How do men want women described?

[TruthAndLove]

A query to hetrosexual men: What sort of information do you want a writer to give you about female characters?

Height and weight? Eye color? Breast size? Breast shape? Skin color? Hair color? Income? Power in the community? Age? Complexion? Atheticism? Intelligence? Smile or lack thereof?

Given that there's only so much space and not everything about the character can be specified, I'd appreciate it if the men reading this would tell me, in order of priority, the things they'd most like included in the description of a female character.

And while I'm at it, what characteristics would you like to be left out of descriptions (so you can fill it in with your imagination)?

Just responses from men please. There's another thread for women to respond to.

 

[DonFox]

For me, a modest amount of detail is necessary, but the author should never make the description read like a police bulletin.

I like to know hair color and length, eye color, and basic elements of the body type (tall or short, long legs, big or small breasts, toned and muscular or soft and curvaceous). Since most characters are created with a certain image or model in mind (especially in erotica, where the inspiration for the story is often simple attraction to someone), I also think it's important to include good descriptions of distinctive features that are integral to the plot or the author's own image of the character. For example, if there is fellatio involved in the story and the character performing it has a particularly inviting mouth or a pierced tongue, the reader should know this. If the whole point of the tale is that the protagonist is attracted to a woman with very wide hips, a little extra attention to that area of the body by the writer can make all the difference.

Unless the tale is written in first person and the protagonist is a doctor giving a physical or a tailor altering clothes, very specific stats such as bra size or measurements often come across as silly and exaggerated. On the other hand, a clever writer can work hard numbers into a story in dialogue or some other, more subtle way, which will allow them to add to the readers' perception of the character without sounding contrived. Example: "I overheard Tina telling the sales clerk that she needed a size 36DD bra, a statistic that did not surprise me considering the way her heavy breasts always seemed to be fighting to burst free of her blouse." As a general rule, though, I prefer authors avoid being too specific with measurements unless they are vital to the plot.

Bottom line? If it serves or enhances the story in any way, it should be included. I want to be able to see the character in my mind's eye from the author's words, but also have the freedom to fill in and embellish the details to fit my own preferences whenever possible. Though many erotica writers overdo their descriptions for the sake of exaggeration or showmanship, just as many seem content to leave the reader with nothing more than "Angela was really hot!" to fuel their imaginations. Neither approach is likely to produce a genuinely exciting and arousing erotic story, in my opinion.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

In reading a story, like listening to the radio, we form an image in our minds of what we see behind the description or the voice.

Please, just sketch the essential outlines of your protag and let me fantasize the rest of his/her assets

 

[slyc_willie]

Men, for the most part, or very visual, and when it comes to reading a story, we sort of like to have a picture painted for us. Not too much detail, more like broad strokes. Give us dimensions if you want, but it's enough to say 'she had large breasts that overflowed my hands' or 'a petite, compact ass.'

Things like hair color and eye color may or may not be necessary. I do like it when an author mentions something like 'the stark contrast of her pale skin to her flowing, crimson hair,' or 'her eyes were blue-grey, like clouds just before a storm.'

If you define a woman in a story to closely, she becomes your fantasy, as opposed to ours. Give us the basic canvas; we'll add the rest of the color.

 

[foodsnob]

Height, weight, age, hair color, measurements, cup size, ass.

 

[jomar]

What elfin and slyc_willie said.

 

[Kendras_babygirl]

uh-hm

Just so we're clear, I hope you aren't leaving out the bisexual and lesbian readers among us in this guy/girl posting bit.

Will look for the female version of this question though.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Discriptions are all about respect for the intellect of the reader and function within the story.

The reader isn't dumb, he/she has a mind and is capable of imagining the character. By allowing him/her to do so pulls the reader into the story and makes if more believable and identifiable for the reader.

Look at all the Harry Dick stories I've written. What does Harry look like? He's never been discribed. I suppose I have some foggy image of him, but even I don't really know.

On the other hand, the women are often discribed in the stories, but only in an outrageous way that sets the stage from joke lines. For instance,

Violet Barfly was the kind of broad you really want to get next too. Her monstrous 44DD's had the kind of jiggle that gave guys a headache and a double sized boner, even sitting still. When she walked, her ass gyrated like the roller coaster at Coney Island. She was topped off with a head of long blond hair and the face of Jean Harlow. This babe was one hot orgasm waiting to happen.

Ok, you have discription, but WHO is she? Great knockers, fantastic ass and all. But that doesn't say anything about who Violet is. The entire paragraph is there only for Harry to leer and drool over. The style is rather Mickey Spillane pushed to the "n'th" degree. But she could be any of 100,000 women walking the street. Do we care who she is? Not really. We care that Harry leers at her and comes up with a giant boner, more because he's a pervert than any other reason. But botht he woman and the discription are meaningless to the story.

The point is, you don't need to discribe the characters except when there is some genuine reason for doing so. Violet (who is totally unimportant to the story) is discribed so the reader can laugh at Harry's perversion. Harry (Who the story is about, is totally important) is not discribed at all because the reader can make his/her own image of the detective.

If you care about your characters and your readers. Use as little discription as you can get away with unless there is a definate reason the reader needs to know.

 

[Guest]

Depends on the perspective of the character in the story being affected (one presumes) by the looks of the woman.

If it is the woman herself, thinking about what it is about her that turns men on so much, then it's yours to play with from the sense of pride or vanity, or just plain observation of how others react.

