I repeat a version of an old survey done by the Village Voice sometime
in the 70's, I think. The exercise is borrowed from an old grad school
colleague, Alyson Burns (now at University of the Pacific I think).
Specifically, I ask the men in the class what they think women look at
when they check the guys out. I write down on the board all of the
things the men say. Then I ask the women what they actually look
at/for. I write those things down too. Then I reverse the process--ask
women what they think the men look at/for, then ask the men what they
actually do look at/for.
What usually happens is that the women are much better at knowing what
men look for than the men are at knowing what the women look for. This
gets us into some good discussions about what shapes perception of
beauty and sexual attractiveness.
The entire exercise, however, can get pretty rowdy. It is fun, but
warning--you can lose complete control of your class this way!:-)
--Kathy Morgan
Wheaton College
Norton, MA 02766
ps--the original Village Voice survey only asked men what they thought
women looked for, and then asked women what they actually looked for.
These are their results--which I also share with the class after we
generate our own answers (my colleague Alyson used to tell the men in
her class that, based on these data, the way to impress a woman was to
walk away from her!):
What men imagine women admire (according to a survey of 100 men in
1979; data are % of 100 reporting a given attribute)
Muscular chest and shoulders 21%
Muscular arms 18%
Penis size (as suggested by tight pants) 15%
Tallness 13%
Flat stomach 9%
Slimness 7%
Hair (texture, not length) 4%
Buttocks 4%
Eyes 4%
Long legs 3%
Neck 2%
What 100 women said they admired (data are % of women reporting this
attribute):
Buttocks (usually described as "small and sexy") 39%
Slimness 15%
Flat stomach 13%
Eyes 11%
Long legs 6%
Tallness 5%
Hair 5%
Neck 3%
Penis size 2%
Muscular chest and shoulders 1%
Muscular arms 0%
Beth Benoit wrote:
I'd be so grateful for any suggestions for classroom exercises I might
use in the Human Sexuality course I'll be teaching in January.
Beth Benoit
Plymouth State University
Granite State College
New Hampshire
--
"We will not learn how to live in peace by killing each other's
children." - Jimmy Carter
"Are our children more precious than theirs?"
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