Pajiba

IT'S 30 MINUTES OR FEWER, NOT LESS! STUPID MOVIE TITLE WRITERS!

mmm charlie day or as i call him, the not paul rudd hottie.

Maya Rudolph is plain looking.

I think she's awesome.

I'm not sure if she's listed up there as part of your point or if she's just in that photo example. But she's very plain looking, so. Does that work?

@automatic365 Ohhh don't you try and pull that stuff here.

I'm pretty sure that the female population of Pajiba also admits to utter shallowness in deciding sex objects, too. Or at least, I do, so in terms of purely anecdotal data, that's Trufax: 1 and Generalisations: 0.

(I say Pajiba specifically because I've noticed a lot of excellent lady commenters who defy gender stereotypes - as so they should - that are circulated everywhere else)

Also the point is less about whether you'd find a regular, albeit funny, person more attractive after some tequila than a model, and about the ridiculous trend of having a hot woman 'settle' aesthetically in her quest for love when she finds someone who's great in all other respects (when presumably, so is she, just with an A++ body as well).

I don't think a man is as receptive if the woman doesn't at least meet his minimum standard of attractiveness.

Now this is just an idea--stop me if it sounds crazy--but isn't there some possibility that our standards of what we will and what we won't be receptive to is based on what we are taught is normal behaviour in the same media that is shoved down our throats on the regular?

Put more simply: If Hollywood started cranking out movies wherein unattractive-yet-funny/wealthy/smart women were hooking up with gorgeous men, how long do you think it would take before we achieved some eye candy parity?

Put even MORE simply: Stop being so simplistic as to think that media reflects, rather than informs.

Your first pairing explodes your premise. CD is far past her expiration date, while the slimmed-down Seth Rogen seems fairly good looking, if I'm any judge.

Rupert Grint is HOT!!! I don´t care what you say, he is a sexy redhead. Really.. how can you not see that

All you neeed to do is look at real life. I see hot woman / ugly dude [fat, bald, old, etc] pairings in real life all the time (I even know some of these pairings personally).

I don't believe I have ever actually seen a truly attractive guy with an ugly woman. I mean that I have literally never seen this phenomena in real life. I've seen maybe a "9" guy with an "8" woman, but never a "9" guy with a "5" woman or anything similar.

I'm not saying its right, I'm not saying that it is not because of how media represents women, etc., I'm just saying that it is. Men appear to be much more visual and much more shallow in this regard.

And, unfortunately, I think the same is true of audiences - they can accept the ugly guy / beautiful woman combo - I don't think they would suspend their disbelief as much for the ugly woman / hot ugy combo.

Jesse Eisenberg is totally hot but I agree he doesn't really "go" with that woman. If anything, she doesn't deserve him. While I most definitely do.

Owen Wilson is getting girls in Midnight in Paris because he's a charming writer and 1920s Paris enthusiast. He's well-cultured, soft-spoken, and instantly dedicates himself instantly to anything that breezes by in a skirt and knows about Modernism.

Um, actually, I think that's exactly her point. Someone as busted looking as Owen Wilson, can charm his way into any pair of pants he wants to. Love the guy, but he is busted in the face. That's not a dynamic we ever see for women. So. That's the point. Where are the women in film with broken noses who glide through life on charm and humor?

Have you seen Kevin James' real wife? She makes the two he's posing with look ugly. It's amazing what money and fame will buy you.

I'm probably the only person in the world that doesn't think Emma Watson is fantastically beautiful so I don't really see a vast disparity between Hermione and Ron in appearance. If you want to look at the reverse, Cedric Diggory would not have been attracted to Hermione at that stage in character development. Say what you will about Pattinson but he was incredibly good looking in that movie, Watson not so much.

Ron and Hermione. Love Rupert Grint but, well, come on

TAKE IT BACK!!

#gingersforever

So, as a middlingly attractive man I Shouldn't expect to date a more attractive woman? Or do I have a better chance at dating a more attractive woman? Am I allowed to date women less attractive than me if they have attributes I'm looking for or am I purely obsessed with the physical? I'm so fucking confused.

Also, Logan, you're an insufferable twunt sometimes.

Bringing up the Kristen Wiig/Chris O'Dowd pairing seems odd to me because (even assuming O'Dowd is somehow unattractive), Wiig is also paired with Jon Hamm in Bridesmaids, and Hamm is much more attractive than Wiig is. So while one of the film's pairings kinda supports your argument, the other totally doesn't.

I agree with the premise, but not the particular examples in this article. I think pretty much all the dudes here, except Sandler and James, are attractive. And I think the ladies are attractive, too, but hardly any of them are as conventionally attractive as the article suggests. True, they're all thin, but that's about it. Brooklyn Decker looks like someone you would cast as the typical hot girl, but all of the others look like women you could dress down enough to look fairly "normal."

