What do women see when they look at a man's body? Viral poll on social media creates controversial debate

In the current era of fitness being considered equal to six-pack abs and defined muscles, people are being motivated to join the gym or get professional training not to improve their health but to improve their looks. Fitness is now just another addition to your social lookbook rather than a self-satisfying method of health regulation.

In this case, a man named William Costello who is a doctoral researcher with an MSc in Psychology, Evolution & Culture from recently posted a poll on X where he shared two before and after pictures of a man who had undergone a 12 week gym transformation. He asked males and females to vote on when he looked better, before or after.

The results which seemed quite sensible to the women, came as a shock to the men. In the poll, 43% of males voted that the man looked better after, whereas 27% of women voted that he looked better before. What this has resulted in is a quintessential debate on the classic topic, ' Dad bod vs Ripped bod '

why are women lying about this? like what's the actual cause? pic.twitter.com/RM3b82jIF4

— taoki (@justalexoki) April 26, 2025

Women in the comments section have been explaining how they think the man looked better before. "We aren't lying. He's more attractive to most women in the first picture. Maybe it's because it looks like he'd protect us, pick us up and hug us, take us camping and other fun shenanigans, and just generally be enjoyable to be around. Or maybe it's because in the second one he looks like a preening gay man in ranger panties who trends toward neurotic," wrote a woman when asked by a man why women were lying in the poll.

The guy on the left could survive a famine, an infection, or a long hunting trip or war raid without food.

The 'cut' guy on the right is very vulnerable to resource shortages.

Women evolved to understand which male body types survive better.

— Geoffrey Miller (@primalpoly) April 26, 2025

Chiming in.. we're not lying. Whether it's because it feels like he'd be more accepting of me flaws as well as his own, or because his attention is not focused on his regimen, I'm uncertain. Perhaps both, but second pic screams Richard Simmons. Sorry Richard, you're cool but not…

— 🐾Feelyne💤 (@delicat_gremlin) April 28, 2025

The men, however, are of the complete opposite view and think that normally a woman would find a ripped body attractive. "Yeah, women totally prefer dad bods... that’s why they scream at concerts for guys who look like Greek statues" wrote one user, "Women prefer fit men over less fit men, but they don’t like “flexing” at all. So be ripped but don’t flex. Got it.😂" added another.

Nobody believes women because everyone knows if you made a dating profile for both there is 0% chance the dude on the left outperforms the dude on the right.

— Barry McC00kiner 33.3% (@E_Rex_Shawn) April 27, 2025

Of course we don’t, but what we *do* understand is what women desire, because we watch what they do, not what they say. The ripped guy gets women, dad bod doesn’t. She’ll tell her friends she wants dad bod, and then meets up with ripped guy for drinks 20 minutes later.

— Bemused Observer (@PanopticonBot) April 27, 2025

Many stated how men struggle in understanding the female gaze which is why the debate is going on at all. "This dad pod vs ripped debate is a good reveal that Men dont understand the Female gaze" wrote a user on X. "It also shows that women can be SCREAMING and men refuse to hear us - the say we are hard to understand 🤣"

I'm more astonished by my fellow men not recognizing this. The first picture looks stronger and healthier.

— Isaac McPhee (no relation) (@McPheeIsaac) April 27, 2025

While men might think women prefer ripped bodies, for women a healthy, strong man fits the bill no matter if he is ripped or not.