Despite the fact I have a science based degree, I would like to point out this is in no way scientific. It’s something I made up, aged 16, with a friend in the physio staff room back when I volunteered at Nunnery Fields Hospital. All I can say is, it must have been a slow day.
Between us we decided on the parts of a man we were most attracted to. We narrowed it down to five:
H: Hair
E: Eyes
F: Face
B: Bottom
B: Body
Each of these categories is allocated a score of 20, so you need to decide whether your hero gets full marks or if there is room for improvement. Once you’ve considered each of these you will have a score out of 100.
In my youth, it was great fun to work this out (me, fickle, never?), but we realised there was a fault in this system. It didn’t take personality into account. So we added a letter on the end (A-F) to grade their personality. This is obviously very subjective (and did I mention fickle?) and depends on what personality you are looking for and what bad habits (ie, smoking) you would consider a put off.
I’ll use Robert Pattinson as an example and illustrate my very fickle thoughts.
H: He does a good job of making scruffy hair look sexy, but room for improvement = 18
E: Sexy, go to bed eyes. Totally the bit that sells him to me = 20
F: His face works like an advert for his go to bed eyes, but he loses a point for the sexy stubble that occasionally ends up as scruffy mess = 19
B: Hmm, the problem is, his face is so pretty, there are not enough pictures at this level to make a fair judgement, but going by what I’m imagining it’ll be = 15
B: And I’m basing the last on his body. He’s just a bit too scrawny for me. I’ve always made sure I’ve never dated a man who I’d be in fear of breaking. He could just do with a bit more muscle = 15
So for his HEFBB score he gets: 87/100. And his A-F grade would be a B minus, I reckon. Obviously loses a point for having a girlfriend and I think he’s a smoker which is off putting for me. But then he’s intelligent, articulate, and good at his profession.
How would you score Robert? Or anyone else for that matter?
To see how well the HEFBB scale works, I thought I’d get you to try it out on your Romantic Hero/Star of choice through your Heroine’s eyes/your eyes. In theory, they should be pretty close to a 100A, but like Robert, you may like an 87B- kind of guy or in your eyes, he’s 100A.
If you feel the HEFBB Scale needs improving/extra categories let me know. That way it will surely becomes scientific and can be used all over the world.
I have a feeling I may have read too many magazines with ‘Find out if he’s the one for you,’ type surveys during my teenage years.
Catherine x
