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Full tables are available upon request Men Slim Slender Average Athletic Fit Thick Extra Large Voluptuous Independent Variables Race—ethnicity African American 0. We employ separate logistic regression models to test each hypothesis. First, since daters can choose any number of the ten body types, there are over 1,000 different possible combinations of body type preferences daters can indicate. This is particularly true as internet dating becomes a more prevalent way to meet dates; over one-third of adults who use the internet and are seeking romantic partners have gone to dating websites Madden and Lenhart.
All of these studies that assess body type preferences are methodologically limited. Wanted: Thin Women and Fit Men We also examine if daters who do have body type preferences are likely to prefer dates who exhibit the dominant cultural idealizations of a beautiful body.
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We are experimenting with display styles that make it easier to read articles in PMC. The ePub format is best viewed in the iBooks reader. You may notice problems with the display of certain parts of an article in other eReaders. Generating an ePub file may take a long time, please be patient. Employing a United States sample of 5,810 Yahoo heterosexual internet dating profiles, this study finds race—ethnicity and gender influence body type preferences for dates, with men and whites significantly more likely than women and non-whites to have such preferences. White males are more likely than non-white men to prefer to date thin and toned women, while African-American and Latino men are significantly more likely than white men to prefer female dates with thick or large bodies. Introduction This study compares differences in body type preferences for dates between African Americans, Asians, Latinos and whites in the United States. With an intersectionality perspective, we address gender and race—ethnicity simultaneously. Using logistic and linear regressions we analyze a unique dataset compiled from the internet dating profiles of heterosexual males and females, African Americans, Asians, Latinos and whites in the United States, who are between the ages of 18—50. We expand on the work of several scholars who address the body as a site of inequality e. Bordo , ; Collins ; Foster ; Pipher ; Urla and Swedlund ; Wolf by examining the intersection of race—ethnicity and gender, as they affect body type preferences for potential partners. There is mixed evidence regarding racial—ethnic differences in body type preferences. Some studies suggest that culture plays a significant role in body type preferences with African Americans and Latinos more accepting of heavier body types than whites e. Crandall and Martinez ; Desmond et al. All of these studies that assess body type preferences are methodologically limited. Many studies include ratings of silhouette figures e. Altabe ; Demarest and Allen or adolescents Crandall and Martinez , a specific gender sample Cash and Henry ; Poran , or a particular community population e. The methods vary significantly. For example, several of these studies do not control for the age and education level of respondents see Cachelin , and this may account for the differences in their findings. Most importantly, they do not test racial—ethnic and gender body type preferences of daters in an actual setting. It is the first to systematically test the extent to which African-American, Asian, Latino, and white men and women of different ages, and in an actual dating context, may similarly prefer dominant portrayals of ideal bodies; that is thin women and muscular men, in dating preferences. We focus our review of the literature exclusively on those studies that address the United States, unless otherwise noted, since that is the location of our sample of daters. Gendered Body Type Preferences To begin, we are interested in whether men or women are more likely to state specific body type preferences for a date. There is an extensive literature on sex differences in mate preferences showing that men place greater value than women on the physical attractiveness of an ideal mate e. Buss ; Feingold , ; Goodwin ; Hill ; Smith and Waldorf ; Sprecher, Sullivan and Hatfield ; Townsend. Although they may do so, there is scant empirical data showing the extent to which men have more specific body type preferences than do women. While not the focus of their college student speed daters study, Kurzban and Weeden , p. Women also suffer harsher social consequences for violating standards of beautiful bodies than men Cash and Roy ; Stake and Lauer. Overweight female college students are less likely to be currently dating, more likely to date less frequently overall, and to perceive their dates as less satisfied when compared to overweight male college students Stake and Lauer. To be certain, images of muscular men have gained popularity Spitzer, Henderson, and Zivian ; Trujillo , but representations of men are far less constrained Hanke ; Nixon because men also gain status from power, wealth or prestige Hanke. We test this hypothesis with two logistic regression models. Past research has identified these factors as important predictors of marital partner choice or body type preferences. Although our focus is on racial—ethnic and gender differences, we also consider the influence of other factors that have typically been studied in conjunction with mate selection including age, level of education and geographic region see Kalmijn for a comprehensive review of intermediaries in marriage trends. Education is another important control for