Aw Carolly you are seriously cracking me up!!! Jeffg3 this is something that I've been thinking about a lot lately with my characters...trying to figure out that psychology. I'm glad you brought out the part of different cultures...imho that's very key. My wife in her younger days was in the Peace Corps in Senegal where a skinny redish blond haired chick was considered pathetically ugly. She was once asked by a kind villager, (and seriously it sounds like all the villagers were most incredibly kind and wonderful people,) how she ever expected to find a husband looking as she did. It even got worse when the women of the village tried to do her up in corn rows! That gave them a pretty good laugh! In our culture she's a very attractive woman and always has been. I imagine a lean handsome Euro-type would get the same response in a culture where brute strength was needed to survive. Great thought provoking post!!! -jay