How to Disprove the "Looks Are the Pillar of Attraction" Ideology

Every time we talk about looks on Girls Chase, we get some guys in the comments or on the forum who get upset and tell us we're totally delusional and looks are the central thing.

These are the types I consider 'looks purists' and/or 'looks absolutists'. This site is one of the few in the seduction niche that is out there saying, "Looks are important, and it should be one of your priorities to work on yours," yet these guys still show up to tell us our focus is still not heavily enough on looks, and/or that it is pointless to try to work on looks because the only thing women pay attention to are your genetic facial traits.

I can tell you as a guy who has enjoyed success in a number of different fields that getting too obsessed with one particular aspect of success and putting it on a pedestal and making it absolute and pushing for pureness is a certain way to failure in that field.

With all things, dating included, you must have balance in your approach if you want success.

(honestly I'm somewhat befuddled why the hardcore looks guys read Girls Chase. You'd think they'd be busy doing facial training exercises or reading about who are the best plastic surgeons or something)

We've had plenty of articles very clearly disproving the 'looks are the main thing!' reductionist perspective of attraction. I'll link them in a moment if you want to go through them.

However, today, I want to conduct a fun experiment with you, that will be enjoyable for most people, meanwhile causing looks-are-everything acolytes to implode in a pile of cognitively dissonant goo.

 

Before We Go Hard -- Our Earlier Articles on Looks

Again, I want to stress, the official Girls Chase position is looks are important.

That means several things:

• Your in-born genetic facial & body features are important

• Parts of your physique you can control (like how fat you are or your muscles) are important

• Parts of your non-physique physical appearance you can control (like your facial hair, hairstyle, how white & aligned your teeth are, if you have pimples all over, dry skin, etc.) are important

• Parts of your non-body physical attributes are important (like your fashion choices and accessories)

• The way you use and present your face and body is important (like posture, eye contact, movement, gestures, walk, etc.)

All these things are important. They all influence looks.

We also know that other things influence looks. For instance, when a woman views a man as dominant, she sees him as 10% more physically attractive; i.e., he actually looks better to her. When a woman laughs at a man's jokes, it causes her to see him as more physically attractive. And so on. There are many behavioral elements that cause women to view men as more physically attractive.

I have had a lot of women tell me personally that "You are much more attractive in person than you are in photographs or on video." I spent a lot of time in the past thinking about this, and also looking at women I've met who are much more attractive in person than they are in photos and videos, and eventually concluded that 'not being very photogenic' is not simply a case of 'this person isn't good at being in front of a camera' but actually 'the camera accurately captures this person's base-level physical appeal... but this person's behavior in real-life causes him/her to seem more physically attractive in-person via a halo effect.'

When I started Girls Chase, one of the main focuses was on describing fundamentals. I am (I must admit) looks-blind when it comes to men (fortunately not for women). So I don't actually know which men are better-looking than other men. But I do know that when I've met talented pick up artists or watched video products from seduction gurus, what these guys all talk about is the things they say to women... yet there's an entire thing there where the way they move and behave and speak and inflect is in and of itself very attractive, charismatic, and compelling.

I classed all these non-spoken-word, non-direct-physical-interaction elements as 'fundamentals', and made teaching these a priority here. A man's looks (including his facial features, facial expressions, hair style, facial hair, posture, movement, clothes, fatness, musculature, height, skin tone, and so on) are part of his fundamentals.

Anyway, here are the primary articles we've had over the years on looks.

I'm probably forgetting a few here and there, but I want to list them out to give you a more balanced perspective:

• How Much Do Looks Matter for Romantic Success? I examine scientific studies on one-night stands. The findings: looks are important for one-night stands, and the perception of a man's physical dominance impacts the rating of his looks. i.e., dominant men get laid, because behaving dominant causes women to think a man is more good-looking, then hook up with him and claim the reason they hooked up with him was that he was good-looking (yet had he not behaved in a dominant way, they would not have seen him as 'good-looking', and been a lot less likely to hook up with him).