various reasons. First, there are racial—ethnic variations in education on a national level Kane , which are also present in our sample. Another important exchange factor of this nature is income, which will not be included in our analysis due to a non-response rate in the final sample of over 50%. We also control for age and region. Men and women differ in their age preferences for mates; men generally prefer younger women and women prefer older men Wiederman. It might also be the case that body and beauty norms vary by the region of the country in which one lives. For example, Georgia has higher obesity rates than California CDC , so a dater in Atlanta may be more open to larger body types and less open to smaller body types than a dater in L. The daters in our sample are from within 50 miles of four U. We selected these four regions to ensure diversity in our sample, as these are geographically dispersed and have different racial—ethnic compositions. Since we expect that body type preferences will vary by race—ethnicity, it is important to control for region to be sure we are testing racial—ethnic differences and not simply regional differences. We also control for dater selectivity by measuring the number of specific preferences a dater makes. Past research finds one's own body type influences the body types desired in potential dates Cachelin et al. Daters could indicate their own body type as being one of the following: Slim, Slender, Average, Fit, Thick, A few extra, Large, Curvy or Voluptuous. We collapsed these into four broad categories: Small Slim or Slender , Average Average , Athletic Fit or Athletic and Large Thick, A few extra, Large, Curvy or Voluptuous. Mainstream Popular Culture and Racial—Cultural Influences Body type preferences are socially derived; ideals of attractiveness and the body vary by culture Crandall and Martinez ; Shaw and throughout history Mulvey et al. We assert that body type preferences are driven by mainstream popular culture as well as other racial—cultural influences. Such images provide a standard for all that may be negotiated but must be engaged because of its pervasiveness and its association to structures of power and domination. There are many different images of beauty in various segments of popular culture so that even if dominant hegemonic images persist, individuals are still able to choose among a variety of images. For example, the internet and non-white magazines provide resources that may promote opposing images. As we stated at the outset, study results are inconclusive regarding the extent to which non-whites adhere to dominant standards of beauty. Similarly, the community study of African American, Asian, Latino and white dieters of Cachelin et al. In contrast, studies show that white men prefer thin bodies for women Greenberg and LaPorte and that they feel they would be ridiculed for dating a woman with a heavier than the ideal body type Powell and Kahn , although some studies show they equally prefer thin and average bodies Furnham and Radley ; Furnham, Hester and Weir. Additional studies confirm racial—ethnic differences such that African-American men are more accepting of heavier women, but white men choose thinner silhouette figures as ideal female body types, and hope their girlfriends will lose weight significantly more often than African-American men Greenberg and LaPorte. Compared to white men, African-American men prefer larger body types for women and attribute fewer negative and more positive personality traits and qualities to obese women Jackson and McGill. Other studies show that non-whites are heavily influenced by their respective racial—ethnic cultural standards of beauty e. Crandall and Martinez ; Desmond et al. For example, race—ethnicity affects what parts of teen magazines young girls focus on, such that African-American girls are less likely than white girls to read the sections focused on beauty tips Duke. Non-white minorities, particularly non-white minority women, do not accept the mainstream, white beauty and body ideals see Barnett, Keel and Conoscenti ; Demarest and Allen ; Duke , and are more accepting of heavier bodies defining beauty in terms of personality traits rather than as physical characteristics Landrine, Klonoff and Brown-Collins ; Parker et al. Beauboeuf-Lafontant and Root find that African-American and Latina women have a lower incidence of eating disorders than do white women, and Schooler and colleagues conclude that exposure to mainstream i. Yet, these findings have been contradicted by the work of Shaw and colleagues , who find no significant ethnic differences in eating disturbances. Some scholars suggest that non-whites have oppositional ways of interpreting the dominant cultural images of beauty or that people of color find sources other than mainstream mass media and popular culture to form their ideals of beauty see Craig ; Duke ; Durham. Racial—ethnic groups may be insolated by their culture. Latinos, for example, report higher desired weights for women than do whites Winkleby et al. Shapelier and heavier body types are not only accepted within the community, but more desired. There are few studies assessing the preferred body types of heterosexual Asian Americans, or their preferences for opposite sex body types. The results of these studies are contradictory with some concluding that white women are less satisfied with their bodies than are Asian-American women Akan and Grilo ; Altabe , and other studies finding Asian-American women are as likely as are white women to have body concerns and weight dissatisfaction Gluck and Geliebter ; Koff et al. There is some evidence showing that acculturation and the