"Strong genes"

[PourquoiTuGachesTaVie]

Is this an actual thing? I'm watching married at first sight and one of the experts just said "His face is very symmetrical which is an indicator of very strong genes"

What are weak genes?

Are they talking about dominant and recessive genes or is this some kind of nonsense talking for the sake of talking?

Missed the first one.. Can't wait for the third! Feel sorry for the guy in the second couple, his wife looks like she might be hard work and he looks like he tries too hard!

ugly people get pregnant too, so in true evolutionary terms their genes were successful. They passed themselves on.

I don't see how a big forehead (is that attractive or unattractive//..) could be linked to anything meaningful such as sickle cell anaemia, or cystic fybrosis,,,,,,,,,

It's an interesting subject though. I'd like to know more.

I knew someone would mention Bruce Willis!

I always think to myself that his genes must have been somehow "strong" as all his female children have inherited his facial features whereas Demi Moore's petite features are nowhere to be seen.

Ridiculously unscientific I know, but whenever I see photos of those girls, I am just shocked by how much they resemble their father.

Talking of cystic fibrosis, which is a genetic condition, its a well known fact most sufferers look very young (good skin) and are good looking so I don't know how that ties in with the theory !

Some conditions like sickle cell anaemia have advantages if you are a carrier of a gene. (Resistance to malaria)

Thats very tue reallytired my little boy is extrodinarily cute [ i,m obviously biased] but even his paediatrician said he was a beautiuful child yet he has a gene deletion that has led to his asd and learning difficulties fascinating programme though kate and jason seemed intially very well suited i wonde if they are still together?

Does carrying the cf gene have any advantages?

oh, right, just googled and one thing that came up was protection against typhoid.

I saw something as well saying mixed race genes combine the'best' of both sets of racial genes.

I've seen a few documentaries recently saying physically, symmetry denotes health & there fertility to us and subconsciously we value that as it 'ensures' good survival rate of any children we produce. The only famous person not be be symetrically perfect facially when they measured in the BBC one I watched, was Marilyn Monroe. All the other big Hollywood stars were very symetrical facially (sp?)...

thats interesting Sazzle i have an ex collegue who is indian by heritage and his partner is white british their children are absolutley stunning they are however both very good looking .

Symmetry up to a point is attractive but perfect symmetry is off putting. I've never found Matt le Blanc, Ben Affleck or Ryan Reynolds attractive, they're all so symmetrical they could have been made in a plastic mould.

This is very interesting. In my family a lot of us look like and have a distinctive personality trait of one of my great grandmothers but we're not
at all symmetrical - in fact that's one
of the things that gives all us clones our distinctive wonky look.

I have stretchy genes!

I always think of the McGann brothers when I think of "strong genes"; they are stunningly similar. It's like looking at four slightly different versions of the same (utterly gorgeous) face...

^^

Hullo. PhD in genetics here.

There's no such thing as a strong gene scientifically, and the term 'strong genes' means the person speaking is either clueless, trying to make a joke or some kind of nazi eugenicist... :)

Genes can be dominant or recessive, and some genes are expressed differently depending on the parent they come from. It'd take me far too long to explain and it's all on t'internet if you're interested.

...but what he basically meant is that facial symmetry is an indicator of several things associated with good condition in the organism as a whole. People who have symmetrical faces are rated more attractive in tests, and there's some evidence they have stronger immune system and better reproductive fitness. Kind of like how women with a certain hip to waist ratio are seen to be more attractive and seem to have better reproductive fitness.

So he was kind of right, but a very non- scientific way of putting it.

Incidentally, being mixed race means you've a lower chance of inbreeding, which is generally a Very Bad Thing in humans (some exceptions apply, but generally, don't marry your cousin, and marry someone from as far away as you can.) it's incredibly UN-PC to say, but there is a major problem in some communities in the UK with cousin marriages. The percentage of children born with disabilities that could have been avoided if people didn't marry so closely is heartbreaking.

Avistropolis, you're like francis bacon, or samuel beckett (??) who said ''there is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion". Or summit like that. It's why Kate Moss is so successful; imo

My children are mixed race, or rather their father is. I am white, and he is half white, so maybe the advantages are his. He is intelligent and good looking but lacks empathy and has many, many flaws :-p

Yes, skiptonlass, I saw a heartbreaking documentary on bbc a few years ago, some poor boy was showing the drawerful of medications he had to take every day. And his mother had married her cousin. I know this is very un pc, but the NHS was obviously paying for all of those drugs (and it's not the boys fault). I am not saying he shouldn't be given good care, but communities who marry their cousins should try to look a bit further afield.

With the McGann brothers, I would think that their parents are both dark with blue eyes and dark hair and have fairly regular features. Obviously skiptonlass might have a more scientific explanation for why they look more alike than normal siblings usually do, but I know families like that, and I think it's because the parents have no unusual features themselves, ykwim? what do you get if two parents with regular features have a child? Kind of like Suri Cruise! Who does she look like Tom or Katie? Or both? Or neither!

Totally uderstad skiptonlass ds has a chromosome microdeletion which has caused major issues for him in his case it is de novo but it could have been inherited from a parent and if both parents had carried the microdeletion?

Think there is something in hybrid vigour? Used in cattle but equally applies to humans from very different gene pools? Interesting because people often fancy people who look similar to themselves.

Then I must look very similar to Ryan Gosling...

Yes it is an actual thing.

I have what you would call strong genes.All 5 of our DC look like I did when I was younger(3 sons and 2 daughters)you can tell straight away that they're all siblings,but there are 3 different Dad's to my 5 children(not by choice 2 abusive ex twats)and they're Dad's all look completely different to one another,different eye color,skin color,build,height ect.

It runs in my family,on my Dad's side,all of the cousins,second cousins,third cousins,you can tell that were all from the same family(and there's over a hundred of them)my Dad and his brother look like twins,they're not and I look like both my Dad's sisters.Two of my nieces look like they would be my daughters.

I thought it meant something like a dominant gene. For example, my mums side of the family all have blond hair and blue eyes. Despite my dads family having black hair, my brother and I are blond (am aware dad could be carrying an unexpressed recessive blond gene). I thought a strong gene was just one that kept popping up through the generations.

yy MrsDeVere I,m a member of unique the rare chromosome disorder support group all parents have children with chromosome disorders and lots of the children have dysmorphic features but all our kids are unbeleivably beautiful.