• “I Can’t Get Girls Because Girls Only Want [BLANK]” What happens if the guy who thinks the only/primary thing that matters is looks finds himself in a conversation with the guy who thinks the only/primary thing that matters is height, plus a third guy who thinks the only/primary thing that matters is money, plus a fourth guy who thinks the only/primary thing that matters is race? Cognitive dissonance and increasingly desperate copes ensue!

• You're Passing Up the Hottest, Coolest Girls Many of the guys who are obsessed with looks, claiming they cannot change them, are at the same time obsessed with women who aren't actually good-looking, but have changed their lack of good-looks by wearing makeup, high heels, and spending time at the gym or in the tanning salon, plus bleaching or highlighting their hair.

• Is She Too Hot? Well, Looks are Subjective An article by Alek that shows rather conclusively how wildly subjective people's opinions on looks are (experiment: vote in your head on how hot each of the girls in the picture are... then go take a look at the comment section at how a bunch of other guys voted for the looks of the various girls. Then realize this applies both ways, to both sexes, and women's opinions of male attractiveness are every bit as varied/subjective).

• How to Have Sex with Blonde Bombshells I discuss the 'bombshell' phenomenon, where girls make themselves HOT with hair bleach, a tanning bed, clothing choices, sexy/aloof behavior, eating salads, time at the gym, and makeup, and guys assume "You have to be really good-looking to get them" or "You have to be the right race to get them" or "You have to be rich to get them", never realizing that the stuff these girls did to look good in the first place (i.e., they worked hard on their fundamentals) is the same stuff you must do to excel with them.

• “Girls Only Want Good-Looking Guys or Young Guys” I use numerous examples, directly from women themselves, to debunk two arguments we'd been seeing a lot from guys at the time of the article: that girls only want good-looking guys, and that girls only want young guys.

• Do You Need Good Looks to Get Laid? Alek examines the usefulness of looks in getting laid (spoiler: they're useful for some things, and you should improve yours).

• Does Having Good Looks Come with Disadvantages? In a follow-up piece, Alek lays out the downsides that good-looking guys encounter, including girls acting weird around them, assuming negative things about them, and rejecting them for being 'too hot'.

• People Usually Choose Mates with Similar Faces Why do famous male magnates and celebrities keep sleeping with and marrying unattractive Plain Janes? Because those women look like them, and hence, are hot to them.

• 10 Dumb Myths About Women Newbie Seducers Often Believe I detail many of the silly things men who are inexperienced with women believe, including the old chestnut that "It's all looks."

• Looks-Money-Status: Are They the Key to Dating Success? Alek examines the Sacred Triumvirate of Looks-Money-Status: the thing every red pill manosphere guy thinks is The Ultimate Key to accessing elite-level women. Are these things necessary to get the best girls... and if not totally necessary, how big a role do they still play?

I don't think any guy who reads all those articles can come away saying, "Having good genetic looks in one's face is the main thing."

But of course most guys who think looks are the primary thing aren't going to read those articles. They certainly don't want to hear about how the girls they, personally, are after aren't actually good-looking at all but have a lot of makeup on and hair bleach and have learned to act sexy and do all the things we teach men to do on this site for their fundamentals (ironically).

Instead, today's article is going to function along a very simple premise, to cause immediate and total cognitive dissonance in the "It's primarily looks!" guys.

Hopefully helping some of them to move on through a total collapse of the good-looks ideology.

 

First, Rate the Best-Looking Male Stars You Know

Don't cheat.

Don't go to the next section yet.

We're going to conduct a little experiment here.

First, I want you to tell me who are the BEST looking male celebrities you know. The BEST.

These could be Hollywood movie stars. They could be Instagram stars. Doesn't matter. They just need to be very public figures, and very (in your opinion) good-looking.

You can pick several of them if you like. Then rate them on the 1-to-10 scale. (I know I usually say not to do that, but for the purposes of this article we'll do that)

Is it Brad Pitt, People Magazine's Sexiest Man of the Year in 1995, and again five years later in 2000?

