A year on from when the internet saw Zac Efron’s troll attack over his ‘Dad Bod’, 2021 figures reveal that heterosexual women would prefer this body shape over toned abs.
Dating.com conducted a survey whereby they asked their 2000 members to anonymously disclose their preferred body type. An unbelievable 75% of people voted ‘Dad Bod’ as their favourite. Following on from this, you probably won’t be surprised to know that a mere 15% of people prefer a ken or a barbie like body shape.
What did surprise us, however, was that 70% of singles said that they work out more on the lead up to summer. These findings brought us to the conclusion that people work out for themselves and no one else.
Dating Expert and Vice President of Dating.com, Maria Sullivan had this to say, “Very fit and in shape bodies are seen as ideal when it comes to attracting a partner; however, the users of Dating.com just proved that isn’t always the case when it comes to real life romances”. Perhaps the idea that people judge potential partners aesthetic by their body shape and in fact, prefer someone who is toned is just an idea that is sold to us by Hollywood movies. Sexual attraction seems to be more geared towards something that can facilitate love handles, not rock hard abs.
We are however beginning to see progression in Hollywood and all media outlets across the world, regarding representation of all body types. Even Victoria Secret, despite resisting adaption to inclusion of a higher variety of sizes, finally got on board in 2019 and recruited their first plus size model, Ali Tate-Cutler. In fact, the fashion world seems to be leading the shift in normalising body diversity in mainstream media. Rihanna’s ‘Savage X Fenty’ show being an example of this.
With all this progression in beauty standards, who knows where we will be in a few years. Perhaps movies will be filled with full, healthy, normal to plus sized physiques over the bog standard 6 packs, hip bones and rib cages that we’re used to. Just MAYBE, the unattainable and aspirational perfect Hollywood body will become a thing of the past and guess what? We’re here for it!
