The Perfect Male Physique… And How To Fake It

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“Rather, the golden ratio should be thought of as science that expresses itself as objective beauty in the real world.“

Desire isn’t only about sex appeal. Sure, it is often a factor, but it’s not what drives us to the point of no return. As we discovered from your votes in our just-launched Top 99 Most Desirable Women, it is something more intangible than that — a complete package of, yes, looks, but also intelligence, talent and career success. That got us thinking about what’s behind other forms of desire. What attracts us to physical objects, like cars and Apple products? What is it about certain places that stimulates our wanderlust? We explore these questions in our new (free!) iPad app. Download it now.There are few things in math that make sense in plain English. Take the Pythagorean theorem, quadratic formula and differential equations, for starters. Sure, there are some guys out there who could solve a problem set in their sleep, but for most, just the word “math” is enough to stir up nightmares of year-nine geometry and Ms. I-Purged-Her-Name-Out-Of-My-Head-Forever.

Then there’s the golden ratio. Even by any of its other names — golden cut, divine proportion or sectio divina — you know it has to be good. Indeed, as the name suggests, the golden ratio is essentially mathematical perfection: When the sum of two quantities is exactly equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. After a few simple calculations, it turns out that this ratio has a tangible value — roughly 1.6180339887.

A calculator-crunching engineer may get off on that explanation, but the rest of us can take interest in the golden ratio’s relevance for everyday life in the real world. And it has nothing to do with two trains leaving different stations and the time at which they could potentially collide. Rather, the golden ratio should be thought of as science that expresses itself as objective beauty in the real world. The Great Pyramid of Giza, the melodies of Chopin and Dali’s The Sacrament of the Last Supper are all based on this value of heavenly proportions. Even playing cards and wide-screen TVs are argued as evidence of the golden ratio in action.

While we could say that the dimensions of a wide-screen TV are perhaps the most important manifestation of this math yet, it is also said to govern our perception of attractiveness in the human form. Your face (the ratio of length to width), upper body (the ratio of shoulder width to the waist) and arms (the ratio of the upper arm to the forearm and hand) should all match up with this magic number. That is, of course, if you’re sculpted from marble at the hands of Michelangelo or happen to be Hugh Jackman. For the rest of us, our proportions come pretty close but rarely hit the target. So what’s a guy to do when he doesn’t quite measure up?

If you have slim shoulders…

Introduce width and bulk to the upper body area. Horizontal stripes, a little extra padding in a suit jacket and an English spread-collar shirt all accomplish that just fine, but be careful. It’s easy to go overboard with stripes or padding and pack on kilos instead of working out your shoulder-to-waist ratio. This sweater is how to do a stripe right: The placement is perfect, the banding on the sleeve adds to the illusion and the Fair Isle print is top notch.

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