acceptance of Western ideals is a major risk factor for eating disorders among Asian Americans Davis and Katzman ; Hall. Asian-American women exhibiting a stronger adherence to family norms are less likely to develop bulimia or anorexia. This suggests that Asian Americans, much like Latinos, and African Americans similarly experience conflicting messages between their culture and the dominant white culture. Given the conflicting findings of these studies, it is difficult to predict the extent to which racial—cultural influences override the influences of the dominant culture. Still, we reason that in the absence of competing racial cultural imagery, whites will be more highly influenced than are non-whites by dominant cultural imagery. Hypothesis 2b: White men as compared to non-white men will be more desirous of the dominant, idealized i. Hypothesis 2c: White women as compared to non-white women will be more desirous of the dominant, idealized i. We employ separate logistic regression models to test each hypothesis. To test hypotheses 2b and 2c we split the sample by gender so that one model includes all male daters, the other all female daters. We suspect that within each gender group, whites will be more likely than all non-white groups African-Americans, Asians and Latinos to desire these idealized body types because they have fewer contending media outlets than do non-whites and have less reason to question these images since people of their same race group are represented. First we hypothesize that non-whites, both men and women, will be open to a larger variety of body types than their white counterparts: Hypothesis 3a: Non-white men will be open to dating women with a wider variety of body types than will white men. Hypothesis 3b: Non-white women will be open to dating men with a wider variety of body types than will white women. We run logistic regressions separately for men and women to determine whether non-white daters are open to a greater number of body types than are white daters. In each of these regressions we restrict our sample to daters who indicate specific body type preferences. The dependent variable for each regression is the number of body types ranging from 1 to 10 that a dater indicates as preferable for a potential date. We expect that non-white daters, both men and women, will have stronger preferences than white daters for those body types that lie outside of the dominant idealized body types: Hypothesis 4a: Non-white men will be more open than white men to dating women with average, curvy, thick, extra, large, and voluptuous body types. Hypothesis 4b: Non-white women will be more open than white women to dating men who have slim, slender, average, thick, curvy, extra, large and voluptuous body types. Lastly, to examine these hypotheses 4a and 4b , that whites, both men and women, will be less open than their non-white counterparts to dating people with body types that fall outside of the culturally dominant ideal, we look at the propensity of daters to choose those body types not captured by the idealized types previously described. To test Hypothesis 4a, we restrict our sample to men who have body type preferences and run separate logistic regressions to examine the racial—ethnic differences in the propensity to choose each of the body type categories provided by Yahoo Personals: Slim, Slender, Average, Athletic, Fit, Thick, A few extra, Large, Curvy and Voluptuous. We repeat these methods, using the same set of controls, to test Hypothesis 4b, but restrict our sample to women who have body type preferences. Daters are a particularly good gauge for measuring body type preferences since attractiveness is an important criterion of date selection Kurzban and Weeden ; Stewart et al. These data are unique and allow us to analyze dating behavior in a natural setting. While employing internet dater preferences has not been a widely used approach, scholars in a variety of fields are beginning to examine internet, video, and speed daters as well as print advertisements to ascertain what traits are considered when choosing a potential partner Kurzban and Weeden ; Sakai and Johnson , and to locate differences in dating preferences and behaviors by race Miller et al. A number of studies have specifically examined the phenomenon of internet dating Fiore and Donath ; Madden and Lenhart ; McKenna et al. We collected dating profiles from Yahoo Personals, a national, internet dating site that, at the time of data collection, did not charge a fee for this service. At the time of data collection, Yahoo Personals was also the most popular internet dating website in the United States Madden and Lenhart. Dating profiles were collected between September 2004 and May 2005 by logging into the website as a user. For all searches, an age category of 18—50 years old was selected, as those over the age of 50 are less likely to be internet users Madden and Lenhart. Geographic dating regions within 50 miles of Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City were also selected. These cities provide regional diversity, while also varying in racial composition and ideology. Further, by selecting a region spanning 50 miles from the metropolitan areas we hope to have a mix of both urban and suburban daters in our sample. We selected men and women who self-identified as being one of four racial or ethnic categories: African American, Asian, Latino or white. Further, only profiles with photographs were selected in order to limit the possibility of misrepresentation by daters. The final data set includes 6,070 internet daters. This is fewer than the target sample size of 6,400 due to the smaller number of