Maybe these aren't the "same men", but it's interesting that men see and admit this phenomenon exists in the reverse (Men prefer cuter/sportier/more natural looking women and that a lot of what women do to look good is meant to appeal to other women) but not the reverse?

But even I can sort of look at the two pictures, and my gut reaction is, I'd like to look like the guy on the right, but I'd rather be friends with the guy on the left. Maybe it's a feeling of safety? Maybe a little pudge is like imagining being curled up on a warm sofa rather than a cot of metal coils? But then maybe, just to sort of give this a little credence. While I'd like to be friends with the guy on the left. There is a part of me that's like. Maybe I'd ask the guy on the right for advice on my stock portfolio? Tips to get ahead in the workplace? I do value some of those things, but not in my close personal life. I am transactional in the spaces it matters.

"It is, after all, a special case of the central liberal delusion that all people are the same"

lol this was not going the direction I thought, this person apparently has the completely opposite thesis I do.

I'll not another weird thing about this "liberal delusion that all people are the same" is that they seem committed to category theory. They're very committed to the idea that men and women are not the same, but sort of equally suspicious of the idea that there are strong within group differences. i.e. they want to say something like all women are all the same and all men are all the same and all women are different from all men in some substantial way.