AI-Generated Visuals of Jakarta Women’s Ideal Man

Do South Jakarta girls only date South Jakarta guys? Are North Jakarta girls a perfect match for East Jakarta guys? Why is the East Jakarta guys’ style different from the South Jakarta guys? Then, how does artificial intelligence (AI) visualize the ideal man of Jakarta women?

These questions inspired our team to conduct a small survey to see if Jakarta women have a taste for ideal men according to the appearance and background that characterize each administrative city in the Special Region of Jakarta (DKJ). At the end of this article, we also provide a picture of the ideal men of Jakarta women according to the survey results visualized with the help of AI.

From physical characteristics to job status, and from music tastes to clothing styles, women definitely have certain considerations when choosing a man to date. Every woman definitely has different criteria for an ideal man and cultural background and place of residence can influence the determination of these criteria. This is the background of the project we named “Build Your Dream Boyfriend” which we are running as part of the BINUS International X Tirto.id Data Storytelling Bootcamp 2024 output.

Build Your Dream Boyfriend

As the name suggests, Build Your Dream Boyfriend is a “data storytelling” work aimed at measuring the criteria that Jakarta women see in their ideal man. This work is compiled based on a survey using a small quota-based sample, where each administrative city in Jakarta is represented by only 20 women. Therefore, the results of this survey are not to be used as a general reference, and the authors urge readers to see the context of this work in understanding the discussion.

For context, the survey was conducted from November 13 to 26, 2024, involving 100 women aged 18-25 years. Each of the 20 respondents represented each administrative city in DKJ, namely West Jakarta, Central Jakarta, South Jakarta, East Jakarta, and North Jakarta. Most of the respondents came from the social group of the writing team, who are students of the Communications Program at BINUS University International. The demographic description of the respondents can be seen from the data below.

The survey targeted women aged 18 to 25. Among the 20 participants chosen from each administrative city, most respondents from West Jakarta and South Jakarta were 18 years old. In contrast, participants from Central Jakarta were primarily aged 20 and 25. Meanwhile, respondents from East Jakarta and North Jakarta included individuals across the entire age range of 18 to 25.

Among the 100 respondents, the majority held a Bachelor’s degree (S1). In West Jakarta, South Jakarta, and North Jakarta, 14 out of the 20 selected participants were S1 graduates. The remaining respondents included Senior High School (SMA) or equivalent graduates—five each from West Jakarta, South Jakarta, and North Jakarta, two from Central Jakarta, and one from East Jakarta. Additionally, there were two Diploma graduates (one from South Jakarta) and one Master’s degree (S2) holder, each from West Jakarta, Central Jakarta, and North Jakarta.

The majority of survey participants were students, including 18 from West Jakarta, 12 from Central Jakarta, 15 from South Jakarta, 9 from East Jakarta, and 13 from North Jakarta. Additionally, a group of respondents were full-time workers, with East Jakarta having the highest representation. Five respondents identified as unemployed, three of whom were from North Jakarta. Only two participants were entrepreneurs, both residing in Central Jakarta.

Ideal Man Criteria According to Gen-Z Women

Focusing on women aged 18 to 25, this article explores how Generation Z, or Gen Z, women define their ideal partner criteria. Living in a cosmopolitan city like Jakarta, which blends diverse cultural, religious, economic, educational, lifestyle, and fashion influences, Gen Z women naturally have unique preferences for the men they consider as potential boyfriends. Their preferences distinctly differ from those of women from earlier generations.

The 2023 ZAP Beauty Index report found that Gen Z women’s ideal man criteria differ from Gen Y (millennial) and Gen X women. While all three generations agree on “traits, personality, and attitude” and “intelligence, knowledge, and expertise,” each has a different opinion on other criteria. The report states that the majority of Gen Z (87.7%), Gen Y (87.5%), and Gen X (87.2%) women consider a man’s traits, personality, and attitude to be factors that attract them to a man. In second place, intelligence, knowledge, and expertise are considered important criteria for 76.8% of Gen Z women; 77.8% of Gen Y women, and 75.6% of Gen X women.

Other criteria discussed in the report include body odor, occupation, height, clothing style, financial situation, and overall facial shape. Interestingly, the majority of Gen Z women (72.4%) consider a man’s body odor to be attractive, but it is not so important to Gen X women (45.3%). Meanwhile, millennial women are quite fair in their assessment because 64.1% of them consider a man’s body odor to be one of the criteria for finding a partner. Other facts can be seen in the graph below.