female Asian and Latina daters in Atlanta and the posting of duplicate profiles by the same dater. After deleting cases with missing values on the variables of interest for this study, the final sample size for this study is 5,810. The final sample is split almost evenly by region, race—ethnicity and gender see Table. Therefore, some social groups or subcultures may be under-represented or excluded. These data are also likely to under-represent individuals of low socio-economic status and others who may not have as much access to or experience using computers. Racial—ethnic minorities are over-represented in the sense that there are a smaller proportion of non-whites in the U. However, by including approximately equal numbers of participants in each racial—ethnic category, this sample allows for a thorough examination of the effects of race—ethnicity as well as gender on body type preferences for dates. Yahoo Personals provides a wealth of self-reported socio-demographic information about each participant. The daters in our sample did not indicate their preferences on a questionnaire or in a laboratory; rather, these are their actual dating profiles created for the express purpose of actually meeting potential dates. This is important in two ways. First, most studies examine marital outcomes e. Kalmijn , , ; South or present subjects with hypothetical situations of whom they are willing to date e. Studying marital outcomes does not attend to the full range in which daters are willing to date; rather, they observe only one outcome. Further, in research settings, it is more likely that subjects will acquiesce and provide responses they feel are socially acceptable or that will please the researcher. Second, by studying the actual preferences of internet daters, we can understand the parameters daters place on their dating markets without the constraints of other factors, such as proximity or the composition of their social group, which can often constrain daters off-line. The internet allows daters to vastly expand their dating pools so that they can assert preferences, which may not be realistic in some other settings. For example, in a racially homogenous community, those daters who are willing to date individuals of varied races and ethnicities will likely pair with someone of their own race—ethnicity. In this case, examining marital outcomes will not reveal the degree of heterogamy that daters will accept; their stated preferences, on the other hand, can. Dependent Variables Each dater is asked about his or her preferences for a date. The specific characteristics of the participant and his or her preferences for a potential date include, among others: gender, age, region of the country, race—ethnicity and highest level of education. Body type is defined as it is on Yahoo Personals. Daters are provided the same options to describe their own body type and their body type preferences for a date, regardless of gender. The way this variable is constructed into the dependent variable varies for different analyses; each dependent variable will be discussed in detail below. As is described above, daters have 11 body type categories they can select as a preference for a potential date. We examine the extent to which individuals of different race—ethnicities accept the dominant, idealized images of beautiful bodies by taking gender and race—ethnicity into consideration simultaneously. This body type is limited to thin or thin and toned bodies for women and fit athletic bodies for men. Since we are interested in the degree to which the dominant body ideal is accepted, we construct a variable from the available body type categories to represent this ideal. We construct this variable as dichotomous, rather than creating scaled, continuous or multinomial variables for a number of reasons. First, since daters can choose any number of the ten body types, there are over 1,000 different possible combinations of body type preferences daters can indicate. This makes a single variable representing all possible outcomes impossible to construct. In addition, the body type categories are not necessarily distinct or hierarchically orderable, and so they cannot be organized in any meaningful way to create a scale. The Female Body The dominant portrayal of attractive female bodies is premised on an ideal of thinness Bordo ; Silverstein et al. First, that they are popular body type preferences within this sample. Second, that they are gender-specific preferences; men should prefer the thin, toned body type for their dates more often than women; women should prefer dates with a fit athletic body type more frequently than men prefer dates with this body type. We do find that both of these criteria are met. Further, of the 2,378 men in the sample with body type preferences, a substantial number, 85. This establishes that what we identify as the ideal female body type and the ideal male body type are popular within this sample. Race—ethnicity is coded into dummy variables for the purposes of the final logistic regression models. Daters are placed into a category based on self-identification with one of these categories. Each racial—ethnic group will be compared to the white group of daters, since the American cultural hegemony is premised on a white standard. Gender is also a key independent variable. Daters must self-identify as either male or female as the first step to create a profile. Control Variables As was previously described, in all analyses we control for those traits that past research has identified as important to mate and date selection. On average, women had preferences on about ten different items and men had preferences on