Is it George Clooney, Sexiest Man of the Year in 1997 and 2006?

Is it Johnny Depp, Sexiest Man of the Year in 2003 and 2009?

How about Hugh Jackman? Sexiest Man of the Year in 2008.

How about Michael B. Jordan? He was 2020's Sexiest Man of the Year.

Write down the top 3-5 best-looking highly public men you know.

I want you to write down the men who are TOTAL 10s.

Or if you're one of those wet noodles who says "there's no such thing as a 10" then fine, write down the ones who are TOTAL 9.9s.

...

...

...

Got your list?

Don't go to the next section until it's written.

...

All right.

Now let's proceed.

 

Now Let's Rate All Their Hookups & Partners

“Now wait a minute, that's not fair!” I hear all the looks guys screaming.

Slowly, the diabolical smile spreads across my face.

So, who'd you pick?

Was it Brad Pitt? Is he your 10 out of 10 (or 9.9 out of 10)?

Let's rate his gals!

 

Rating Brad Pitt's Girls

Let's see here... who is Brad Pitt romantically connected to?

Well, he was first engaged to Jill Schoelen in 1989, back before he was super famous. So this is the girl most likely to be gotten by his "looks alone", and not just his fame.

I don't know what Jill Schoelen looks like, but if the looks purists are right, she's probably a 10/10. Let's look her up and see what she looked like in 1989.

...

...

...

Ah... huh.

I don't know if I'd call her a "10/10."

Not even sure she'd get an 8/10, if we're being totally honest here. 7/10? 6/10?

Well that's weird. One of the best-looking guys in the world engaging himself to a girl who isn't really even close to him in looks.

Is it because there weren't enough good-looking women around in Hollywood?

Maybe there are only ugly girls there, and this was the best Brad could get.

Well anyway, let's see how Brad did after her. Because surely, this was just a blip.

After Jill, Brad was engaged to Gwyneth Paltrow in 1996.

Gwyneth seems like a really sweet, nice person, so I kinda dislike judging her solely on looks. Her look is fine, she's attractive, but I think she'd be fine also saying she's not like 'super gorgeous' or anything.

She's not really the kind of girl you'd expect the BEST-LOOKING MAN IN THE WORLD to get, if looks were everything, and he had access to all the most gorgeous girls and it's all about looks anyway so he's going to get a 10/10.

Anyway let's move on. Because Brad had a few other fiancées and wives after her, didn't he? This guy gets around. Two fiancées, plus a further two wives... he's one ahead of me there, I'm going to have to step it up.

Here's his next gal, Jennifer Aniston, whom he wed in the year 2000:

I, uh... whoa.

Look at the chin on Jennifer. Is she a relation of Jay Leno's? She could put an eye out with that thing.

And that schnoz... whew!

It is also not like her body is remarkable. A little bit chubby there, and her breasts are also small. If she's got to be fat, you would at least hope for big tits.

Again, seems like a super nice person. And I feel bad for her the way Brad ditched her for his next wife. I wouldn't ordinarily critique her looks like this; it's not tasteful.

I'm making an exception here to just be totally raw & honest so we can explore this 'looks are the primary thing' hypothesis.

Brad has one more notable connection; let's look at her.

That'd be Angelina Jolie, whom he got together with in 2005:

Ah, finally.

Now there is a look I can get into.

Angelina is a pretty good-looking girl. Or was back then (she's... kinda rough now. Blame Father Time).

Is she an absolute 10/10? The most gorgeous woman on all the Earth, scooped up by Planet Earth's hottest man?

No, not really. But she's the kind of girl you'd be happy to be seen with in public, and she's the kind of girl you wouldn't mind mixing genes with and creating some elite super babies with.

Well, assuming she wasn't bat-shit insane, of course. That's the downside. She ruined Brad's health, destroyed their marriage, and turned their good-looking biological daughter into a sex-changed transsexual for progressive virtue points.