The same thing also applies to height and clothing style. Compared to Gen Y (44.2%) and Gen X (55%) women, the majority of Gen Z girls (65%) consider a man’s height to be one of the criteria for an ideal partner. Furthermore, more than half of Gen Z women (62.2%) agree that clothing style is also an attraction when choosing a partner. Meanwhile, only 55.7% of Gen Y women and 40.7% of Gen X women consider this criterion important.

Most Gen Y (67.3%) and Gen Z (65.9%) women agree that men with jobs, desires, and hobbies look more attractive, but only 55.8% of Gen X agree. Regarding financial conditions and facial shape, women from the three generations do not differ much in opinion, and the majority of them do not consider it that important.

Ideal Man Based on Physical Characteristics

Adopting the 2023 ZAP Beauty Index Report, the “Build Your Dream Boyfriend” survey also measures physical characteristics such as height and face shape as criteria for Jakarta women’s dating partners. For the height category, the survey provides three options: below 160 cm (centimeters), 160 – 175 cm, and above 175 cm. Face shape is also divided into three categories, namely oval, square, and round. In addition, body shape is also asked in the survey and is available in three options: buff, fat, and skinny. The results can be seen in the graph below.

From the graph above, it can be seen that men with a height above 175 cm are the ideal for most women from West Jakarta (12 respondents), Central Jakarta (14 respondents), South Jakarta (16 respondents), East Jakarta (11 respondents) and North Jakarta (15 respondents). Men with a height between 160 cm and 175 cm are considered attractive by some women from each administrative city where women from East Jakarta are the most (9 people), followed by women from West Jakarta (8 people), Central Jakarta and North Jakarta (5 people) and South Jakarta (4 people). Only one woman likes men with a height below 160 cm, namely a woman from Central Jakarta.

In terms of body shape, the majority of women in Jakarta, regardless of the administrative city where they live, apparently prefer men with muscular bodies. As seen from the data, as many as 17 women from South Jakarta, 15 women from Central Jakarta, and 12 women from West Jakarta chose a buff body as the physical criteria for their ideal man. An article published by Fimela discusses that women do indeed prefer muscular men because they are considered more masculine and sexier. Women from East Jakarta and North Jakarta have the same preference where some of them (10 people) choose muscular men, and the rest equally choose skinny men (5 people), and fat or plump men (5 people). Not a single woman from West Jakarta and Central Jakarta likes fat men.

The survey also measured what kind of male face shape Jakarta women prefer. The results showed that oval-faced men were most preferred by women from West Jakarta (13), South Jakarta (13), and North Jakarta (11). Central Jakarta women equally preferred oval-faced men (8) and square-faced men (8). Not too far apart were also shown by East Jakarta women who preferred oval-faced men (9) and square-faced men (7). Meanwhile, round-faced men were preferred by a small number of women from all administrative cities, namely between three and four people only.

Ideal Man Based on Educational and Economic Qualifications

The ideal man criteria highlighted in the ZAP Beauty Index report also included intelligence and financial status. The “Build Your Dream Boyfriend” survey further explored Jakarta women’s preferences regarding the educational background and economic standing of potential partners. For education, three options were provided: high school graduate or equivalent, bachelor’s degree holder, and master’s degree holder. Regarding economic status, the survey asked whether Jakarta women prioritized men’s income, either high or middle, or if they were indifferent to their potential partner’s financial situation. The results are shown in the graph below.

The survey results show that the majority of Jakarta women from all administrative cities prefer men with a Bachelor’s degree (S1). Men with a Bachelor’s degree are preferred by the majority of women from South Jakarta (19), East Jakarta (18), Central Jakarta (15), West Jakarta (14), and North Jakarta (11). Some Jakarta women choose men with a Master’s degree (S2) as their dating partners, where women from North Jakarta (6) have the most preference, followed by women from Central Jakarta (5), West Jakarta (4), East Jakarta (2), and South Jakarta (1). Only women from West Jakarta and North Jakarta can accept men with a high school diploma/equivalent with the number of voters being two and three people respectively.

In terms of income level, men with high incomes are favorable for many women in Jakarta. Most women from Central Jakarta (15 people) chose high-income men as the men they wanted to date, followed by women from West Jakarta and East Jakarta, 13 people each, and women from North Jakarta as many as 12 people. Surprisingly, only half of the women from South Jakarta, which is 10 people, chose high-income men, and the rest did not mind dating middle-income men (8 people) and low-income men (two people). Middle-income men are also still the choice of several women from Central Jakarta (5 people), East Jakarta (4 people), North Jakarta (4 people), and West Jakarta (3 people). Jakarta women also did not mind dating low-income men. At least 13 out of 100 respondents chose low-income men, including four women from West Jakarta and North Jakarta, three women from East Jakarta, and two women from South Jakarta.

