Relived: Rock Band Rock Off

Watch me make a fool of myself in front of a large audience. The ARUP official Rock Band Rock Off. This was for ARUP's 25th anniversary. My band is from the department we work in, the Institute For Learning.

Back in a moment...

Hi everyone, just wanted to touch bases. I've been out of town for the last couple of weeks. You know, hiking and camping in the Uintas and the Tetons. I promise the posts will continue shortly.

Physical Looks

Before I dive in, I want you to know this topic doesn’t come from any event in my personal life. I am inspired from reading the study called, Young Women’s Dating Behavior: Why Not Date a Nice Guy? Turns out that women lie about what they look for in a partner. They list the attributes that are socially expected, but studying their dating history shows they ignore those attributes and are actually attracted to a totally different list of attributes. Men do it too. For certain reasons it is considered culturally inappropriate for men to state they are very interested in a girl’s looks or shape. So men lie about how important this is. When discussing attraction, we make sure we have a healthy list of personality traits above anything physical.

But looks count— a lot. I’m not going to lie about it. And I refuse to be embarrassed by it.

When I meet a girl, there are many attributes I consider when weighing if I will date her or not. I want to stress that in a detailed analysis ‘looks’ would be broken up into many different characteristics. They would not be my first attributes. There are many more important things to me. That said, looks are important. And for this brief discussion the term ‘looks’ is used as an umbrella embracing all physical attributes.

Now, some of you have already deemed me a jerk. Before the rest of you join those ladies let me explain why looks count.

I’ll start with the most obvious: A good looking girl is pleasant to the eye. Enough said.

Second: Body type. Physical shape denotes whether the girl is active or not. I am a very active guy. I hike, climb, bike, and on and on. I love sports and I love the outdoors. They are a disproportionately large part of my life. Accordingly, I look for a girl who likes these activities so she will enjoy doing the things I do. Body type is a quick way to estimate her level of fitness.

Third: Staying in shape is work. This goes for both sexes: a person who is fit, with toned muscles, has put for the effort to keep his body strong. We all know how easy it is to give up and let ourselves go. As he led his men through World War II, Captain Dick Winters of the 506 PIR made the solid connection that physical fitness is directly tied to mental and emotional fitness. Soldiers who let their physical training slip while in the field let other aspects slip: more important aspects dealing with mental alertness and dedication and perseverance. The same holds true for us. A person who lets himself or herself go because it takes too much effort to keep in shape is quite likely letting other things in their life go that take too much effort. Granted, staying fit is harder for some of us than others. But giving up is a dangerous indicator.

The fourth: personal appearance. This includes make-up, cleanliness, and dress. First, if a girl is clean and dressed nicely it means she is interested in making a good impression. This doesn’t correlate at all with her availability to date. It does, however, give insight into the way she intends to interact with the world (including people she will date). Second, if she takes care of her appearance she most likely pays close attention to other aspects of her life; whether mind, emotions, or goals. A clean body likes to stay clean and tends not to live in filth and chaos. A girl who is willing to spend an hour a day washing and straightening her hair is often willing to spend ten minutes straightening her room or studying.

I think I’ve made my point by now. Yes looks do attract men physically. Perhaps many men never move past my first point: they like to look at and touch pretty girls and that is enough. But more importantly, looks can give a glimpse of who the girl really is: her passions, habits, and hobbies. And that is why looks count for me. They tell me about the girl.