(I talked about her relationship with Brad more in-depth in one of my debunking articles, this one on the hypergamy myth)

So let's do the math:

• It took Brad 16 years to finally find a really good-looking girl he could marry

• Along the way he was engaged or married to one moderately good-looking girl, and two that (IMO) we can fairly safely consider 'Plain Janes' (though one was a very famous Plain Jane... I think her plainness was honestly part of her appeal. Very relatable girl-next-door type thing she has going on)

• When Brad finally did get his good-looking girl, she was one of those good-looking girls with an asterisk next to her: yes, she's hot, but she's also insane and will destroy your life and ruin the lives of any progeny you have with her

In case you are not experienced dating very beautiful women, let me throw this out there for you: beautiful women are not rare; very beautiful women are also not that rare (although the very, very beautiful ones are somewhat rare), and most of them are NOT crazy.

All beautiful women are higher maintenance, this is true. I don't like generalities, but I've yet to encounter an exception for that one.

However, only a minority of them (about the same percentage as the general population of women) is nuts.

Brad Pitt finally found a good-looking girl to marry, but she was nuts.

Not doing so hot there, two-time Sexiest Man of the Year winner!

Maybe Brad is just a fluke though?

Maybe he just has bad taste in women. Or he has really bad game or something (but that would kind of negate the whole 'looks are all that really matters' hypothesis, wouldn't it? [also, I just want to say that based on everything I've seen from him, I'm pretty sure Brad actually has pretty solid frame control, which is an important part of maintaining good-relationships. He probably would've been fine with any girl who isn't nuts, and the fact that he lasted so long with Angelina is a testament to the man's spine of steel. A girl like that will chew up and spit out most guys in a lot less than the time it took her to chew up Brad]).

Let's have a look at our next winner... Mr. George Clooney.

 

Rating George Clooney's Girls

Now that's what I'm talking about. Here's a guy who likes some variety!

I don't know who most of these chicks are, so let's look some of them up.

It looks like Kelly Preston was his earliest cited hookup, from back before he became super famous. So this is one we can say he got more on looks than fame, right?

Let's see what she looked like in 1987...

Umm... she's okay.

Super hot? Worthy of the Sexiest Man in the World?

Probably not. Definitely not a 10/10. Not a 9/10. Guys who really like blondes might rate her an 8/10. I think she sits comfortably in about the '7' range for me, if we're doing 1-10.

Bangable. Not marriage material.

But seriously... that's the best the best-looking guy in the world could do?

You're going to tell me there were no better-looking girls available in all of L.A.?

Well, let's see who he dated next.

Looks like it was a porn star named Ginger Lynn. No date on when they hooked up, but let's say it was around the same time. What'd she look like?

Well, I'm sure there are some guys who go for that look.

And she kinda looks like Clooney, so presumably that is hot for him, due to the facial similarity.

But, whew, lemme just say, this is way too mannish of a look for my tastes, personally.

If that's what being SUPER INCREDIBLY ULTRA GOOD-LOOKING gets you, I'll keep the looks I have, thanks very much.

How about his next gal... this 'Kelly Rutherford'? He dated her in 1992.

She was apparently on Melrose Place, and looked like this (on the left is her younger self):

Her look is kind of interesting/different. But not, in my opinion, at all good-looking.

Honestly I am getting kind of depressed looking at George Clooney's girls.

Looks like he sleeps around a lot, with a bunch of 5s, 6s, and 7s.

Let's take a look at his wives. Maybe he has better taste for longer-term relationships.

He was married to Talia Balsam from 1989 to 1993. That's a nice name. Let's see what she looked like then.

Ahhh... Jesus, dude, what?

This chick needs makeup on to look like a 6.

All right, how's his other wife, 'Amal Alamuddin' (how weird is it her first name sounds like the first half of her last name)?

Looks like she's about on-par with his first wife.

All right George, you are officially kicked off Team Good-Looking Guys.

Surely we can get someone in here to save Good-Looking Man Theory?

 

Rating Johnny Depp's Girls

Johnny Depp to the rescue!