It is undeniable that women usually prefer highly educated and economically stable men. This is in line with the results of research conducted by lecturers from Swansea University as quoted by Detik.com. However, the findings of the survey “Create Your Ideal Man” provide new facts that women from South Jakarta who are known as icons of modern life and hedonism in the economic center of this country are not necessarily targeting men with a lot of money as their partners.

Other Considerations in Choosing the Ideal Man

As reported by the ZAP Beauty Index 2023, the survey also asked whether body odor is also something that Jakarta women consider when choosing their ideal man. In addition, the survey also asked about the taste in music and the domicile of the man they want to date. For the body odor category, the answer choices are on a scale of not important, quite important, and important. The music taste section asked whether respondents were looking for a man who had the same taste in music or not. Most importantly, whether the domicile of the ideal man must match the administrative city where these women live.

From the data above, it is clear that most women in Jakarta consider body odor to be an important and quite important criterion to consider in choosing an ideal man. Women in East Jakarta consider body odor to be the most important consideration in choosing an ideal man, namely 85 percent (17 people), followed by women in South Jakarta and Central Jakarta, both at 70 percent (14 people). Body odor is also an important criterion expressed by 60 percent of respondents from North Jakarta and 55 percent of women from West Jakarta.

There are also quite a lot of Jakarta women who consider body odor as a fairly important criterion; which means it is not the main criterion, but is a special consideration. Most West Jakarta women consider body odor as a fairly important criterion, namely 45 percent (9 people), followed by North Jakarta women at 35 percent (7 people). Furthermore, some respondents who consider body odor as a fairly important requirement in choosing a date are women from South Jakarta (30%), Central Jakarta (25%), and East Jakarta (15%). Only two people consider body odor to be an unimportant criterion, namely one person each (5%) from Central Jakarta and North Jakarta.

For similarity in music taste, the opinions of Jakarta women in this survey were varied. Half or 50 percent (10 people) of women from North Jakarta considered it not an important criterion, and the rest equally considered it quite important (25%), and important (25%). For South Jakarta women, similarity in music taste was considered unimportant for 45 percent of respondents, while the other 40 percent considered it quite important and only 15 percent considered it important.

A balanced percentage between unimportant and quite important, which was 40 percent, was given by Central Jakarta women in viewing similarity in music taste as a criterion for choosing an ideal man. As many as 20 percent or four respondents from Central Jakarta and West Jakarta considered similar music taste as an important criterion. More than half (55%) of West Jakarta women considered similar music taste as a fairly important requirement in choosing an ideal man, while 25 percent considered it unimportant. In contrast to respondents from North Jakarta, half (50%) of respondents from East Jakarta considered similar music taste as a fairly important criterion, while the other half were evenly divided between important (25%) and unimportant (25%).

The most important thing we dug out from the “Build Your Dream Boyfriend” survey was whether Jakarta women choose dating partners from the same administrative city. For this question, we did not force them to choose the domicile of their dream man covering only the Special Region of Jakarta. We also provided options outside Jakarta and outside the country as the origin of their dream man. The answer to this question can be seen in the graph below.

The graph above shows that men domiciled outside Jakarta were most often chosen by Jakarta women, namely 33 people, followed by men domiciled outside the country (27 people). The rest chose men from South Jakarta (12 people), North Jakarta (11 people), West Jakarta (8 people), and Central Jakarta (8 people). When viewed per administrative city, women from North Jakarta and South Jakarta more often chose men domiciled in the same city, namely 9 people and 8 people respectively. More Central Jakarta women chose men from outside the country (8 people) than men from outside Jakarta (5 people) or from the same city (4 people). Only three West Jakarta women chose West Jakarta men, and the rest chose men from outside Jakarta (10 people) and outside the country (4 people). Only one woman chose a man domiciled in East Jakarta, namely a woman from the same city. East Jakarta women preferred men from outside Jakarta (10 people) and outside the country (4 people).

This result answers the initial question, namely:
Do South Jakarta women only date South Jakarta men? Can North Jakarta women be a perfect match for East Jakarta men?

The answer is, according to the survey results, South Jakarta women prioritize South Jakarta men as the men they want to date. Likewise, North Jakarta women in this survey chose men from the same administrative city as their ideal men. Women from both administrative cities are not interested in dating men from East Jakarta.

