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Comment by tclancy | Hacker News Reader

What does weight affect? Breast size? Hair color?

Cultures create an archetype of attractiveness and then everyone feels like they come up short. Tale as old as time.

While cultures tend to have different standards of attractiveness, weight is most definitely, objectively related to health. If you care about having a healthy partner, you should probably care about their weight.

The same is true of long hair supposedly (hair displays a record of illness). Does someone's attractiveness inherently change after a crew cut?

If you cant recognize the difference between weight and hair length as a reflection of health, I dont think we need to continue further

Now that's speed dating.

I’d venture that attractiveness does change after a haircut, with the degree of change being subjective. Does anyone truly think your hairstyle and length is not tied to your appearance?

Yes but that means different things in different contexts.

In some contexts a healthy weight is stocky with extra body fat that can carry a person through a cold winter or a famine.

In other contexts a healthy weight is leaner with less body fat to better handle a hot climate or chase down an animal.

Notice that I didn't say anything about what was healthy or attractive. Just that weight is a very valid measure of attractiveness. Though, it's simply universally valid that obesity nor very skinny are healthy, though the former is probably worse.

There is nowhere in the known universe where the average woman is taller than the average man.

Therefore, women will tend to select mates who are taller than themselves.

It’s not a cultural phenomenon, it’s universal.

taking it a step further, sexual dimorphism is incredibly common for vertebrates.

not just universal for humans, but pretty common in general.

Counterpoint: Anglerfish

Wonder if there any guys who are therians and identify as male anglerfish:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therian_subculture

A gas station while a bus of women basketball players stops for snacks.

Weight varies much more than height (there is 3x-4x ratio between extreme values) and is instantly noticeable unlike height, so I think this is a bad comparison.

Ok but it's still a really basic evolutionary signal, taller is better, especially for the hunting/fighting gender. Some dogs get up on their hind legs to piss higher on trees.

You don’t instantly notice how tall someone is?

Unless they are very tall or very short, probably no.

> What does weight affect?

Obesity is strongly associated with several health problems.

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