A man’s masculinity is constantly judged and scrutinized in society nowadays. As the notion of masculinity can vary from era to era, there is no specific definition that fits into all cultures and attitudes. One way of understanding masculinity can be looking into women’s preferences to men’s faces. Women may find masculine faces more attractive, especially at the peak of their menstrual cycles (Penton-Voak, 1999).
Association between masculine facial features and measures of immuno-competence also determines women’s short-term and long-term partners, as women prefer men with masculine faces as short-term partners rather than in long-term relationships. As an alternative, women also show changing preferences in men’s voices across their menstrual cycles, they prefer masculinized voices in the most fertile phase (Feinberg et al. , 2006). First of all, hormonal changes across menstrual cycle could be a possible reason of women’s shifting preferences for masculinity.
Many studies demonstrated that there were cyclic changes in women’s preferences for certain male traits. In particular, the classic paper from Penton-Voak (1999) investigated into women’s increased facial masculinity preferences during their menstrual cycles. In his experiment, computer graphic techniques were employed to composite the ‘femininity’ or ‘masculinity’ of an average male face, and the face shapes of five Caucasian and Japanese males were altered before printing.
Substantially, a questionnaire methodology was used, and the respondents had to select the most ‘physically attractive’ face. The results highlighted that women were more attracted to masculine faces at their late-follicular menstrual cycle phase (Penton-Voak et. al, 1999). Further evidence also supported the biological explanation of different masculinity preferences across menstrual cycle. It was implied that women were attracted to relatively masculine male traits at their peak fertility than at other times of the menstrual cycle (Penton-Voak & Perrett, 2000).
Although it illustrated that the shift towards masculinity was proven greater than some previous studies, the results could be unreliable. As the same stimuli was used in providing further evidence, results might be generated in favour of some previous studies. At the same time, the use of self-reports of menstrual cycle phase was disputable, as many normally cycling women did not have a fixed 28-day cycle, and they could lie about the length of their menstrual cycles, which might contribute to bias of the results.
Nevertheless, as more research about women’s changing masculinity preference was stemmed from Penton-Voak’s (1999) study, and similar results were induced in the replications, we could still argue that there were cyclic variations in women’s preference for facial masculinity. Besides, women preferred more masculine faces at fertile phase only when they were in relationships. Women with a partner went through a greater cyclic change preference that they preferred more masculine faces (Penton-Voak, 1999).
The type of relationship being looked for was influential to women’s preference for facial masculinity. For instance, Penton-Voak (1999) indicated that women opted for less feminine faces for’a short-term sexual relationship,’ and they showed constant preference when judging attractiveness for’a long-term relationship. ‘ It was also put forward that women with a partner might occasionally copulate with men whose high masculine appearance meant for good immuno-competence. Facial symmetry could be considered here, as symmetry might convey how healthy an individual was.
The levels of testosterone in particular affected the growth of male secondary sexual facial characteristics like the jaw and brow ridges, and it determined the attractiveness of male faces. It was concluded that ‘masculine’ features included a large jaw and a prominent brow ridge (Penton-Voak & Perrett, 2000), and the more symmetrical the face was, the ‘healthier’ the man was. In this case we could argue that facial masculinity was highly valued under circumstances such as reproduction and passing traits to offspring, and therefore cyclic changes in preferences could favour men with masculine faces.
Taking DeBruine’s (2010) study into account for consideration, an inverse relationship between average masculinity preference and the National Health Index was pointed out. In those countries with high prevalence of bacteria and inaccessible healthcare, where poor health was particularly detrimental to survival, women indeed valued masculine characteristics in potential mates more (De Bruine, 2010). Notably, women typically demonstrated stronger preference to masculine men as short-term partners than as long-term partners.
They associated masculine physical characteristics in men closely with measures of long term medical health, the indices of reproductive success. Consequently, masculine faces would be crucial to countries facing health challenges and problems with reproduction. However, a trade-off theory was introduced in the study, as women might ‘invest more into long-term relationship that associates with healthy offspring while trading off the masculine features of men, which implicated dishonesty and unfaithfulness in relationships.
In short, there might be limited availability of mates in poor health countries, that women might prioritize offspring before choosing mates whose faces were more masculine. Alternative to facial masculinity, there were evidence showing cyclic changes in preference for human voice. In light of Feinberg et al. ‘s (2006) study, another field of a trait of masculinity was suggested, which was the men’s voices.
The pitch of speaking or the way men speak could be used to determine whether they were masculine or not. The experiment aimed to see if there was an effect of the menstrual cycle in women’s preferences for ‘masculine’ male and female voices. Vocal-tract length and fundamental frequencies were used to manipulate the voice levels. It was hypothesized that women would prefer masculinized voices to feminized voices, and the masculinity preferences for men’s voices would be stronger at fertile phase (D. R. Feinberg, 2006).
The results of this experiment supported the hypotheses, with elevated masculinity preferences found in the late-follicular phase when the conception risk was high. Feinberg’s (2006) paper also attempted to test for the variation in women’s preferences for dominant voices, which was not covered by Gangestad et al (2004) when researching women’s preferences for dominant behavioural displays in video clips across the menstrual cycle.
Women were asked to assess attractiveness and dominance of voices, so as determine that whether the cyclic variation in attraction to men’s dominance was due to a change in sensitivity or a change in attraction to dominance across the cycle. It was concluded that masculinized voices were viewed as more dominant than feminized voices. Last but not least, we could also consider men’s body shapes as a trait of masculinity. Muscular men were generally perceived as more masculine and predominant.
Nonetheless, further evidence was needed to ascertain that there was cyclic shift in preferences for masculine male bodies. It was found that menstrual cycle variations might not affect women’s changing preferences for real faces and bodies (G. Rhodes, 2009). All in all, masculine traits in men are usually associated with long-term health, immuno-competence, and greater reproductive success, but less commitment to relationships; while feminine traits in men are related to greater relationship commitment and paternal investment.
Consequently, these traits have influenced women’s strategies for choosing mates. The studies above have suggested some cyclic effects on women’s attraction to masculinity and manhood. Women generally demonstrated stronger facial masculinity preferences during the most fertile phase of the menstrual cycle, and more masculine face shapes were preferred in short-term relationships to long-term relationships.
The shifting preferences for men’s face shapes also manifest women’s context-specific strategies of selecting their primary partners. To women in the countries with high levels of pathogen and health challenges, masculine traits are especially significant to reproduction as to ensure a healthy offspring, that people believe that good genes must have come from masculine faces along with face symmetry, so good genes from men must passed to the next generations.
As masculinity is usually associated with dominance but reduced parental care, women have to trade-off between paternal investment and genetic benefits, which can be evident in women’s stronger cyclic shifts when selecting short-term relationship mates. Not only cycle variations exist in women’s preferences for facial masculinity, changes across the menstrual cycle are also found in women’s preferences for masculinized voices and dominance. In general, women opted for more masculine voices (voices with lower pitch) than feminized voices, as they perceived masculinized voices as more predominant and attractive.
