Forums > Knowledge Bank archive > KB:Humans, universally attractive?
This page is an archive of a community-wide discussion. This page is no longer live. Further comments or questions on this topic should be made in a new Knowledge Bank page rather than here so that this page is preserved as a historic record. Advanced Jedi Training Droid 6 (Talk to my master) 03:45, June 16, 2014 (UTC)
It seems that aliens often find human beings sexually attractive, very often. Granted they are usually humanoid, but why? A few Ishi Tib and Luke Skywalker, Prince Xizor and Princess Leia, a Devaronian on a Tatooine bar and Princess Leia, that holostar in Shadow Games and a Sullustan, Queen Miraj and Anakin Skywalker (at least subtly), a freaking Abyssian and Letta in the Clone Wars, Marvid Qresh and Vestara Khai. I don't get it. While humans are far from being the evolutionary peak in terms of intelligence, strength, longevity or endurance, are they the pinnacle of sexual/physical appearance evolution or something?Darth Pickle 2 (talk) 15:20, September 30, 2013 (UTC)
- Well, we are talking about mostly hero characters, which are almost always more attractive than average (in the rules of fiction, heroes are hot, unless you explicitly state that they're not, and the heroism usually becomes about overcoming obstacles). Many of these cases that you mention are suspect. The Holostar in Shadow Games was supposed to be supermodel-hot, so she can't be considered the standard. Princess Leia's appeal to Xizor was not just about her attractiveness, but was also a power game. Same with Vestara I think; her seductive skills and attractiveness were tools to help her to manipulate people. So even though we may see many examples of attraction by non-humans to humans, we can assume that a lot of our characters are more attractive than normal/average. Taral, Dark Lord of the Sith -Just shy, not antisocial: You can talk to me!- 20:06, September 30, 2013 (UTC)
- Weren't the Twi'leks universally attractive?--Shioroi (talk) 12:18, December 11, 2013 (UTC)
- No. Taral, Dark Lord of the Sith -Just shy, not antisocial: You can talk to me!- 17:19, December 17, 2013 (UTC)
- There's no definitive answer on this, so it's all speculation. But in our own world, for many years the culture industries have been pumping out a particular brand of "attractiveness" that is coded as racially white. In a culture dominated by Humans, it would make sense that the pan-species standards of beauty might similarly be coded as Human. This is not to say that other standards of beauty aren't also operating simultaneously: there's always been a strain of pop culture in the West that exoticizes the dark-skinned or foreign Other from some place that used to be part of a European empire or from a people who used to be enslaved. Star Wars has that element with species such as Twi'leks, who are similarly on the galactic periphery, sociologically speaking. But my point is that standards of beauty are strongly skewed by cultural forces. There's no doubt some element of biology, too, but beauty is more than mere biology. ~Savage 14:14, December 13, 2013 (UTC)