to women, and the reaction they have, when they see certain men. If you take all of that into consideration (and have some grasp of simple logic), it's not hard to recognize a 'good-looking guy' when you see one.

Doesn't mean you want to go have sweaty gay sex with him. Unfortunately, many people are just too shallow to understand this concept.

Just about every woman I've ever met or talked to on the subject has agreed that this is probably one of the most attractive qualities in a guy. It shows confidence and a sense of security in one's self. That male macho bull that some guys tote around is just as obnoxious to us as I'm sure it is to any mature male.

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

Case in point: Some time ago, when I had started working out really heavily, some friends and I went to the beach. When I took off my shirt, my best friend said something like "whoa, man. You've really been working out. You look good, dude." I simply took it as an honest acknowledgement that my physique was improving. But another friend of ours scoffed and said "you guys are so gay," and walked off.

But drop the "You look good, dude" part and it'd be fine But "good" could be taken as "healthy/ fit" which may have been how you took it, but the other friend took it as "hot"

Originally Posted by Armistice

But drop the "You look good, dude" part and it'd be fine But "good" could be taken as "healthy/ fit" which may have been how you took it, but the other friend took it as "hot"

It's fine without dropping it. It's not friend #1's error, using a perfectly valid word. It is the fault of the other friend for assuming it meant something it obviously didn't. Just the suggestion that saying "you look good" needed to be dropped from a conversation between two best friends is a fine example of said stigma.

I think it's silly, and really defies all reason.

Of course we can. There are features of people that are universal to both sexes. Semetrical face, good proportions, in shape, good grooming...

One of these pictures is of a good looking man, the other is of an ugly man. Any straight man can tell who's who.

It's not that guy's aren't judging other guys on looks. It's just that we do it differently from women. We're waaaaay less descriptive than our female counterparts when complimenting the same sex's looks. That's also part of the reason why we don't do as much to get ready, because females are so worried about how they look that it becomes competitive. They know the first thing a guy is going to look for is looks. Guy's aren't worried about if they look better than other guys because women always want something more than just physical stuff. That's where being able to actually talk to women comes into play.

A hot girl with 0 personality has potential to go farther than a good looking guy with 0 personality because guys are more visual than females in general. If a girl really isn't that focused on looks like guys are, why bother? All that time that could have been spent on trying to look more presentable could be spent more on other things like a job, a nice car, education etc.

So what I get overall from the replies is that guys can tell if other guys are attractive or not, but mostly because they've been around women and memorized the types of faces/bodies that women label attractive. They can naturally judge a bit. Symmetry and correct facial proportions are probably nicer on the eye than a picture like the ugly guy above (I think that choice in image was a bit extreme because of the teeth). But there is a certain perception that women have of men, the feeling of the man being attractive, that men can't perceive. I'm guessing it's similar to my judgment of adult men when I was a kid, or even my judgment of men over the age of 25 or so now. I can tell whether a 30 year old guy would be attractive to women around the same age (or women my age who are attracted to older men), without actually being able to feel that attraction myself. I can tell the top image above is of an attractive guy, even though I don't personally find him attractive since he's a bit too old.

I've been learning a bit about the Ancient Greeks and the whole pederasty thing seems really strange - that they were often attracted to little boys, that it was normal for an educated man to take on a little boy as a student and have sex with him nightly. Also, even aside from that, from what I can tell, they were obsessed with the male body, practiced sports naked with each other, and it was normal for men to compliment other men's physiques. It seems that as a culture they were more fond of the male body than the female body. Even their statues of women often took on more boyish qualities. But maybe that was just the body - the amount of muscle. I guess it doesn't mean they were actually attracted to other men or could judge male faces any better than modern men can.

Originally Posted by Dianeva

But there is a certain perception that women have of men, the feeling of the man being attractive, that men can't perceive.

I'm actually a bisexual woman though I do tend to lean more towards other women. However there was one guy I dated who was perfectly comfortable going out and girl watching with me while we were on dates. I noticed that the things we found attractive in women were vastly different, and not just in a he liked blonds and I preferred brunettes kind of way. Often times he would notice things like her body or face shape, her breast size, her curves first while I would often see a woman's eyes or any unusual features that made her seem exotic, or the way she would stand and handle herself. A lot of the girls he found attractive I found to be boring while the girls I liked he thought were weird. *not sure if it ties in, in any significant way but thought it was interesting*

Can males judge other males' attractiveness?

of course not. that'd be gay.

