Why is Thomas Shelby so attractive?
Thomas Shelby - Cillian Murphy has a very polarizing face which leads to his attraction.
He has a feminine upper half while his lower half(jaw) is very masculine. He has an incredibly wide and blocky face which there's nothing wrong with as research does show that being ideal in men according to this “The facial width -to- height ratio predicts sex drive, sapiosexuality, and intended infidelity. “
The problem with this in his early years is that he had a lot of subcutaneous fat further exacerbating his already wide bone structure. He's since lost that extra fat with age, thus harmonizing his face. His bigonial width is as you'd expect, well above average and is almost 1:1 with his Bizygomatic and bitemporal width. Meaning that a large proportion of his face is just Jaw..v..This can be best seen from a frontal view. It's clear his jaw has a lower inclination, more perpendicular gonial angle and longer mandible length. This makes him seem hypermasculine which in it of itself is a turn off to a proportion of the population…except with Cillian; because he sits so far from average on the sexual dimorphism scale by lower third proportion, but his upper third is a completely opposite vibe. He has incredibly high set and prominent cheekbones which makes his face appear more gaunt than it already is. Pair that with a large distance between the gonian and zygoma and wide bigonial length and you get his characteristically hollow cheeks which are so razor sharp it can cut blocks of cheese. A look that is very much desired in the modeling industry. In fact, he has the same hollowed cheek look as most high fashion female models like Bella Hadid, which is why it adds to his contrasting look.
The most defining feature of his upper third are his eyes or more accurately his periocular region. Some find them “Bug eyed” and protruded and the main reason for that is because he has larger orbital rims than the average person with that kind of bone structure. This is very interesting as it juxtaposes his jaw rating of being in the upper ten percent of men; it's unique and is model tier. However, models with this kind of bigonial width, jaw inclination, gonial angle, and defined cheekbones also have very deep set, wide eyes with a prominent brow bone.
This is also known as having "predator eyes vs prey eyes."
He has also blue eyes which in many parts of the world is ranked as most attractive in part due to their rarity, but they are also ranked far higher for women than rather men. Whereas women typically prefer men with darker eye colors such as brown or hazel as it makes them seem more trustworthy. Cillian's eyes make him seem stone cold and yet his orbital region implies “maybe it isn't what it seems” adding to his mystery. Cillian Murphy is the exception to this group of exceptional men, being the complete opposite from the nose upwards. He has very large orbital openings, leading to larger and consequently rounded eyes. Pair that with his long eyelashes and middle parted hair and it becomes clearer why people have a love/hate relationship with his look. His face sits on the extreme of femininity and masculinity like yin and yang on a face.
It's why he can play roles like “kitten” in “breakfast on Pluto" a man who cross dresses in women's clothing and makeup to Thomas Shelby a war-hardened gangster who cuts people’s eyes. His lean features disarm you because you likely haven't seen anyone like him before. Thomas Shelby in the show doesn't have a correlation of masculinity in his appearance as does his behavior. Especially in contrast to his brother Arthur Shelby with big bushy eye brows and mustache; his brother displays more masculine characteristics having a lower brow ridge, smaller orbital rims and oh..a quick temper.v.
If you haven't watched the show, just looking at this picture below does Cillian seem like the brain or the brawn of the operation?
There's no real way to tell and that's what makes him so appealing.
