ome may find it counter-intuitive, but beauty may enhance a man's sexual attractiveness even more dramatically than it does a woman's. Not only do good-looking guys start having sex several years earlier than the average, he's more than twice as likely to have his sexual partner achieve orgasm than the average joe, according to a 1994 study by evolutionary biologist Randy Thornhill and psychologist Steven Gangestad. Despite all these bonuses, the hot guys are more likely to cheat on their mates while hot women aren't.

     Why so much action for handsome men? It turns out that symmetry, a central element of beauty, is an excellent indicator of lifelong health. Men with less symmetrical features suffer more from problems like insomnia and nasal congestion and more emotional turbulence like anger, jealousy and withdrawl, according to a University of Michigan study.

     Features that make men attractive signal their fitness to sire healthy offspring. Consider big jaws, a masculine feature that universally makes women swoon. Turns out big jaws take abundant levels of extra androgens (male hormones) like testosterone. High androgen levels compromise the immune system. Therefore, a man with square jaws signal high resistence to disease, a valuable survival trait.

     Other masculine features found to be universally attractive — to both men and women — include a straight strong nose, strong chin, rugged brows, prominent cheekbones and full lips. Under the prevailing American view white men are the embodiments of the masculine ideal while Asian men are relegated to off-brand status. However, as shown in Part I, the proportions of beautiful faces of all races converge toward a universal ideal. Comparisons of caucasian and Asian facial features against these standards (see chart below) don't support the view that caucasian men have a monopoly on the physical traits adding up to the masculine ideal.

Emotionalism Toward Asian Men

     The skew in favor of caucasian male features is a product of a social overlay that incorporates economic, cultural and political factors. Until recently, all three factors have favored caucasian features. White men have been generally seen as wealthier, more cultured and more considerate while Asian men have been seen as impoverished, uncouth and self-centered. To an even greater degree than with Asian women, the social overlay for Asian men is founded on ignorance rather than personal experience or knowledge of economic, cultural and political facts. For example, the perception that Asian men are sneaky and traitorous is founded entirely on wartime hysteria and jingoism following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. While perceptions of Asian female beauty tend to be colored by fantasies of easy access to exotic flesh, perceptions of Asian male beauty have traditionally been marred by a degree of emotionalism bordering on hysteria.

Inverting Masculine Ideals

     So how does this intense emotionalism translate into perceptions of Asian facial features? American society has traditionally inverted the values placed on Asian male facial features. For example, whereas a strong jawline is considered a highly attractive trait by Americans in assessing caucasian male beauty, it is seen as a threatening or even sinister and repulsive feature on an Asian male. Another example is the perception of narrow or even squinty eyes, especially when paired with prominent cheekbones. This is often considered a rugged or sexy trait in white men. The Marlboro Man is probably the best example of the attractively rugged aura surrounding sun-squinted eyes in a man. In Asian men, however, many Americans are more likely to see the mark of an unsavory, untrustworthy alien.

Split in Social Overlay

     Consequently, the social overlay for Asian men splits sharply between those who see them through the distorting lens of media stereotypes and those whose perceptions are based on actual social or professional contact.

     Illustrating this split is a 1994 UCLA study in which subjects drawn from the UCLA community — with its high concentrations of Asian students and professors — were shown images of Asian and caucasian men and asked to rate them for qualities like “powerful”, “caring” and “trustworthy”. A majority of subjects rated Asian men higher on all three — a complete reversal of the prevailing perception based on America's stereotypical views of Asian men.

Racial Typecasting

     An even greater distortion in American perceptions of male beauty across racial lines is the tendency to assign distorted norms that reflect racial typecasting. To Asian men American society has assigned as the norm a round baby face with earnest eyes, weak nose and weak chin. These are clearly feminine traits by universal standards of male beauty, but non-Asian Americans tend to see them as the ideal features for an Asian male because they fit him into the role cast for Asian males in American society — namely a non-threatening clerical or ancillary figure.

Asian Men in Early American Movies

     Things weren't always that way. For three decades beginning in 1915 Japan-born Sessue Hayakawa became one of Hollywood's most successful leading men, with an American following that rivaled those of Charlie Chaplain, John Barrymore and Douglas Fairbanks. In 1918 he was Paramount's first choice to play the lead in The Sheik, the role that launched second-choice Rudolph Valentino. It's worth noting, however, that despite his popularity, Hayakawa's career did suffer due to a dark new social overlay on Japanese men. After The Sheik, Hayakawa was given many starring roles, including several with sex appeal, but none in which he was the romantic leading man. Even as he was earnings millions a year, Hayakawa was limited to roles in which he played the wicked anti-hero. By the mid 1930s Hayakawa's Hollywood career became a victim of the talkies and the tensions leading up to World War II.

     But even the social overlay imposed by World War II and the Corean (Korean) War didn't entirely preclude American audiences from enjoying handsome Asian leading men. During the 1960s James Shigeta's dashing good looks and gravelly baritone earned him several leading-man roles in major Hollywood films, including The Crimson Kimono in which his character beat out a white rival to win the white heroine's heart. Even in the 1970s and 1980s when Shigeta was well into his middle years, he was cast in roles that called on his leading man image.

     During the Vietnam era as liberalized immigration policies began doubling and trebling America's long-suppressed Asian population, the Asian male became targets of scorn and ridicule. Even the concept of a beautiful Asian man became an oxymoron. The intensity of the assault on the image of the Asian male reflected the degree of threat Asian men were posing militarity, economically, and on the broader geopolitical front as Japan, China and Corea (Korea) continued their climb up the global economic food chain. This intense suppression of the Asian male explains much of the equally intense devotion inspired by the late Bruce Lee both before and after his death in 1975.

Rediscovering Asian Men

     More recently, however, the emotional depth charges once set off by images of Asian men are giving way to a yearning for better relations with a continent now recognized as an essential ally in the war against terror. Mainstream America has become more receptive to the beauty of Asian male features. Eurasian actors Keanu Reeves, Russell Wong and Dean Cain show that the features possessed by many Asian men are appealing to American audiences. The success of Asian transplants Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Chow Yun-Fat shows that the social overlay on even pure Asian men no longer precludes them from enjoying a following on this side of the Pacific.

     Thus, the social overlay that once made Asian men seem like the embodiment of anti-American values is evolving into a something more neutral. Americans are now beginning to judge Asian male features more objectively and less emotionally. A good-looking Asian man is more likely to be seen as a good-looking man and not as the incarnation of the geopolitical nemesis or the economic rival. This trend has been greatly helped by the far larger numbers of native-born or acculturated Asian American men who have moved into respected positions in business, government, academia and the media. The day may not be far off when Asian male features may come to enjoy a positive social overlay that reflects our actual socio-economic status in American society.