The New Male Beauty

Think of Chace Crawford, Ryan Reynolds and Zac Efron: Faces are symmetrical — no distinct, hooked noses or strong jaws, no prominent chins or heavy brows that scientists associated with high testosterone levels. Columbia University professor Leonard Lee tells Aleksander: "Large eyes are a 'neotenous' cue, one people associate with babies and that elicits female nurturance." Aleksander translates this as: "Women have literally become attracted to men who look like babies."

Casting agent Randi Hiller offers this theory: "If you go back to [old] iconic movies, everybody wasn't super-beautiful, but a lot of them were sexy. But there's also something about young women today being more comfortable with a boy-man; they're less threatening sexually than a man-man."

Is it because women today are more empowered — and not in need of a hulking, masculine fatherly/protector type? Do women who find Zac Efron attractive actually feel "threatened" by a more rugged type? And don't many women find both "masculine" types like Clive Owen and boyish or femme types like Chace Crawford hot? And aren't standards of beauty always changing, each era with its own "look"?

The New York Observer examines.