and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

Both Yahoo and Google have released their 'Top Searches of 2003' type lists and I gotta say I am impressed with Eminem for remaining up there on the image and celebrity searches, given his quieter year (or maybe his quieter second-half of the year)... But I digress, let's look at the top male and female image searches from google, shall we?

Rank	Top Male Searches	Top Female Searches
1.	eminem	britney spears
2.	david beckham	jennifer lopez
3.	orlando bloom	pamela anderson
4.	justin timberlake	christina aguilera
5.	50 cent	angelina jolie
6.	tupac	shakira
7.	brad pitt	avril lavigne
8.	johnny depp	anna kournikova
9.	marilyn manson	beyonce
10.	vin diesel	cameron diaz

I think what really stands out on these lists (that we will, for the sake of standardized arguement, assume were basically searches by women and by men, respectively) is where within the lists fall the truly controversial and where fall the generally most vacuous personalities. With the men, we have Eminem right on the top - clearly a controversial character, but after #1 there follows a generally uninspired run of pretty boys - beckham, bloom, and timberlake. You could argue that beckham and timberlake are somewhat inspirational to the tabloids but really it's rumour-mill bullshit and none of it holds a candle in the wind to the likes of Manson or Eminem. Rounding out the lower end of the list is Pitt, Depp, and Diesel which just goes to show you that women generally like their men polite, well to do, and H-A-A-T (that's hot, with an emphasis on hot). I guess it's no real surprise.. Women have been pretending they want a nice guy for eons. I guess they have themselves fooled as well.

Now on to the female searches. Spears and Lopez top the list and could questionably fall within the vacuous category though they both ellicit reams of material from the tabloids. Personally, though, are either one of them true bad-girls? It isn't till #3 that we get a run of down and dirties: Anderson, Jolie, Aguilera, and Jolie. I was recently told that a survey of young american men put jolie on the top of their list of 'celebrities they'd most like to have a dinner date with' which to me is terribly curious because she'd probably chew most of them up and spit them out before the main course. Sure, there is a long line of bubblegummers on the list, Lavigne, Kournikova, Beyonce, and Diaz but it just goes to show you that for the men it's about sex appeal and what comes first? Bad girls, bad influences, sexual perversion.. what comes second? Little girls. The two predominant male fantasies...

What can we learn from these lists? Funny thing, really.. I'd make the arguement that, thought they are all hot, personality plays a very important factor in placing women on the top of the list.. While the list of men seems to be more heavily based on looks.

It's an unscientific stab in the dark.

What do you think?

Are women truly the more materialistic of the species?

But let me rebuke myself with yet another, perhaps more telling, observation. The top dogs, Eminem and Beckham are somewhat 'violent' in nature.. Eminem is self-explainitory and Beckham is a competitive sports athelete - which is to say he competes in highly physical games reminicent of ancient warrior challenges (really, what is sport but the face off of two tribes to discover dominance). They are physically/mentally tough. And really, evolutionarily speaking, what do women want? They want providers. They want tough protectors while they are less able to fend for themselves during times of child-bearing. The top cats show a different trend - Spears, Lopez, and even Anderson are what one would call 'full-bodied' women (compared to their little girl counterparts lavigne, kournikova, and diaz).. What these ladies have, besides good looks, is hips.. and asses.. instinctual indicators that they have the strength and perserverance to bear children. Deep down, on an evolutionary level, what more could a man want?

Call me crazy. Call me dumb. That's my line and I'm sticking to it.