Why is there a wide appreciation/admiration for long legs?
Asked by
rebbel (
35547
)
August 3rd, 2011
I am talking from a male perspective for long legs on females (is there similar appreciation for male long legs by females, or same sex appreciation?).
Today, when I saw a young woman walking, who sported long, well proportioned legs, I found myself looking at them, feeling quite nice :-)
But why, I asked myself (and now you), do we like those long legs so much?
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36 Answers
I prefer shapely. Quality over quantity.
More of something good = better.
It enables me to squish my husband’s head like a grape..from a distance ;)
It’s more efficient when you have two long legs hanging over your shoulders instead of two feet hitting you in the face lol.
@bob_ Does that apply to butts too?
I’m a female and I’ve always admired long shapely legs over shorter or stumpier ones. They’ve always reminded me of a nimble horse or antelope, especially if the girl has a nice posture and walking gait.
I’m 5’2” and amazon women scare me. I wouldn’t know what to do with them.
Strong thighs/shapely legs are attractive to me.
@Jude: I’m only 5’2” also but have always been drawn to tall men (+6ft) and surprisingly when it comes down to it, everything flows just fine if the chemistry is there ;p
@Neizvestnaya Yeah, when horizontal, it’s all good. But, when I’m standing besides them, I feel so little. I sometimes end up around chest height. Oh, wait…
@Blackberry Ohhh, but you could hold onto shorter legs like handles in that elliptical gym machine where you swing your legs! Lol.
It’s where those lovely pins lead, the promised land known as shaven haven ;¬}
The thighs the limit boys, come on in & stay awhile :¬)
Here’s the thing, having a short waist/torsoe which means not a lot of space from below the breast to your hip is a nightmare. If you are big chested or a little overweight you look like a box. A flat stomach, if you have one, is lost. My husband calls these boxy looking girls piñatas. Oy. Sure people like long legs, but you can lengthen your leg with a high heal and long pants, you cannot do one thing about a short waist. I say this because I don’t want one woman on this thread to feel bad about having shortish legs. Even top and bottom is probably ideal, but if you are not perfectly proportioned having the longer waist and shorter legs is the better option.
Men probably picture woman with their legs wrapped around them or something. Some sexual thing of course. Like full lips they think of the girl sucking their dick. Men are consistent in this sort of thing I find.
Plus, I agree with whoever said it above, Amazon women are overwhelming. When I hit 5’5” I wanted to stop growing. I am 5’6”.
@JLeslie Hey give us a little more credit than that. That kind of hurt.
Because I like my foot fetish performances done long distance.
@adirondackwannabe Sorry, I think I just reinforced @Jleslie’s pov.
@JLeslie Your next to last paragraph. We’re not all pigs. I may make jokes, but they’re not serious.
@Adirondackwannabe Not all pigs, I agree. I don’t think my husband is a pig, but I still think he checks out women in a sexual way. Some men have more of an eye for beauty than others. Studies, although I have no idea if there has been a good scientific one done, show men care more about body than face. Right there that is sex in my opinion. When I was out a few months ago with some friends, one of the men was scoping the bar to take someone home with him, and his comment was more or less, “she has to look ok naked, not too heavy.” No one was fat mind you. And, recently I heard on The View some study that said most men do mind if their wives are overweight. I think that is all part of the same thing, sex.
@JLeslie Ditto.
No need for scientific studies to figure that out. Just listen to guys talking.
Just to clarify there is a difference between being tall and having long legs. If someone is tall they are more likely to have longer legs compared to the general popuation. But, among average height women, legs can vary in length. I was addressing the average woman primarily in my answer; not the amazons or the very short. More about proportions.
Being 5’9” and short waisted (though, I don’t think I appreciate being referred to as a “piñata”) means that I tend to be really leggy, and men have always noticed/complimented/wolf whistled over my legs. I’ve always assumed there was some evolutionary factor in it. Maybe long-legged women look like they can run faster from threats… or more efficiently chase after food.
Well, I just came back from doing a bunch of research in which I expected to find evolutionary reasons for a preference for long legs. Boy, was I surprised. It seems that the whole premise is wrong. Men might prefer longer legs in women, but the preference is only 5% (sorry, I didn’t keep track of my references). The preference is affected by culture. And the preference is mostly for a 1 to 1 body length to leg length ratio. I should note that there are studies all over the place on this issue.
Really long legs are not see as very good, same as really short legs. There is an idea length, but it isn’t that much different from the average leg length.
When it comes to men, women do not have a preference for longer legged men. It seems that a more balance body shape is preferred.
In terms of evolution, all I could find was that when we moved from having four legs to walking on two, longer legs were an advantage. For women, things like waist to hip ratio and boob size and facial beauty were more important as indicators of genetic fitness. In one survey of the literature, a study found that having a sexy voice was key. People with good sexual features, surprise, surprise, got laid younger, had more partners, and cheated more.
@ANef_is_Enuf You can’t be 5’9” and a piñata, and I tell my husband not to say it whenever he does.
Much appreciated @wundayatta!
Thank you to the others too, of course!
@JLeslie: I can back up your suckage of having a short torso. I have long legs for a shrimpy person but with boobs thrown in, I still end up feeling like a puffed up hen. The description your husband gives is cringeworthy, gah.
@Neizvestnaya Puffed hen, hadn’t heard that one before. My husband is Mexican, and typically would say it about a specific body type, usually the women are hispanic, overwieght, dress a certain way, it is not just simply short torsoe.
Because long legs gave us an evolutionary advantage when hunting.
Some studies have found a correlation between leg length and heart disease risk, but the study I linked to looked at men, so I am not sure if the findings apply to women. For men, I suppose the preference for longer legs has to do with sexual factors, like the way long legs wrap around them.
Apparently long limbs are a sign of better genes. But I won’t lie to you, the person who told me that thought he was a genius because a free internet intelligence test told him so.
My answer addresses this: ”(is there similar appreciation for male long legs by females, or same sex appreciation?).”
On a man I am attracted to, I like his legs to look “manly”. Maybe that’s why I like a man to have hair on his legs. ^_^
I do appreciate long legs on women because I think they look nice. I also see an advantage to having long legs… wrapping them around a sexual partner. ^_^
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