Is attractiveness totally subjective?

Actually, there are some basic established evolutionary parameters for what human biology consider's to be attractive in a mate. The rest is societal conditioning.

So yes and no. The evolutionary parameters are not opinion based, they are what our bodies have learned is most beneficial to look for in a mate for reproduction and that is what is best to continue the race. Some of us have different chemical structures but ultimately there is a chemistry to attraction in which the ultimate goal is to mate successfully.

We can't really help the biological aspects of what we are attracted to, but the societal conditioning could be changed to an extent. So yes, I see it as subjective and it always will be. The basis of successful reproduction is discrimination based off of what the biology of person A demands to reproduce with the best results.

Very interesting post. And I agree, apart from the bit about people who are attracted to extremes of obesity and perceived ugliness as being "somehow mentally ill".

I think of what people are attracted to as like a "bell curve" ( http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Standard_deviation_diagram.svg/325px-Standard_deviation_diagram.svg.png ). In the middle of the x axis is the people who "normal" people are attracted too and are not on the extremes physically. As we move further out from the middle, what people are attracted too gets more extreme. Right on the ends are the very, very fat; very, very skinny; the very, very short and tall etc. Some people are still into them, but very few.

The "weirder" someone looks, the less people will be attracted to them. But then again, weirdness is subjective, so I'm not sure how helpful that is.

To an extent. I think that everyone's own taste will differ from person to person, but that certain people will generally be deemed as attractive. It's sort of like music. I have my own taste in music, it might be different to yours. However, I can still accept that certain bands are still good, even if I don't like them. So, even though I might not like or listen to the bands you like and listen to, I can understand why you would do so. Does that make sense?

An example is Megan Fox. I personally don't see the attraction at all. However, I can understand that others would find her attractive, even if I disagree. When the majority can appreciate a person's beauty (even if some don't like it), the person is labelled attractive. And vice versa.

I don't know if that's right, but it's what I'm thinking at the moment.

Who gets to decide what's "normal" and what's "not healthy?" Is it you? If so, where do I submit my forms to see if my husband and I qualify as normal, O Arbiter of Taste and Discretion? We're both pretty good-looking, but I wear glasses and he's prematurely gray, so maybe that's some kind of gross fetish scene to someone as narrow-viewed as you.

Yes, attractiveness is wholly, or at least substantially, subjective. If you polled 10,000 people, there might be a larger consensus that, say, Angelina Jolie was better-looking than Rosie O'Donnell, but there would be a couple of diehards in the Rosie camp too -- and they wouldn't be "somehow mentally ill" for it.

As for the extreme chubby-chasers and such, yeah, I'll agree that it's hard to reconcile loving a person's looks with being totally fine with how that particular look becomes a fleshy prison for the person wearing it. You may have a point that anyone who wants a partner to become crippled for the sake of sexual attractiveness might want to work on that.

However, people who aren't into harming their partners physically and permanently to suit their own ideas of beauty are normal -- even if they are a bit extreme. "Unkempt and out of shape" is a perfectly valid look for those who are into it, and they don't need you to tell them they're wrong.

So, when you are 60, you wouldn't find a 60 year old Paul Bunyan attractive?

But I agree, it's both subjective and objective.

We all have our different opinions. What you might find attractive might be ugly to me, and what I might find ugly might be attractive to you. Although I don't think it's normal you consider someone mentally ill just for their tastes.

Attractiveness is NOT TOTALLY subjective.
How many of the last 20 years of Sports Illustrated swimsuit models were NOT attractive? Heck, by now, computers could quite accurately pick out the attractive people in a random sample of head and torso shots. It's all about symmetry, size, position and shape of the features.

Are there people around who think Christie Brinkley and Paulina Porizkova during their prime years were NOT attractive? Possibly, but they are the annoyingly perverse people infecting the planet who just need to be given the stink eye. :-)