How to Attract a Guy (and you won't even need the miniskirt!)

If your man-hunting plan involves increased workouts, a stringent diet, a dye job and a microscopic miniskirt, you might want to think again. The belief that men have a one-track mind may be misplaced. If you want to know how to attract a guy, it pays to know what guys are really like.

So, you’re looking for a boyfriend. You want a guy in your life. Before you go out and purchase an outfit that’s better-suited for a Las Vegas “gentleman’s club” than the office and before you buy into the latest “lose pounds fast” scheme, you might want to take another look at what guys really want.

In the spirit of absolute honesty, it is true that guys appreciate what was once discretely referred to as a “well-turned ankle.” Good looks do inspire attention. Ellie Mae is more visually interesting to Joe Generic than is Ms. Hathaway. However, confusing leers with actual attraction isn’t very helpful. The stereotypical guy may want to date a stripper, but the real men out there in the world are a little more complex.

Essence magazine and AOL did research that found over three-fourths of all men wanted a woman with “a little meat on her bones” and not a Naomi Campbell look-a-like. The people at Grazia magazine polled their readership and found that more than half of the men were more interested in great smiles and warm personalities than they were in great gams and tiny waistline.

Polls like these inevitably reveal that men find women attractive for a variety of reasons and most of them have little (if anything) to do with commonly held stereotypes of the ideal feminine form. Things like religion, career aspirations, family ties and a host of other factors all play a role in what makes a woman attractive.

Men might not be as sensitive and complex as women, but they aren’t cave-dwellers, either. If you want to know about finding the right person, the first step is thinking about men as people and not as sex-crazed caricatures. Getting past the myths and stereotypes is essential.

If you want to know how to attract a guy, you need to get past the stereotypical notion that they’re “only interested in one thing.” You need to understand what their attraction buttons really are and how to push them.

Fortunately, that doesn’t require trial and error or reliance upon intuition. You can look at what men really say about women and what makes them irresistible. Polls are conducted regularly with consistent results and experts have taken the time to gather up data and experience to provide serious suggestions about how to find the right guy. To make matters even better, their hints rarely if ever involve crash diets or wearing slinky lingerie!

NOTE: Cucan Pemo, author of "500 Secrets about Men" is currently giving away free samples of the book. It's a great way to learn more about how to attract a guy.