If from the perspective of a male or female potential lover (more common), then you can show something about the lusting/admiring one by what they choose to see or care about the most. Maybe he/she takes in the general hotness factor of the woman all at once, or focuses on an attribute at a time, and the description takes a while to get teased out. We'll know something about the one doing the looking (and the lust object, too) if they focus on her breasts, or legs, or imagine what she'd look like in some type of lingerie, or it's more about a playfulness in her eyes, or some kind of secretiveness in the way she smiles, etc.

What your characters notice trumps what we would notice ourselves — and after all, the story is about them. We're just inviited into their lives or minds for awhile.

 

[Carnevil9]

The Blind Men and the Elephant

I like to extrapolate. Give me a detail or two, not even important details, just something to grab on to and make her stick out. If my mind supplies the rest, I'm that much more invested in the story.

All guys seem to notice different things about women, in my experience. I have a drinking buddy, and we'll often have conversations something like this:

Him: Did you see that babe?

Me: Which one, the one with the rib-knit sweater?

Him: I don't know about the sweater; I mean the bleached blonde!

Me: I didn't notice a blonde. Do you mean the one with the bright red fingernails?

Him: You must have noticed the hat?

Me: No, didn't see a hat. You mean the one with the hoop earrings?

Him: No, the one with the turned up nose.....

And so on. We're both talking about the same woman, but we each notice (and respond to) different details.

I guess my point is, even though we all see DIFFERENT details, it is the details that tend to stick in our minds. Not numbers (boob size, etc.), but little emotional cues that hearken back to our deepest fetishes.

I don't know if that helped you, but now I'm horny!......Carney

 

[JamesSD]

A query to hetrosexual men: What sort of information do you want a writer to give you about female characters?

Height and weight? Eye color? Breast size? Breast shape? Skin color? Hair color? Income? Power in the community? Age? Complexion? Atheticism? Intelligence? Smile or lack thereof?

Given that there's only so much space and not everything about the character can be specified, I'd appreciate it if the men reading this would tell me, in order of priority, the things they'd most like included in the description of a female character.

And while I'm at it, what characteristics would you like to be left out of descriptions (so you can fill it in with your imagination)?

Just responses from men please. There's another thread for women to respond to.

There are at least two schools of thought on this subject. One is to be vague, and let the reader fill in the details with his own personal preferences. For example, "His eyes were drawn to her perfectly formed breasts". One reader might give said woman almost impossibly large, firm, round breasts. Another might imagine something smaller, more tear-drop shaped.

I can think of one long-running erotica serial I read where one of the primary women from the author's description is brunette, but in my mind she's blonde, the way I prefer viewing her.

The other method is to be detailed and descriptive. Men seem to prefer numerical details moreso than women do, which is the reason Playboy Playmate Data sheets include height, weight, and measurements. But these do tend to be ackward as a narrative device, unless the narrator thinks that way (I, for one, am very good at estimating a woman's cup size just by looking at her). Minimally, it's good to put in information that the man looking at the woman could tell with his eyes: If she's tall, in her 20s, 30s, or older, etc. Stuff like intelligence and sense of humor should be "shown, not told" through dialog.

Here comes the cop out: It depends a lot on the story. Something more pornographic, designed for masturbatory fantasies, should have a lot of details about the woman's body. More romantic fare should usually be more vague. First person from the male's perspective should focus on details the character would notice. First person from the female's perspective will generally leave out a lot of body specifics.

I tend to notice and dwell on a woman's most attractive feature. So if your character has a great ass, give the most time describing her ass. Same goes for eyes, breasts, etc.

 

[waratah]

I prefer just enough to start the grey matter thinking about what she looks like, and if the story develops with us learning more of how she looks as it goes so much the better. People change with sleep, dress, time of day, emotions, periods etc, so a gradually developed composite is nice.

 

[mjl2010]

The one thing I hate the most is this...

She was five foot two with blond hair, blue eyes, 44DD tits and a beautiful ass with unbelievably long legs.

On the other hand, if her features are included as part of the story, that's much nicer.

Paragraph 4. - Her blue eyes flashed anger as she...

Paragraph 7. - I mauled her luscious tits with my hands as she struggled against the ropes...

Paragraph 11. He ran his hand over the creamy lobes of her beautiful ass...

Paragraph 19. His hand twisted her long blond hair up in his fist as she sucked his cock...


Much better than the police report type description...

MJL

 

[nlh_nhp]

I agree with some of the guys above. Give us a brief description but in general, people tend to picture someone they know in the place of the person being described.

 

[wherefromhere]

Personally, I'd just like mentioned the hair color/type (straight, wavy?), and body shape (which includes breast size). I don't need to know exactly what shape her face was or if her eyes were blue or green; I can make up that stuff myself anyway. Oh and age is also nice to know.

 

[Bigr1856]

Less is More

I believe the details should come from the reader, unless they are integral to the story line, i.e. its a BBW story. By this I mean that the reader will fill in the blanks with their own imagination. I certainly find it off-putting to read a story that starts with a laundry list of physical characteristics.

 

[MarshAlien]

The one thing I hate the most is this...

She was five foot two with blond hair, blue eyes, 44DD tits and a beautiful ass with unbelievably long legs.

On the other hand, if her features are included as part of the story, that's much nicer.

Paragraph 4. - Her blue eyes flashed anger as she...

Paragraph 7. - I mauled her luscious tits with my hands as she struggled against the ropes...

Paragraph 11. He ran his hand over the creamy lobes of her beautiful ass...

Paragraph 19. His hand twisted her long blond hair up in his fist as she sucked his cock...


Much better than the police report type description...

MJL

I like this kind of woman, too. I mean, this kind of description, too.

 

[drksideofthemoon]

For me, the personality of the character is more important than the physical details.