Originally Posted by no-Name

of course not. that'd be gay.

Beat me to it ;_;

Most guys I know can't really judge other men. Though we can ball park it. I think if you ask most men if they thought a good looking man was attractive, you would get, "Umm I guess he is okay." Most can probably figure out who is good looking and who is ugly, and in general get some what in between. I think if you compared like five guys who range from really hot to handsome, most guys would probably lump them all as being the same, and likely could not tell who is supposed to be more attractive from the point of view of woman or gay men.

Can guys tell which face looks most attractive here? Is it just due to having memorized what girls like and consciously recognizing the proportions, do you see any 'beauty' in the more attractive one at all? Does it not look nice to you at least a bit? Sorry, I'm sure if the answer is yes, most guys will be made to feel uncomfortable about answering.



What about this one? Can you tell that this one is not as attractive as the attractive one above? This is what I'm really wondering, whether males can tell the difference between sort-of-attractive and very-attractive. (None of these images are of real people. The one below is a computer generated combination of 20-something different male faces to make an average white male face, while the two above are intended to show attractiveness vs unattractiveness.)



I'd also be interested to know if other girls disagree with my judgment. Does the bottom one look more attractive to the left one to anyone?

Originally Posted by Dianeva

I know this dude. No lie.

I find none of those more attractive than the other, and I find none of them very attractive at all, judging by my own preferences.

If I had to choose one that I thought was the 'best looking guy' (in that, I think it would be the one that women would generally find the most attractive, based on looks alone), I would say it would be the first (top left) picture. Personally, I wouldn't look at it in a sense of 'preference,' nor do I get any sense of 'beauty' from the pictures, but I do judge them on what I believe women would generally go for - or, more specifically, in a sense of; "if I had to choose one guy to look like, which would it be?" I would choose the top left.

I would also rate the picture on the bottom above the one on the top right.

[Edit]
I also think the question would have been more effective if you didn't put your own opinion in the post, Dianeva.

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

qIf I had to choose one that I thought was the 'best looking guy' (in that, I think it would be the one that women would generally find the most attractive, based on looks alone), I would say it would be the first (top left) picture. Personally, I wouldn't look at it in a sense of 'preference,' nor do I get any sense of 'beauty' from the pictures, but I do judge them on what I believe women would generally go for - or, more specifically, in a sense of; "if I had to choose one guy to look like, which would it be?" I would choose the top left.

I would also rate the picture on the bottom above the one on the top right.

[Edit]
I also think the question would have been more effective if you didn't put your own opinion in the post, Dianeva.

I agree with everything you just said.

They all look about the same to me. I honestly can't see much of a difference in the 'beauty' of each of them. If I were to rank them I would say they were all about equal. That said, the top left one does seem to draw your eyes to him a little more than the others. It is only very slight though, and I can't really tell if its because its the first one I looked at, or if he is actually supposed to be better looking.

By the way; I didn't say so, before, but I don't think they look the same at all. Similar? Yes. But distinctly different.

Thanks a lot for the replies. I think what I've been wondering for years has been clarified. Oneironaut, you're right I probably shouldn't have written my opinion in that post. I suspect some girls might find the bottom image more attractive than the left one. I think it might be more of an extroverted face while the top one seems more introverted, but I'm not sure.

Personally, I really don't buy the bullshit at all that guys can't tell what's attractive in a guy unless he looks for reactions from girls. It's as simple and straight forward as looking at a girl and seeing how attractive she is. Nobody can be retarded enough to say that John C. Reilly is anywhere near as attractive or easy to look at as, say, Tom Cruise.

Complimenting a guy's looks does not ever make you gay, because you're either born gay, straight or bisexual. I'm NOT impressed with men who are mindless sheep to social stigma, feeling like they have to be "masculine". In fact, that's the LEAST masculine or sexy thing you can do, yet most of you guys don't realize it. Real men make their own path and don't care what others think.