seven see Table. We measure age as a continuous variable. All daters are between the ages of 18—50 years old. We collapse the categories for education present on the Yahoo dating profile into the following four groups: high school diploma or less, some college, college degree, post-college education. The omitted reference group is those daters with a high school diploma or less. We sampled daters from within 50 miles of four U. In all analyses we use Atlanta as the omitted reference group. We also control own body type. We group these body types into four broader categories: Small, Average, Athletic and Large. Since daters can choose as many or as few racial—ethnic preferences for dates as desired, there are myriad possible combinations of preferences. As such, the regression models do not control for preferences for dates of specific race—ethnicities i. Constructing this variable in this way also avoids a problem of colinearity attached to representing each racial—ethnic group separately since, when daters in this sample wanted to date one minority group explicitly, their preference was often for dates of their own racial—ethnic group. Each dater falls into one of four groups: those who indicate no racial—ethnic preference for potential dates; those who prefer to only date whites; those who prefer to only date non-whites; and those who indicate preferences that include both whites and non-whites. These are constructed as dichotomous variables, and in all analyses the group of daters having preferences that include both white and non-white daters is the omitted reference group. For our final set of analyses, which test Hypotheses 4a and 4b see Table , we also add a control for the number of body type preferences a dater has. Since we run separate regressions for each body type here, we calculate the number of total preferences, excluding the body type of interest for each regression, in order to avoid problems of endogeneity. Men and women are both likely to have some preference for body type, and among all race—ethnic groups, at least 75% of the daters in our sample express some sort of body type preference for dates. Among men, there are significant race—ethnic variations in having body type preferences but among women there are not. Employing chi square analysis or significance tests of differences between means, we examine gender differences as well as within gender group racial—ethnic differences between daters on each of these variables before including them in our models Table. We examine within gender racial—ethnic differences by comparing each race—ethnic group to the white group of daters of the same gender. There is also a significant gender difference in the likelihood of residing in Atlanta, because there were fewer than 200 female Asian and Latina daters in Atlanta. Among male daters we find that the non-white groups of daters are, on average, younger than white male daters, differ in the way they describe their own bodies and differ in their race—ethnic preference for dates. Latino men also tend to state fewer overall preferences for dates and African-American and Latino daters have lower levels of education than do white men. Among the female daters, all non-white groups state more preferences overall for dates and have different racial—ethnic preferences than whites. African American and Latina female daters tend to have less education than white female daters, while the Asian women in the sample tend to have more. When controls are introduced this gender difference is even more pronounced Table , model 2 ; men are over 3. We use logistic regression analyses to examine the effects of race—ethnicity on whether or not daters specify particular body type preferences for potential dates. Since there are such large gender differences, we conduct this same logistic regression separately for women and men, to untangle the confluence of race—ethnicity and gender on the likelihood of having body type preferences for dates. These results are presented in Table. We also ran a logistic regression that included interaction effects of race—ethnicity and gender not shown and the findings of this analysis are similar to the regression models that are split by gender. The effects of the control variables generally remain the same in terms of the significant effects own body type and selectivity. The significant effects of education persist only for women, as women with college and post-college degrees are less likely than women without high school degrees to express body type preferences. The effects of racial—ethnic preferences for dates remain only for men. Wanted: Thin Women and Fit Men We also examine if daters who do have body type preferences are likely to prefer dates who exhibit the dominant cultural idealizations of a beautiful body. Daters who indicate that they have no body type preferences are not included in the remaining analyses. While most daters are interested in dates with the ideal body types, they are also open to dating individuals with other body types as well. For the remaining analyses, we are concentrating on those who prefer dates with the culturally ideal body to the exclusion of all other body types in order to focus on how race—ethnicity is driving this specific standard of beauty. Gender Differences Before we can thoroughly examine differing preferences for dates with ideal body types, we need to be certain that the thin or thin and toned body type preference is strongly associated with male preferences and that the fit athletic body type is strongly associated with female preferences for male dates. Using logistic regression analyses, Table presents four logistic regression that test