Fredericton — In what is being hailed as just another meaningless “study” to be shared on Facebook, the University of New Brunswick Statistics department can “confidently conclude” that nearly all women like handsome, well-taken-care-of men.
The phrase “dad-bod” entered social consciousness in 2015, when a random person on the Internet — possibly a dad himself — invented it. Since then, thousands of men on Twitter have shared selfies accentuating their protruding bellies or the U-shaped layers of fat on the back that men develop in their adolescence and that some men fail to get rid of.
“I’m a dad and this is what I look like,” said Don Osborne, a 34-year-old civil engineer and father of two. “It feels good to be proud… I scour the Internet for emerging movements that give me a reason to be proud for as long as they last.”
Dr. Arnold Stokes and his team of post-graduates, however, offer striking evidence against Osborne and the “dad-bod” phenomenon. Stokes’ study involved showing women photos of 50 dads who work out regularly and 50 dads who work out once a year or less.
“It turns out, playing in a company softball tournament every fall doesn’t make you as attractive as does regular exercise,” Stokes explained.
Stokes believes that women have joined the #dadbod movement more so because they like the idea of a good father who doesn’t abandon his responsibilities.
“Given the choice, though, women still prefer things that look nice over things that don’t.”