One day on a brisk morning walk down Sunset Blvd., I noticed something really strange. As I sauntered past the dining patio patrons, heads where turning to my direction. Many men put down their forks to gaze upon my monumental moving appearance, and they held that gaze like I was an angel who just touched Earth’s surface. I literally held my head higher, and changed the pace in my walk to a runway strut, and silently complimented myself on my choice of high heels and black pencil skirt. I felt so beautiful and sexy, there was nothing to ruin my day, until I edged the end of the restaurant row and stopped at the crosswalk. When I stopped to cross the street, I saw the most beautiful, 5’ 9”, model continue to pass me. I realized that the men dropping their mandibles was not for me, but for this beauty clicking in step behind me. So I found myself asking…is sex appeal like that actually attainable?

Well, I feel that’s how many of us women feel. In some instances we lap up the attention of men, feeling sexy beyond all care, just to have the next woman snatch up that light in a millisecond. I used to think what many call “sex appeal,” could be achieved by the right outfit, and perfectly applied makeup, down to a rocking body. However, I now believe that the words “sex” and “appeal” paired is the most ambiguous phrase in our culture. Men claim that they are attracted the smorgasboard of qualities. However, it is something that woman will spend hours and hours trying to achieve. It influences what we wear, or don’t, and even how we act around others.  I want to believe sex appeal is easy as picking out a bag of frozen peas at the grocery store, but I feel that eventually the culture will change what they find attractive, so what’s the use in straining myself to look like something that is fleeting as good weather.

So, case in point, should I strive to have more sex appeal?

Imagine being a woman in the 1940’s where men saw the thinner women as less sexually appealing. There were all kinds of treatments and solutions a woman could use to gain a few pounds. Now look at our culture today, the industry of “quick and easy” weight loss is a multi-million dollar business. Even though I wish we could move back to those days, I feel that our culture’s idea of sex appeal is as faulty as a paper boat. I know I desire to attract persons of the opposite sex, but I struggle with making it my apex of living. I know that this idea of sex appeal has been doused in the world of science, boiled down to the fact that the more “attractive” a person is means the better mate they are. How interesting is that? I see that sex appeal is only skin deep, even though some believe that a personality is wrapped up in this immediate response from the opposite sex, but how can we judge?

What do you think?

Dicitonary.com defines sex appeal as: the ability to excite people sexually or the immediate appeal or obvious potential to interest or excite others, as by appearance, style, or charm.

Is this definition accurate? Has it changed over the years? Does it even seem like it’s going to shift, where women with more “skin on their bones” will be desired than the runway model? How do you define it? Is it something that you put a lot of value in? And do you think men and women value it the same, or one more than the other?

Photo Credit: Google images