gender and racial—ethnic differences in the desire to have dates with culturally ideal body types—i. Race—ethnicity is the key independent variable in all models and, when the entire sample is considered, gender is also included. Table presents two logistic regressions that include all daters who have body type preferences. These regressions test the odds that male daters will prefer these body types exclusively more than female daters when race—ethnicity, demographic characteristics, and other dater preferences are controlled. This indicates that the body types we define as culturally dominant are gender-specific preferences among these daters. Within Gender Race—Ethnic Differences For men, race—ethnicity does affect the likelihood that a dater will prefer the ideal thin or thin and toned female body type exclusively while for women it does not. Table presents a logistic regression that includes only male daters with body type preferences which tests our prediction Hypothesis 2b that white men will be more likely than non-white men to state preferences for thin toned female dates. We find support for Hypothesis 2b; all groups of non-white men are significantly less likely than white men to have body type preferences for thin or thin and toned women. This is tested in a logistic regression Table that includes only female daters who have body type preferences. We do not find support for Hypothesis 2c; white female daters are no more likely than any group of non-white female daters to desire male dates who have fit athletic bodies. Own body type remains important in all analyses examining preferences for the idealized body types. We use linear regression analysis to examine our prediction that non-white men and women will be open to a wider variety of body types than will their white counterparts Hypotheses 3a and 3b, respectively. Support for hypotheses 3a and 3b varies and is dependent on the intersections of gender and race—ethnicity. The results for these regressions are presented in Table. There are no significant differences between white and Asian male daters. African-American female daters have significantly more body type preferences than do white female daters. We find no significant differences in the number of body type preferences of white and Latina female daters. Coefficients from linear regressions of the effects of raceethnicity on the number of body type preferences daters have a These results must be interpreted carefully, however, since the body type categories are not distinct or mutually exclusive. The body type categories are not organized in a meaningful hierarchical manner so certain choices might be considered synonymous by some daters but not others. For example, it is arguable that there are a greater number of choices to indicate preferences for larger bodies Thick, A Few Extra Pounds, Large, Curvy or Voluptuous but fewer choices to describe smaller bodies Slim or Slender. As such, a dater who has a preference for larger dates might choose all five aforementioned categories whereas a dater with preferences for smaller dates might choose only the two later body type categories. This would make the first dater appear open to a wider variety of bodies than the second dater when, in fact, they are both just as selective—each preferring one body type. Other daters, however, might interpret meaningful differences between Slim and Slender or Extra and Voluptuous, etc. Further, different interpretations of the words Yahoo uses to describe bodies might vary along lines of race and ethnicity. Our last set of hypotheses, 4a and 4b, assert that whites will be less open to dates with those body types not captured by the dominant ideal i. To test these hypotheses we run a separate logistic regression for each of the body type categories; these analyses are also split by gender Table. In this analysis, the dependent variable is whether or not daters select each particular body type category; we include only daters with specific body type preferences 2,378 men; 2,155 women. We run separate logistic regressions for each of the ten body type categories from which daters could choose. No daters in this sample indicate a preference for dates with Curvy bodies, so these results are not presented. Additionally, only 14 women responded they would date Voluptuous males, so these findings are inconclusive and are not presented. We do separate logistic regressions for each body type rather than making a scale because these body types are categorized in such a way that there is no clear hierarchy or order. Further, daters can choose as many or as few body types as desired, making a plethora of preference combinations possible. Since all daters are included in each logistic regression for each body type, we add a control for the number of other body type preferences each dater has to avoid problems of endogeneity. White men are significantly more likely than African-American, Asian and Latino men to prefer dates with Slim and Slender bodies and more likely than African-American and Latino men, but not Asian men, to prefer dates with Fit bodies. There is no statistically significant difference between white male daters and Asian, African-American or Latino male daters to prefer women with Athletic body types. All non-white male groups of daters in this sample are significantly more likely than white men to prefer women with Average body types. This last finding is particularly notable for the Thick and Large body types. Latino men are about 2. Hypothesis 4a predicts non-white men to be more selective than white men on body types that are not encompassed by the thin ideal. This is not supported when considering