Honestly I don't know what his women look like yet, except for Amber Heard, who has a kind of cruel face but is not unfortunate-looking, at least with makeup.

Let's take a jaunt through Johnny romantic history and find out together how his choices stack up.

I mean, the good-looking women in Los Angeles have to be dating SOMEBODY, right?

Maybe it's Johnny Depp?

So, it seems he was married to a gal named Lori since 1983, before he was famous, when all he had were (according to the looks-acolytes) his looks. Let's see what she looks like (I have no idea... we're about to find out together):

Well okay. She's not too shabby.

I'm not a big fan of those super-flared nostrils she sports, and this is really the best picture of her I could find (she looks a little not-as-good in the other pics that are out there), and she's obviously totally made up here, with that poofy hair that makes women look hotter than they are, but still, I'd give her a solid 7.5.

Not bad, Johnny. Doing better than George, that's for sure!

Best-looking man in the world good? Not really. He should be with a girl who's a 10/10 for that (or 9.9/10).

Let's see how he did after he divorced his wife and went back on the playing field, however.

Johnny next proposed to a gal with the very odd name 'Sherilyn Fenn', in 1986. Odd name... beautiful face? Let's see!

Oh uh... not really.

She does have nice tits though (not in this image).

She also has those flared nostrils going on, like Johnny's first wife.

Johnny, what's up with that? You got a thing for flared nostrils?

How about his next fiancée, whom he engaged in 1990... oh, it's Winona Ryder. Everybody knows her. Or at least, '90s kids will remember.

Is Winona SUPER ULTRA GORGEOUS?

Nah. She's actually pretty plain.

She does have a kind of attractive personality though.

Of course, we aren't talking about personalities, are we! Har-dee-har-har ;)

Finally, there is the scorpion-woman Amber Heard, whom Johnny married in 2015, and who then proceeded to eat his soul. Not to mention destroy his career with apparently false accusations of domestic violence.

If you're still in your "OMG makeup and hair!" phase and haven't learned to assess female beauty beneath these things, you may think this girl is actually REALLY QUITE HOT.

You would, then, perhaps be crestfallen to know how she looks sans makeup, hair, and sans pouty, sexy expressions:

Also, it looks like she needs to go on a diet:

I think we can safely say that none of Johnny's girls are "10/10s!" or that they even come close to equaling the Sexiest Man in the World in the looks department.

Another let down.

Sigh.

Guys, I'm getting kinda worried about Good-Looking Man Theory here.

How are we going to salvage things at this point?

Is Hugh Jackman our only hope?

 

Rating Hugh Jackman's Girls

Wait, no... that's a recent image of him and his wife.

Let's find one from closer to when they were married, back in the mid-1990s.

God, no wonder Wolverine's so angry.

He did the whole Emmanuel Macron "marry your grandmother and don't have biological children because she's already pre-menopausal by the time you put a ring on her finger" bit.

Maybe that is what good looks do to you though:

They leak into your brain, drive you totally insane and cause you to marry grannies, Plain Janes, or psychos.

 

Rating Michael B. Jordan's Girls

The white race has failed us. It is obvious that good-looking white men date unattractive white women.

Perhaps, to find the TRUE POWER of good looks, we have to look outside the European races.

So next, we turn our attention to Michael B. Jordan, a very good-looking man of African descent.

Surely he can save us from this endless stream of average-or-worse women.

Let's see what his no-doubt beauty-filled dating history entails.

First, we have Iggy Izaela, with whom he's had a relationship.

I know her name, but not what she looks like. Let's look her up.

Yikes.

That is not an attractive woman at all.

She's apparently since had a nose job, which I guess helps some.

I don't think you can really 'count' plastic surgery as part of someone's looks, since genes are genes, but I imagine opinions on that vary.

Michael's next girlfriend, in 2013, was a model. So I have higher hopes for her. Here she is... Catherine Paiz...

And, welp.

She's an improvement. But overall pretty ordinary.

