Humans are, scientifically speaking, the ape species most obsessed with sex (narrowly edging out our close relatives the bonobos, who’ve also been known to get pretty freaky). We’ve also evolved to have more visual erotic triggers on our bodies than any other primate. This includes having fuller lips, bigger penises (in males), more prominent breasts (in females) and scattered tufts of pubic hair to signal all the bits we should be looking at.
But why is it that some male humans zoom in further on that sexual obsession, becoming fixated on specific, isolated female body parts? What makes one Homo sapiens define himself as a “boob man” while another will testify to being way more fascinated by a woman’s butt, while a third specimen isn’t seeing anything but her legs.
Although the media has focused increasingly on butts in recent years, boob men are still the largest group of body-part worshippers. But even after decades of debate, scientists haven’t reached a consensus as to why it is guys really dig breasts. “The most likely explanation is that women’s breasts develop as they reach adulthood, and so larger breasts signify that a woman is likely to be fertile.
The science is even less conclusive on what’s going on in the mind of a derrière dude, although there are a number of theories. One speculative notion, popularized in Desmond Morris’s 1967 book The Naked Ape, is that the appeal of a curvy backside goes back to a time in our evolutionary history before face-to-face sex became standard — back when our female ancestors’ sexual signaling was optimized for rear mounting (i.e., doggy style). Butt men find butts hot, essentially, because that’s what our ancestors were looking at as they approached their mates for sexy-times.
As to why some men are into legs, the psychologists are pretty much stumped. It seems the leg man is entranced not so much by the length of the calf and thigh on display, but by the way of their owner’s gait: Men and women walk differently, with women more likely to rotate their hips and take shorter strides. Since heels exaggerate this style, “women who wear high heels may be perceived as more feminine.