AI-generated visuals of Jakarta Women’s Ideal Man

From the survey results above, we asked for help from generative artificial intelligence (AI) to describe women’s ideal men from the criteria that have been collected through the survey “Create Your Ideal Man.” We used three generative AI tools, namely DeepAI, ChatGPT 4.0, and Canva Dream Lab. The prompts or commands that we used were in accordance with the ideal man criteria most chosen by female respondents in this survey including physical characteristics, educational background, and occupation. Body odor, similar taste in music and domicile were not included because they affect the level of difficulty of the resulting visualization. The following are the prompts used in the three AI devices:

Generate a photograph of an Indonesian man with a height of 175 cm, a buff body, an oval face, a college degree, and a high-income job, in a full-body size and well dressed

The following are the visualization results of the three AI devices.

From the visualization results above, the visuals produced by DeepAI look most like typical Indonesian men with wide facial features and brown skin. However, when viewed from the criteria of Jakarta women’s ideal men, this man’s visuals meet the criteria of being over 175 cm tall, having an oval face, and having an attractive appearance like a professional with a high income and a bachelor’s degree. It’s just that his body doesn’t look as muscular.

The second visual is generated by OpenAI’s Dall-E which can be accessed via ChatGPT 4.0. This visual looks more oriental like an Indo-Chinese or East Asian man with narrow eyes and light skin color. From the suitability with the criteria of the ideal man for Jakarta women, this visual meets the aspects of height more than 175 cm, muscular body, oval face, and appearance like a bachelor’s degree graduate and high income.

The third visual, which is produced by Canva Dream Lab, can be said to be the closest to the criteria of Jakarta women’s ideal men according to the survey. It is clear that the man in this visual has facial features like Indonesian men in general, namely a wide face and slightly dark skin. Characteristics such as a height of more than 175 cm, a muscular body, an oval face and a professional appearance like a high-income man and a bachelor’s degree graduate are in accordance with the criteria of Jakarta women’s ideal men. However, at first glance, the image of this visual still looks like it was created by AI.

The visualization outputs from the three AI tools show noticeable differences. It’s important to note that these visualizations should not be considered a definitive representation of Jakarta women’s ideal male criteria. Additionally, the survey results should not be generalized, as they are based on a small sample with a specific segmentation. Readers are encouraged to understand the context of this article before referencing any part of this “data-based story” in public discussions.

Concluding remarks

• The “Build Your Dream Boyfriend” survey is a data-driven project conducted by the students of the Communications program from BINUS University International as part of the BINUS International X Tirto.id Data Storytelling Bootcamp 2024.
• The brief survey involved 100 women residing in each administrative city within Jakarta and aimed to identify the ideal male criteria according to their location.
• The survey results reveal that most Jakarta women prefer partners over 175 cm tall, have a muscular body build, an oval face, hold a bachelor’s degree, and earn a high income.
• Additional factors influencing their choice of an ideal man include body odor, shared music preferences, and proximity of residence. While body odor and similar musical tastes are highly valued, only women from South Jakarta and North Jakarta predominantly prefer men from the same administrative city.
• The survey results were visualized using three AI tools: DeepAI, Dall-E, and Canva Dream Lab, with Canva Dream Lab producing the visualization that most closely matches the ideal man desired by Jakarta women.

References

• Ini Alasan Mengapa Wanita Lebih Suka Sama Pria Kekar Berotot!. fimela.com. (2018, February 21). Didapat dari https://www.fimela.com/lifestyle/read/3778243/ini-alasan-mengapa-wanita-lebih-suka-sama-pria-kekar-berotot
• Zap Beauty Index 2023. Zapclinic. (2023). Didapat dari https://zapclinic.com/files/ZAP_Beauty_Index_2023.pdf
• Zulfikar, F. (2024, January 26). Soal Pria, Benarkah Wanita lebih memilih Yang Kaya Dibanding Penampilan?. Detik.com. Didapat dari https://www.detik.com/edu/detikpedia/d-7161187/soal-pria-benarkah-wanita-lebih-memilih-yang-kaya-dibanding-penampilan

Contributors

Coco Lee (coco.lee@binus.ac.id)

Gregory Arthur Santoso (gregory.santoso@binus.ac.id)

Helsa Cang (helsa.cang@binus.ac.id)

Jasterina Domingo Felipe (jasterina.felipe@binus.ac.id)

Sasha Putri Salindeho (sasha.salindeho@binus.ac.id)

Editor

Lily El Ferawati