I notice a lot of conversations at my work place. I also happen to work in the hardware engineering division with mostly guys, and have sort of been accepted as an honorary dude.
-When we get a new female employee, the majority of guys go absolutely nuts about it. "Dude, she's HOT!!!" "Really, what does she look like?" "She's not really my type." "What? How could that not be your type? She's so cute." "This new one's not hot at all. Kind of old." and so on. And they're all basically nice guys anyway. Even when I was a new employee I overheard some things about me that could have been interpreted in totally the wrong way. I was hearing discussion that they didn't think I heard, about my body- the parts they found attractive and my shortcomings. "She's cute but kind of flat chested. I mean that's ok but I prefer bigger."
areyoucra) I literally heard comments from everything from my hair to my toes. So then I'm going into the job as, "Great, it's not like I'm going to be a little self-conscious around you all for a while now, either because I'll know of visual shortcomings you have of me or wary and awkward of my parts you find attractive at the workplace, and which ones of you have already labeled me as cute or flatchested."-When we get a new male employee, nobody talks about what he looks like. The women don't talk about what he looks like. We say basically nothing about his appearance, and there's no awkward gossip.
-My friends and I still talk about a guy being cute or hot and so forth. A lot of it is personality-based, though. With only some looks/dress involved.
-I do think there is some truth to the OP; that men are more visually attracted sexually and that women are more attracted to taste, or to hints about character.
-I also think that "attractiveness" can be somewhat different between men and women. A hot face is cool and all, but for a guy, in my experience and observations, in terms of appearance, it's more about his physique, his posture, his height, his overall appearance of confidence and strength, than his classic good looks and handsome face. If I'm going to give an example, I'd point out the James Bond portrayals of Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. Brosnan has more classic good looks. Craig looks like he could kick Brosnan's butt. I don't view either as more attractive than the other, at all, though Brosnan does have the softer and more generally handsome face, I think. But neither comes across to me as the more attractive one than the other.