Asian male daters, as they are less selective or no different than white daters in most cases. However, when comparing African-American or Latino male daters to white male daters, there is support for Hypothesis 4a—African-American and Latino men have stronger preferences than white men for female body types that are not captured by the thin ideal. These results indicate that while white men are more selective than African-American and Latino men about having female dates with the culturally idealized thin or thin and toned body types, these non-white daters are also selective but not on the same body types: African-American men and Latinos in this sample are more interested in larger body types than are white men. Notably, these body types are not generally reflected positively in the mainstream popular culture. There are no significant differences between white women and African-American women in preferences for any of the body types. Discussion Who is more selective? However, it is important to consider that this might also be a reflection of differing gender role expectations. Women might generally be more timid about expressing preferences, or feel it is not socially acceptable to violate notions of romance by placing too much value on the body. It is unclear why Asian men are different in their propensity to indicate body type preferences. However, controlling images of Asian men have been particularly emasculating and media images of Asian men are frequently desexualized Chen , ; their bodies have been portrayed as small and weak and even when they do have a masculine role, their sexuality is not addressed. The result of this may be that Asian men feel they will be less desired and therefore should be less choosy about the body of a potential date. Adherence to Ideal Standards African-American, Asian and Latino women are just as likely as white women to prefer the fit athletic body ideal for potential male dates. Previous research finds that African-American and Latina women are more accepting of heavier body types when discussing their own body, but we do not find that this translates to a more fluid definition of the ideal male body. This might be due to the fact that the ideal images of male bodies are more racially varied in the mass media. The fit athletic male is not only portrayed by white men in commercial advertisements but also by African-American men in images of athleticism and sport Collins ; Jackson ; Messner ; Oates and Durham. Though these images do not frequently portray Asian or Latino men, having at least a dual racial image of the ideal, muscular male body may create a more pervasive and universal body standard for men that is, in turn, consumed by a more diverse population of heterosexual female daters. This is an important finding as it suggests that the male body, much like that of the female body, is now viewed as an object, a victim of the commodification and limited acceptance of diversity in heterosexual and commercial relationships. These findings support current theory, which identify masculinity as a limiting and unrealistic ideal that all men are supposed to achieve see Bordo , ; Connell ; Kimmel ; Pope et al. Indeed, a recent study shows that Asian male college students are more likely than white men to view their bodies as smaller than the ideal Barnett et al. African-American men and Latino men are more likely than white male daters to prefer female body types described as Average, Thick, Extra, Large and Voluptuous. Only African-American men are open to greater variety of body types than white male daters. These findings suggest that the degree to which daters adhere to the dominant body standards is tied to their own race—ethnicity. However, we must be careful interpreting these results since the Yahoo Personals body type categories are not distinct or mutually exclusive categories. In fact, African-American and Latino men are very selective on other specific body types that are not captured by the thin or thin and toned body ideal. Most notable is the preference for women with larger body types. One interpretation of literature which finds African-American and Latina women are more tolerant of excess weight on their own bodies suggests that African-American and Latino communities are more accepting and tolerant of body fat Demarest and Allen ; Duke ; Poran , and Asians and whites are not Barnett et al. Our findings support the possibility of culturally specific ideals of beauty—some of which operate outside of the mainstream media and popular culture: African-American and Latino men are more accepting of larger female body types; African-American, Asian and Latino men are less interested than white men in the thin, toned female body; and African-American and Asian men generally choose significantly more body types as ideal than do white men. That acceptance of, and preference for, dates with larger bodies exists for African-American and Latino men, but not women, highlights the importance of addressing intersections of race—ethnicity and gender. Our findings suggest that there are different cultural resources that influence non-white minorities in addition to mainstream images in the mass media, and that these portray a larger variety or a different variety of female beauty and bodies. However, since the images of the African-American male athlete loom large in popular culture, particularly in the age of televised sports, there has been less room to cultivate an image away from that of the dominant popular culture. Limitations of the study There are some limitations to using dating profiles as data for this research; however, we feel that the benefits greatly outweigh