Science Explains Why Men Are Attracted to Women with Big Lips (No, Not Those Lips)
Research has found that women with one particular lip shape are more likely to orgasm.
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Everyone has had that awkward moment after a first kiss. Who speaks first? What do you say? And most importantly, was it good?
A year ago, I had such an awkward first kiss moment with a guy I had been crushing on for months. The kiss sent such shivers down my spine that I thought my legs had fallen off. But then, with one bizarre comment, he jolted me out of my lust paralysis.
"Oh wow, your lips are real."
I pulled back and narrowed my eyes. "Huh? Why wouldn't my lips be real?"
"Ah…sorry. Usually, women with big lips have had fillers. When you kiss them, it feels like you are kissing a bag of rocks."
A long (and rather clinical) discussion ensued about how kissing lips injected with fillers feels different from kissing lips without fillers. The next day, I conducted a curious (and highly unscientific) poll, asking all my male friends if they could tell when lips were real or fake.
My anecdotal results: Ladies, if you get lip fillers for yourself…carry on. But if you are getting fillers to attract men, I have some bad news. Men can tell when you have fake lips. No, scratch that. Men can tell when you have fake anything. And somewhere in their lizard brains is an extreme repulsion for romantic trickery. Cosmetically altered women are like bright red delicious berries that, on closer examination, are poisonous.
There is an art to seductive subterfuge. A slight enhancement is alluring. Push it too far, and you fall right into the uncanny valley.
Lipstick is a perfect example of artful subterfuge. Sure, plenty of men complain they would prefer women not to wear lipstick. It's sticky, tastes like sweetened Play-Doh, and leaves marks on their clothes that can ruin a perfectly good extramarital affair.
And yet, this one cosmetic is the most enduring seduction tool in a woman's makeup bag.
The ancient Egyptians applied lipstick not only to increase their sex appeal but also because they believed it warded off evil spirits. Even Cleopatra got in on the trend and was known for her signature red lips, created by crushing carmine beetles and mixing them with wax and oils. (Before you get grossed out by the thought of crushed beetles on your lips, the same formula is used in many modern lipsticks and blushes.)
Queen Elizabeth I also loved lipstick. Her red shade was made from a recipe of cochineal, gum Arabic, egg whites, and fig milk. She used lipstick so frequently that she was rumored to have half an inch of red paint caked on her lips when she died.
The anthropological record supports the allure of painted red lips. Scientists originally dated humans adorning the body to 30,000 years ago until a discovery in 2011 changed history.
Deep in a calcrete cliff, 300 km east of Cape Town, South Africa, and about 34.5 meters (113 ft) above current sea level, anthropologists discovered the Blombos Caves. Inside its dank corridors held secrets to a day in the life of our earliest ancestors. There were discarded bones from homo Sapiens' last meals, a pinkish-red grindstone carved with repeated crosshatching, and two abalone shells filled with red paint.
The red pigment consisted of ochre (a reddish-orange color), seal fat, and charcoal. Scientists believe early humans used this paint to redden their lips.
Basically, anthropologists had stumbled upon the first lipstick.
Since early humans spent most of their days eating and procreating, it's not hard to see why lips would be the star of the show. From Clara Bow's rosebud pout to Angelina Jolie's mischievous full mouth, humans love bright red, attention-grabbing lips.
Not so with other facial features. Cultural beauty standards have changed the preferred size and shape of chins, cheeks, noses, and eyes.
The ancient Greeks adored straight, prominent noses no wider than one-third their length, while the ancient Romans preferred the aquiline or Roman nose with a prominent bridge, giving it a hooked beaked appearance. Large noses remained the beauty ideal until the twentieth century ushered in an era of cute, perky snouts.
Do you hate your fat cheeks and double chin? Don't despair. You were simply born in the wrong century. In the Renaissance, a rounded face paired with an enlarged chin and neck was the beauty ideal. Bonus points if you had a goiter.
Even eyes, the windows to the soul, have gone through different beauty trends. The Ancient Egyptians preferred dramatic, heavily lined cat eyes, while the Victorians preferred makeup-free, round, doe eyes.
But in every culture, lips are always as red and plump as an unpicked berry (or, um, another female body part. We will get to that…)
Why are humans so drawn to luscious lips? Science has some answers.
In his 1967 bestseller book, The Naked Ape, zoologist Desmond Morris was the first to propose that women redden their lips to resemble their other reddened lips — the inner folds of the labia.
It makes sense when you consider the signs of female sexual arousal. When a woman is aroused, vasodilation engorges and darkens the labia from pinkish to a deeper shade of reddish purple. But while it's easy to connect the evolutionary psychology dots, when researchers showed pictures of genitalia to a sample of men, they overwhelmingly preferred the paler pink labia over reddened ones. Perhaps this is why vulva lipstick has never become a thing.
But if you love a bold mouth, don't ditch your Chanel red lipstick just yet. There is another reason red lipstick increases facial attraction.
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