I more notice the disparity between older actors and actresses. Men in their fifties are allowed to get all bloated, puffy about the face, and haggard looking and they still get cast in movies, while most of the women stay slim and elegant looking. If older guys were judged by the same standards, I'm not sure Tom Hanks or Alec Baldwin would have careers anymore.

@Shawn, but Jon Hamm never dates her or really goes out with her in public. Like, she's good enough to fuck but not to be with. Because he is hotter.

And it extends to presentation as well. The men dress "average" while the women traditionally are "done up".

And for the h8ers saying those ladies are not conventionally attractive: "Hollywood Ugly" -- that phenomenon where normally gorgeous people are considered ugly by Hollywood -- extends only to the ladies. Ever seen Rogen in person? Not that great. Not ugly, but not memorable at all.

Clearly, we have very different taste, since I find most of these guys adorable (exceptions being Sandler, James, and modern day Vaughan).

I do agree that standards in Hollywood seem to be a little one-sided. Not sure why, but it seems not to be a modern phenomenon--after all, Richard Burton was not horribly unattractive, but he wasn't exactly in Elizabeth Taylor's league, either.

Putting aside the issue of romantic pairings, I think the underlying issue is simply that producers continue to cast women as eye candy. There are a disproportionate number of roles out there for pretty girls, which skews expectations. Hollywood's average actor is undeniably above average in looks, but Hollywood's average actress is a supermodel. And the extras and small roles are every bit as bad as the leading roles, if not worse... I mean, ok, I like looking at pretty people too, but is it really necessary that every meter maid and waitress and "Diner #3" be a knockout?

Even before we start thinking about matching them up, there's a problem.

And yes, I think Hollywood has some agency in forming people's expectations of how people should look and act. And if 95% of the women Hollywood shows us are more attractive (by Hollywood's standards; circular logic is circular) than 95% of the women in real life, what expectations will people develop?

Of course hot women will settle for less attractive men! All women are hot and there are only a small number of hot men after all. Oh Hollywood.

I would say that the pairing behaviors of women

1. I left 'Bridesmaids' in lust with Jon Hamm (obvs) and in complete and total love with Chris O'Dowd. I looked him up on imdb and started watching 'The IT Crowd' on Netflix.

2. Tyler Labine is hilarious and attractive and I would totally date him in a second (you could substitute the word 'fuck' for 'date' and this sentence would still be 100% accurate).

3. Nick Kroll, Sudeikis, Day, Rogen, Segal - see point #2.

4. Hot and funny is obviously the ultimate combo pack (Hamm, Rudd, Adam Scott), but funny > hot any day of the week. I can see most women mentioned in the article dating most of these men. What is ridiculous is when it's just a hot girl - not a hot girl with a sense of humor. A hot 23 year old swimsuit model is not dating an unfamous Adam Sandler, I don't care how funny he is. But Lake Bell with Nick Kroll? Maybe I've seen too much Childrens Hospital, but I could totally see it.

A family of Juliens. Durn the luck. I'll be in the admirer queue with the rest of them.

Hmmm. I find Sudekis, O'Dowd, Grint and Charlie Day all attractive. But I see your point. It would be nice to see it flipped at some point - see, for example, Ryan Gosling fall for Maggie Gyllenhaal (don't curse me for that choice, she's an unconventional beauty).

Re: "that's just how women choose men"

Yes, that's exactly it! I mean, that's why men in romcoms and other "chick flicks" - movies, specifically targeted towards women and made to appeal to them are schlubby and meant to be liked for their personality aand despite their so-so looks... oh wait!

Fact: everybody loves them some eyecandy. It doesn't always go with other nice traits, so people have to compromise, but let's not mistake settling and looking past some traits because of others for actual preference.
When it's time to go for women's wallets, Hollywood knows exactly what ladies like, and it isn't Kevin James. The problem is, that movies are actually made "for women" only if they're made specifically for women (see "chic flicks" earlier). Otherwise, ~50% of the population or not, ladies just don't matter as much as the men do.

This is why Circle of Friends holds such a special place in my heart. Minnie is as dressed down as she can be in that movie, but she still gets Chris O'Donnell, who was looking his absolute best.

I'm with you about 90% of the way, but Owen Wilson, despite his mangled schnozz, is wicked sexy.

In fact, excepting the aforementioned schnozz, he's quite handsome -- eyes, hair, bod. Yummm!

I'm shooting from the hip here, and this is totally not fully thought out, but my gut reaction to this (inexplicably continuing)debate is this:

(GENERALLY)heterosexual men and women prioritze different parts of the equation, but it (GENERALLY) adds up to who you want to be with.

And it continues with different aspects of "attractiveness" specialized to each person. It's just that we're so image obsessed as a culture that it gets the most ink. For example, I place way more value on a sense of humor than most men I know. I've dated some supremely intelligent (HOT) women that couldn't crack a joke to save their lives, and mastered the blank stare at my jokes (inb4: maybe you're not funny).

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