Attractive characters?

I'm not sure that's a logical construct - after all, Jayne Mansfield married Joe Dimaggio, Marilyn Monroe married Arthur Miller, Julia Roberts married Lyle Lovett, Jessica married Roger Rabbit - but, too, one man's 'attractive' is another man's 'so-so'.

Everyone has a different concept of what beautiful is. So, my question is, are these people attractive from the author's standpoint or from another character's standpoint? If it is your judgment, then you'd probably be best to leave out the commentary on how attractive they are and just insert as gently as possible, the looks and appearance without making that judgment call. If, on the other hand, you have a character making that judgment, well, no one can control you characters (well, except you, of course) and they are entitled to their independant opinions. As you may have noticed, I hate to cubbyhole anyone.

 

The way I draw all my characters, Yes, I guess one could say they're attractive. But I don't usually mention their attractiveness unless it's apart of story. It's pretty much up to the reader how they want to picture your character.

 

Attractive characters are relentlessly boring, the implicit message being that physical attributes are somehow a sign of virtue or 'worth'. Case study: Nicole Kidman. It's even more blatant in the movies.

 

Brian K. Vaughn's Runaways was sort of like that. All of the characters were pretty, save one: Gertrude (or Gertie.) He used her appearance to play her against the other characters that more looked the part of super-powered teens.

 

I'm less concerned with how attractive you think your characters are, than with how and why the reader knows that these characters are so attractive. If there are a lot of glowing physical descriptions as you introduce the characters that is, IMO, a problem.

To me, any description that "rates" the character should be edited out - beautiful or handsome faces, stunning figures, breathtakingly beautiful flowing hair like a river of gold... all make me roll my eyes and consider buying another book.

So, how will the readers know how attractive the characters are? What will you say?

ChickenFreak

 

ChickenFreak, my characters are attractive in the eyes of the other characters. It's a school setting, so that topic does come up. I've decided to tone it down though, because it isn't really crucial to the story.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that in spite of the strenuous efforts of movies and fashion magazines, there is no universal standard of attractiveness. In a magazine in front of me is a picture of a cheerful-looking woman in her early thirties, with a short haircut and a vaguely elfish face. I could easily see one man finding her utterly beautiful and falling in love with her the instant he sees her smile the first time, and another man finding her pleasant enough but no one to look twice at. So your characters may find other characters attractive, but all that really means is that they're probably at least mildly pleasant-looking.

ChickenFreak

 

People tend to find people they personally like physically attractive. I think it's hard to think of your friends as unattractive. A school wouldn't have to be full of supermodels for them to find one another attractive. It's more like, "Olivia has such beautiful eyes!", instead of "Olivia is stunning."