Abstract
As is common for many men, Shakespeare was idealising a woman. The search for an ideal partner was not only critical for Shakespeare — it is, by evolutionary standards, the central goal for all male and female life forms (Buss, 1985;Darwin, 1859;Vandenberg, 1972). Anthropological and psychological evidence continues to document the features women seek in a male partner (Symons, 1979), but for the purposes of this chapter we primarily focus on the features men seek in a female partner. The ideal feminine form has been characterised by painters and sculptors for as long as paintings and sculptures have existed (e.g., see Zollner & Nathan, 2003) and Shakespeare is, of course, hardly the first writer to try a verbal description.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
∽ Shakespeare, 1564–1616
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© 2007 Leif D. Nelson, Terry F. Pettijohn II, and Jeff Galak
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Nelson, L.D., Pettijohn, T.F., Galak, J. (2007). Mate Preferences in Social Cognitive Context: When Environmental and Personal Change Leads to Predictable Cross-Cultural Variation. In: Swami, V., Furnham, A. (eds) The Body Beautiful. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230596887_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230596887_10
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