Athletic, lanky, rockin', hot, and toned are common adjectives used to describe the body of the male species. While we say that the most important characteristics of a guy are “what's on the inside", let's be real, we are superficial and love nothing more than a little bit of insta arm candy. Well ladies, you're in luck, because there is a new craze that is sweeping campuses worldwide, and as uncomfortable as it makes us to admit, we are totally digging it. I give you, the dad bod.

Alright, I get it. You don't want to associate your man's body with your father, but the dad bod goes so much deeper than just a nice patch of chest hair and a partially rounded stomach. It embodies the realistic image of the college man, and I'm here to tell you, I approve. We sit here and complain about how guys want us to look like Blake Lively and Jennifer Anniston (I would do some weird things to be them) while we hypocritically ask our men to look like Channing Tatum and Zac Efron. Well, I hate to break it to you, but it's just not gonna happen (with the exception of that one guy in my ATMS 120 class that looks like an Abercrombie model and smells like tangerines). We need to start realizing that realistic is hot, and here's why.

No one wants to date a gym rat.

If your guy loves his reflection more than you and uses the term “yolked" as an adjective to describe himself, he is just an egg head. Don't get me wrong, hot gym guys are great, but all that heavy lifting, sweat, and testosterone is only good to a certain extent. Not to mention, if a guy has a six pack at our age, there is a high likelihood that it's because he weighs less that you and is just naturally a little twig.

He can handle his beer.

If you find anything attractive about that guy that orders vodka water at the bar, then you might just need to reevaluate your life. Give that boy a beer and tell him to chugalug. A little beer belly means this kid isn't joking around, and that's hot.

He is always down to get food.

Nothing ends a night out like some queso with your bar crush. If you're like me, nothing makes you hungrier than a night of fighting through bar crowds and wiping the drunk tears off of Katie's eyes after her ex boyfriend looked at her weird from across the beer garden (I think his face just looks like that). Find a hottie that makes you as happy as pizza, but more importantly, find a man that will eat it with you.

He is human, JUST LIKE YOU.

We sit and tear ourselves a part in the mirror every morning and have such high expectations for our physical appearance, and yet we sit and judge people of the opposite sex like we're members of the America's Next Top Model panel. College is a weird time where we eat potato chips for breakfast and live on a beer and dining hall diet. No one can be expected to be at his or her top physical fitness level with that kind of a lifestyle, K MOM. (sorry)

The dad bod is more than just a mature physical appearance, it's a way of life. That guy drinking his own beer pitcher in the corner of Kam's is a lot hotter than the guy that nonchalantly checks himself out in his reflection of your car window. So get em' gals. Embrace the dad bod and accept the fact that no one is as fabulous as me. I mean Blake Lively.