The Other Man: Guys Dig Scars

So chicks dig scars. That’s what I was told growing up, and I assumed that meant scars on guys, usually in football movies.

But who are really famous for their scars? Women.

I mean, everyone’s got ‘em. And it’s true that almost every “Oh, poor baby” I’ve ever gotten in my life about a scar came from a girl. But when it comes to the common denominators of our society — celebrities — the “sexy scars” belong almost exclusively to the fairer sex. Observe…

Sharon Stone has a neck scar that got so much attention that until recently it had its own website, Sharonstonesscar.com. Not kidding. Still, the gash — rumored to be the result of a horse riding accident — looks a little more serious than some of the other scarred ladies.

Padma Lakshmi has a 7-inch scar along her right arm, incurred during surgery after a bad car accident when she was 14. Unlike many of the other women on this list, she’s quite open about the injury, although producers on Top Chef do move the scar out of plain view when possible. That’s led some Top Chef watching parties in the US to play “spot the scar” as one of the main activities. (Again, not kidding.)

Catherine Zeta-Jones has a tracheotomy scar, which is always mentioned at award-show time when commentators discuss the extensive neck jewelry she often wears. And almost every time I’ve heard her scar discussed in this way, they have to compare her to another very similar actress, Elizabeth Taylor. Not to be outdone, Liz has two scars of relative infamy, both the trach and one on her left arm.

And Tina Fey has a noticeable scar on her face, which she doesn’t like to talk about and usually hides on 30 Rock when possible. Despite of (or possibly because of) her reticence and the sad story behind the gash (she was apparently knifed in her front yard when she was five), there’s a wholly unhealthy following on the blogosphere. Let’s just leave it at that; you can look if you must.

That’s hardly all. Faye Dunaway, Sandra Bullock, Mary J. Blige, Diane Lane and Heidi Klum all have visible facial scars, and that’s only the people I could think of in a few seconds.

Meanwhile, famous men with them seem to be famous in spite of their disfigurement, and don’t have obsessive followings like the women do. Seal’s face is the result of lupus, while Joaquin Phoenix has a cleft lip. Bruce Willis has a number of scars and while he takes pride in them, they don’t have creepy blogger fans. Harrison Ford’s chin scar became famous only after he incorporated it into Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. And then there are the acne-scarred, who played villains in movies for decades — and no one’s going to convince me that Gary Oldman is considered sexier because of his face.

But look at the famous brash leading men of history. If Steve McQueen had scars, no one’s talking. Marlon Brando, zip. Paul Newman, no. And so on.

I see two reasons for this. One, the world only recently emerged from a rough industrial period punctuated by a handful of giant wars. From time immemorial until the 1960s, men were expected to have marks as a matter of course. So the matinee idols didn’t — they were the lucky ones.

We’re starting to move away from that, but the visceral bias toward scarless men is still very strong. There’s clearly a biological component to this, too — I can’t see how chicks (I’m sorry, hens) would dig scars on roosters, for instance.

But these scarred women are different from the clear-complexioned ideal, and therefore objects of curiosity.

Two, women who have a scar give us men a biological foothold for attraction. The Hollywood starlet is so flawlessly beautiful that she seems unattainable — but not the ones with scars, even if they are in the aggregate the most stunning women in the world. In defiance of the poreless, pimpleless, body-hairless standard of celebrity culture, they have a flaw that guys (and I would argue, women) can now relate to.

There are other reasons out there… why not respond with your own? Let’s get this comment train a-movin’.