Probably would also benefit from a nose job.

Then there's some chick named 'Saweetie' (play on words from sweetie?) Michael dated in 2017.

Sweet, she does not look.

She could also use a nose job.

Michael then dated an Ashlyn Castro in 2018.

I can't find many pictures of her, and all the ones there are have tons of makeup on and professional-done hair.

Apparently she is on Instagram, which no one can access anymore because they force a login to view it.

Here's another picture:

Ultimately I would say she looks reasonably cute with her makeup and hair done well.

I suspect she is not very good-looking without them, just from her general face shape and how copiously she makes herself up.

But she's okay, at least with all her kit on.

So, this is an improvement, Michael!

Is she "Best-Looking Guy in the World, who can Get All the Hottest Girls Because of His Ridiculous Good-Looks" good?

No. Nowhere near close.

But she's better than what the cat dragged in for his previous relationships!

Michael's also got 'encounters' (presumably they shagged) with Kiki Layne...

... who is actually not bad-looking. Somewhere between a 7 and an 8 in my opinion...

... also Snoh Aalegra...

... who is both weird-looking and not hot...

... and Cindy Bruna...

... who looks a little too much like a man for comfort...

... and finally Lupita Nyong'o...

Who is kinda sexy but not, in my opinion, at all beautiful.

So it would seem this inability of good-looking men to get good-looking women crosses racial boundaries.

It is indiscriminate in its blatant disregard for looks.

The simple fact of the matter is, the best-looking men in the world are dating, for the most part, remarkably average-looking women.

Occasionally they date some good-looking women (like Angelina Jolie). And occasionally they date some ugly women (like Hugh Jackman's wife. Ugh).

But for the most part -- pretty average, yeah.

 

“If Super Good-Looking Men Date Average Girls, that Must Mean Super Good-Looking Women Don't Date Anybody, At All, Whatsoever!”

I can hear the copes from the looks-purists and looks-absolutists already.

Well if they're not dating gorgeous men, they must be totally celibate then!

Yet, in actual fact, that isn't the case!

Because you can find any gorgeous woman you want, and you will note she is constantly dating.

You will also notice the men she's with are rarely as attractive as her.

I'm obviously not as attractive as any of the girlfriends I've had. Yet when I've seen their past hookups and boyfriends, most of those guys have not been especially attractive either, so far as I can tell (though again, I'm not the best at telling that sort of thing. But generally there are some cues that can often tell you when a guy isn't good-looking).

I may do a follow-up post at some point listing out legitimately gorgeous women and the men they've dated. That might be equally eye-opening for guys. Although it's harder for me to comment on that due to my male-looks-disability.

(honestly, I am somewhat concerned that guys will comment on this article saying, "Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Hugh Jackman, Michael B. Jordan -- none of these guys are actually good-looking!" -- I'm just going off the sexy man and popular culture considerations list here, folks. These seem to be the men there is a broad consensus are very attractive, rather than one guy's specific opinion which is, as we've seen, highly subjective)

Here's the point: if you're still running around talking about the primacy of looks, despite ALL the evidence to the contrary... and the total LACK of evidence you can present in defense of your 'looks are the one main thing' point... well I mean that is fine.

But don't go burdening us with having to explain to people again and again what silliness this is.

You can live in confirmation bias all you want.

The guys who want results, however, will designate their looks as being either:

1. Something they adjust and tweak as much as possible without obsessing over, to improve their fundamentals, on those aspects of their looks that are adjustable, or

2. Something they totally forget about altogether, when it comes to aspects of their looks they cannot change (genetic facial features, physical imperfections, skin color, hair type, etc.)

This is what you should/must do.

Obsessing over good-looking men and telling yourself these men have it so much easier than you, when clearly these men are dating for the most part very average-looking women, is not a healthy state of mind.

So set yourself free from it, and start working on all the stuff you can change.

Including, to a large extent, all the looks-based stuff you can adjust.

Because even if good-looks don't guarantee you a good-looking girl, better to have them than to not, right?

Chase