the costs. We are most concerned with the categorizations of race and ethnicity provided by the dating site because these categories conflate race and ethnicity, are overly broad, and gloss over much cultural and ethnic diversity. We are also unable to discern the degree to which individual daters identify with racial—ethnic subcultures. This is particularly important for understandings of the body and beauty as perceptions of attractiveness vary by culture Crandall and Martinez ; Shaw. This, however, is not expected to have a grave effect on this study. Cornwell and Lundgren find that individuals are somewhat more likely to misrepresent themselves online than in person, but these trends do not vary significantly by gender. It is also unlikely that they will present false reports of their preferences for potential dates, since honestly answering these questions serves to filter out those individuals whom an online dater does not wish to date. If daters do lie, it is likely to be about their own body type, not the body type they desire of potential dates. To try to address this possibility and reduce deception, we only sample daters with pictures in order to limit the degree to which daters may misrepresent their own body types or other physical traits. However, when they do lie it is usually about own weight or age, which they indicate misrepresenting only slightly, in order to fit into a different, but similar, category that they feel is more positive or will garner more dates. While the drawbacks to these data are important to note, the benefits of using these data far outweigh these costs. This is particularly true as internet dating becomes a more prevalent way to meet dates; over one-third of adults who use the internet and are seeking romantic partners have gone to dating websites Madden and Lenhart. Further, as marriage rates decline and non-marital partnerships increase Bumpass et al. Conclusion Our findings show that race—ethnicity and gender influence body type preferences; men and whites are significantly more likely than women and non-whites to have such preferences. Although previous work employing silhouette figures, or select samples, provides inconsistent findings, our study of actual dating choices show that non-white men, particularly African-American and Latino men, are far less likely than are white men to prefer a date with the ideal thin body type. In general, men of color are far more open than white men to dating average women, and African Americans and Latinos, but not Asians, are significantly more likely to prefer a thick or heavy body type. Our study has implications for a body of literature that shows African-American women and Latinas are less impacted by mainstream media than are white women with the former more satisfied with their bodies and less constrained to the thin ideal body type e. The fact that African-American men and Latinos are more open to dating a variety of body types, undoubtedly, places less pressure on these women to lose weight Greenberg and LaPorte 1996; Hsu ; Levinson, Powell, and Steelman. However, we suspect that Latinas and African-American women may be constrained in other ways, perhaps adhering to cultural standards of beauty outside of dominant cultural ideals or experiencing conflict between dominant ideal body types and those of their specific racial—ethnic group. These conflicting expectations can create a no win situation in which African-American women receive approval for higher body weight by African-American men but disapproval from the dominant culture. The fact that Asian men are less likely to prefer a thin date than are white men, but no more likely to prefer larger body types suggests that Asian men, like other non-white men likely subscribe to additional cultural prescriptions of body type desirability. While Asian men do not adhere as strongly as do white men to the beauty ideal, they are, nonetheless, no more accepting of heavy dates. This finding also has implications for a body of literature Gluck and Geliebter ; Koff et al. Since Asian men are more accepting of average bodies, but much less so of heavier bodies, it makes sense that Asian women would maintain concerns about weight. 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The subset of daters who express body type preferences is similar to the entire sample. Full tables are available upon request Men Slim Slender Average Athletic Fit Thick Extra Large Voluptuous Independent Variables Race—ethnicity African American 0. Full tables are available upon request bOnly 14 women responded they would date Voluptuous males, so these findings are inconclusive and are not presented.
The app promises no Trump backlash and plenty of opportunity to make a connection with a fellow Trump supporter. Many on Twitter seemed to like the idea: Does know that he inspired a dating app. The fit sincere male is not only portrayed by white men in commercial advertisements but also by African-American men in images of athleticism and sport Collins ; Jackson ; White daters ; Oates and Durham. As such, the regression models do not control for preferences for dates of specific race—ethnicities i. White daters our focus is on racial—ethnic and gender differences, we also consider the influence of other factors that have typically been studied in conjunction with mate selection including age, level of education and geographic region see Kalmijn for a comprehensive review of intermediaries in marriage trends. I have a civil DonaldDaters is going to be 98% creepy old white guys since that's most of the voting demographic. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1395—1398.
released December 15, 2018