bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Suzanne Harrison

SUPERMAN IS A trustworthy guy. Even though he has X-ray vision, he rarely uses his powers when talking to Lois Lane.

But Averageman? He's checking you out  the minute you walk in the door.

'Men's sex drive is more visual,' says Hong Kong-based clinical specialist Carolyn Neunuebel. 'They say that men think about sex every 20 minutes because of testosterone. So, you can't really blame them for looking. Men do tend to rate attraction higher than women.'

No wonder, perhaps, that women are spending more on trying to look their best.

According to a survey of 1,000 people by StrategyOne - published in the June issue of US magazine Allure - 51 per cent of men  would rather go out with a beautiful woman  than one who's merely nice. And 61 per cent said they thought people have a better impression of a man if he has a beautiful woman on his arm.

Clinical psychologist  Tommy Chan Hing-moon says advertising is partly to blame. Standards set by the media are unrealistic, yet we're hypnotised by them in everyday activities such as walking through an MTR station.

'Look at  celebrities,' he says. 'Very few people can match those figures. Most of these messages are  insidious and  we're not even aware of it. It's hypnotic.'

To make it more confusing,  many women don't really know what the man on the street is  focusing on. If they went by the drooling references to massive breasts such as those sported by Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton's semi-nakedness, women would all be walking around in miniskirts with silicon on show.

However, it seems they're looking at a little more - or less - than that.

'The first thing that attracts most men is the face area - mainly eyes, smile, skin, and hair,' says 26-year-old  Andrew Ho Pak-shing,  a booking agent with Model Genesis in Central. 'Then we  look at the figure.  Some men find the slim build beautiful and elegant, and other men find a fuller figure beautiful.'

How about Hong Kong women? 'Beauty is in the  eye of the beholder,' Ho says. 'And yes, Hong Kong has beautiful women - of all ethnicities.'

Genesis has various criteria for selecting models. 'I look for  different types of models,' Ho says. 'Ones who have a common look that everyone likes  are ideal for advertising.  We need a commercial face, one that's cute or easily recognisable.

'Then there are those who have a distinct look  that grabs attention and  have the height for the catwalk.'

Hairstylist Rudy Prevost, from O2 Salon in Central, says he's most attracted to a woman's walk and her smile.

'My personal thing is the way a woman walks,' he says. 'I have a different view as I'm a hairdresser. I look at the eyes, but also the smile.

'There are a lot of beautiful women in Hong Kong, and they know it. I look at them and they turn their heads. If I smile at a beautiful woman on the street, most of them turn away. I'd prefer it if they'd  smile back. I smile at beautiful women all the time. Beautiful things are meant to be looked at.'

Alex Zenovic, a 28-year-old creative manager for makeup group Red Earth in Hong Kong, says that, because of his job, he notices the little things more than most men do, such as a good manicure.

Men don't necessarily  imagine a woman naked the minute  they set eyes on her. 'They're obviously looking at them, but not undressing them,' he says. Ask around, and you might be surprised at the Hong Kong male's list of what he thinks makes a woman beautiful, particularly their attention to detail.

'Smile, eyes, legs, butt, breasts, hair, nose, hips, tummy,  feet,' says one Hong Kong man in his mid-30s when asked what he finds beautiful in a woman.

Feet? 'She should have feet that inspire rather than make you feel ill,' he says. 'Weird bumps on the side mean too early a start in high heels.'

One 39-year-old  advertising executive  has a much simpler list: 'Breasts, eyes, lips, breasts, legs, bum, breasts, hair, nipples, breasts.'

Zenovic  says the stereotypical big-breasted woman tops many  lists. 'Curvaceous women who aren't too overweight are considered more sexy,' he says.

Another thirtysomething  male puts legs and eyes at the top of his list, with breasts at No 10. He also says he notices a woman's smile and  hair.

But, as  women have been told over the years, being stick thin isn't  ideal.

'I do a lot of photo shoots, so I see a lot of models who are too skinny and it's not sexy,' Zenovic says. 'Beautiful isn't skinny - but not too overweight, either.'

Slapping on loads of foundation gets noticed, too, but for  the wrong reasons.

'A lot of women apply too much foundation and often they don't know how to apply it,' Zenovic says. 'I think it's much more attractive for a woman to wear a small amount of makeup.'

Hair stylist Prevost agrees. 'A beautiful woman is still beautiful without makeup.'

Easy for them to say.  But looking 'natural' can take hours. Women are spending more and more each year on makeup, hair products  and health treatments.

Despite  a brief beauty backlash, 15 years ago, when  Naomi Wolfe's book The Beauty Myth hit the  shelves  - Wolfe said the pursuit of the ideal woman was the driving force behind destructive female behaviour - the desire to look beautiful is here to stay, whether or not it makes women unhappy.

In Britain, the market for health and beauty treatments was almost  GBP1.5 billion ($21.2 billion)  last year, according to market research group Mintel.

It found that three out of 10 adults had had a beauty treatment in the past 12 months, spending almost  GBP100 each time.

Earlier this year, Sydney-based  Heat Group released the findings of a survey  of 1,356 females of all ages: 94 per cent of those aged 18 and under said they wished they were more beautiful at least some of the time, and 25 per cent said they would change 'everything' about themselves physically, given a chance.

Women  aged 40 and over were more forgiving of themselves - but not much - with 85 per cent  saying they have below-average looks. But 31 per cent said that, although they may not be perfect, they're happy  with themselves.

When it came to what women would change about themselves,  the survey  found that 'bums and thighs' were top of the list across all age groups, with 32 per cent wishing for overall improvement, followed by 12 per cent wanting better breasts and 9 per cent better skin.

In the Allure survey, 53 per cent of women said breasts were a woman's greatest physical attribute. But only 13 per cent of the men  concurred, with the highest percentage - 31 per cent - saying  eyes were a woman's  best physical attribute.

'There's controversial research  about female attraction,' Chan says. 'But they say that beautiful eyes - and eye contact - suggest personality.  That's important because people are making a connection.'

Is it time to throw out that push-up bra? Perhaps not just yet. 'Most men look at women's breasts,' Chan says. 'This is probably to do with early development, conditioning and nurturing and that's a very ingrained message.'

Of course, this is an initial attraction.  Men's perceptions can change. 'It can become less important and they might discover that a woman is more beautiful when they get to know her,' Chan says.



What men want