Not-So-Manly Men Preferred by Women on the Pill

The latest issue of the scientific journal Psychoneuroendocrinology witnessed the publication of a new study stating that, as several investigations have shown, women who use oral contraceptives are more likely to prefer men whose masculine features are not all that pronounced.

Not to beat about the bush, this particular research suggests that not-so-manly men might have better chances of entering a relationship with a woman who is on the pill than they have of entering a relationship with a nonuser.

Just for the record, men with round faces and relatively narrow jawbones are the ones considered to be less masculine-looking than others, Live Science explains.

By the looks of it, the aforementioned physical traits are commonly associated with faithfulness and stability, whereas strong jaws and masculine looks are believed to go hand in hand with the ability to procreate.

Since most of the women who are on the pill are not interested in having children, at least at that point in their lives, they tend to be more attracted to guys who promise to deliver emotional stability and comfort.

Seeing how a woman's preferences as far as male attractiveness is concerned change throughout the phases of her menstrual cycle, it need not come as a surprise that contraceptive pills can also influence these preferences.

The researchers reached these conclusions following their asking several women, some of whom were on the pill and some of whom were nonusers, to rate several pictures of men in terms of their attractiveness.

As well as this, they interviewed couples who first started going out either while the woman was taking oral contraceptives, or while she was a nonuser and asked volunteers to comment on the masculinity of the men belonging to these two categories of couples.

Despite its reaching some very interesting conclusions, the study is argued to not be all that reliable as a result of its not being a so-called double-blind experiment (i.e. an experiment during which neither the subjects nor the persons in charge of carrying out the experiment are aware of the critical aspects of the experiment).