Dear Journal,

Nowadays, men appear to go for women that have more depth than just a pretty face. (That’s right Chloe, you’re the one I want).

One poll conducted by 60 Minutes and Vanity Fair revealed that only 1 percent of men claim “physical beauty” to be important. Here’s the breakdown of the “ideal woman” in this American poll conducted by 60 Minutes: 40% “ability to be a good mother”, 33% based on intelligence, 17% humor, 3% ability to cook, 3% healthy sex drive, 1% physical beauty.

So it appears that men’s standards for women’s physical beauty is decreasing, whereas women’s standards for men’s physical beauty is staying at a higher level, possibly even increasing.

Yet we still see the “get you a girl who can do both” memes… Why???

Orginally, thought it was saying that no matter if you dress up in heels and pearls or dress down in sweats and sneakers, you are still beautiful. (But you are only truly beautiful if you can do both.) Maybe it’s because I am a girl, but I had a more difficult time interpretting the “girls who do both” memes opposed to the “guys who do both” memes. Numerous studies reveal that guys are drifting away from standards for outer beauty to inner beauty, but it appears that this meme merely focuses on physical appearnce. To see if this was an accurate interpretation, I asked three different guys for their interpretation of the meme above. Here are the results:

Guy 1: “It’s strictly speaking about the girl’s appearence. Like Drake’s meme was referrencing both appearence and persona, but this one is just referencing appearence.”

Guy 2: “I guess this meme is hinting at the preconception that guys just focus on girls’ outter beauty.”

Guy 3: “Historically, it seems that men have always sought over the pretty, popular girl that wore makeup and more feminine clothing like skirts and dresses, but now they want someone that, sure, can do that but can also be comfortable and beautiful without all that.”

For the past few years though, numerous singers and rappers have expressed the idea in their songs that you don’t have to dress to the nine’s or paint yourself in makeup to be considered “beautiful.”

Colbie Caillet: “You don’t have to try so had. You don’t have to give it all away … You don’t have to change a single thing.”

Drake: “Sweatpants, hair tied, chillin’ with no make-up on. That’s when you’re the prettiest. I hope that you don’t take it wrong.”

We’ve seen this growing movement expressing that “all women are beautiful” on various social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Pinterest. The presence of these types of inspirational quotes on social media have encouraged women globally to accept and love their bodies. Of course, we really only see these posts targeting women, leaving men uneasy and unsatisfied about their own bodies. Even in most songs, like Colbie Caillet’s and Drake’s singles mentioned above, they are referencing women, not necessarily men, to be themselves and comfortable in their own bodies.

Until next time, sweet memes & sleep tight,

Lexie